When it comes to a tragic hero, they are described as the leading role that was once a hero; although, had a fall from grace from their tragic flaw and their life ended due to that flaw. Within Shakespeares’ Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, follows that criteria. The play follows the rise and fall of Macbeth in which his fall is caused by his tragic flaw of over-confidence or pride. The work of Frederic Morgan Padelford, “Macbeth the Thane and Macbeth the Regicide” enforces the idea of what a tragic hero is, in which Macbeth was greatly liked by the audience for how they saw the way his character deteriorated gradually as the play went on. Thus,Macbeth displays how he was once an honored noble, spiraled into darkness, and realized his …show more content…
To illustrate, after Macbeth had received the news of Banquos’ death, he had hallucinated Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth believed Banquo was there to take away what he worked hard to achieve and reveal Macbeth's bloody hands. In order for him to fear Banquo, Macbeth would have to understand what he has been doing is wrong to some degree. Macbeth does not want his crimes against the kingdom to be found or his stained hands would have been dirtied in vain. At this point, he recognizes what he has done to be unworthy of an honorable title, though he has not fully understood his wrong doings; just that they are frowned upon and if he were to be found out, he would be greatly punished by Scotlamd. Another instance of Macbeths recognizing what he has done would be when Macbeth is faced with Macduff during the last Act of the play. Macbeth had been avoiding Macduff and had been reluctant to fight him. This behavior reflects that he does feel guilty and remorseful for killing Macduff's family. Thus, he doesn’t wish to have more of his kins blood on his hands. In order for a tragic hero to be labeled as such, they must feel guilty of their sins, which Macbeth displays greatly. However, he ends up fighting Macduff due to his belief that he is unkillable, which enforces his fatal flaw being his overconfidence. This tragic flaw ends up being what kills Macbeth; thus, allowing him to be labeled as a tragic