Throughout history, many of the most famous Shakespearean plays always include a tragic hero: a literary character that makes a judgment error that leads to his or her own destruction. In one of Shakespeare’s well-known plays, Macbeth, a noble and respected thane by the name of Macbeth turns into the crazed tyrant of Scotland due to his selfishness of becoming king. A question which flusters many is if Macbeth fits Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. Macbeth is a tragic hero because he possesses a tragic flaw, he obtains excessive pride, and he has a sudden realization of his reversal of fortune was brought upon him by his own actions.
For any character to match Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero, the character must suffer a tragic flaw known as hamartia; hamartia leads to the downfall of the tragic hero. Macbeth’s hamartia is his strong ambition to become the King of Scotland, which leads to his overall destruction in the end of the play. His tragic flaw begins to consume him when three witches propose his destiny to come. The prophecy states that Macbeth will become King of Scotland—but in order for him to be king—Macbeth must murder the present king, Duncan. After this event, Macbeth begins to have thoughts of murder and
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Macbeth’s hamartia, being his ambition, gives him his excessive pride of being the King of Scotland. From there, when he sees Banquo’s ghost and begins to look back on his actions; Macbeth begins to have his epiphany. At last, the great amount of emotions in the audience, known as catharsis, commences as Macbeth begins to plummet to his deepest downfall. Macbeth is truly a tragic hero, only wanting his dream to come true. Sadly, that dream will never be achieved for King Macbeth has fallen and his reign will forever be remembered as a depressing and violent time in Scotland’s