The characters of Hamlet and Macbeth are both tragic heroes. While tragic heroes are usually the protagonists of their stories, they inevitably fail because of one or more tragic flaws. Macbeth desires to become powerful, but he does whatever it takes to obtain that power. Hamlet, on the other hand, wants to avenge his father’s murder by killing Claudius. In both of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth the major characters commit murder to achieve their goals, which is a major factor for both of Macbeth and Hamlet’s downfalls. Both Macbeth and Hamlet were convinced from almost the begging that murder was the best way to achieve their goals. As soon as Macbeth realized that the witches’ prophesy of him becoming king could come true, one of his first thoughts were of killing Duncan. A. C. Bradley states that: …show more content…
Precisely how far his mind was guilty may be a question; but no innocent man would have started, as he did, with a start of fear at the mere prophecy of a crown, or have conceived thereupon immediately the thought of murder. Either this thought was not new to him, or he had cherished at least some vaguer dishonourable dream, the instantaneous recurrence of which, at the moment of his hearing the prophecy, revealed to him an inward and terrifying guilt. (344) Macbeth had already decided that killing Duncan would be the best way of becoming king. After hearing that he is the new Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth begins to believe that the witches’ prophesies may have merit to them. He begins to wonder if the prophesies are of good or evil and states that: If good, why do I yield to that