Macbeth as a Tragic Hero: Ambition, Downfall, and Redemption

hello everybody in today's video we're going to look at the character of macbeth

now there are a number of different ways you can analyze this character the first thing i want to talk about is

macbeth as tragic hero shakespeare's play is a tragedy and macbeth is the tragic hero

what does that mean well the greek philosopher aristotle in his work poetics defines the tragic

hero as someone who is highly renowned who has a reversal of fortune from good to

bad and whose misfortune is brought about by some personal

error or frailty which we call a characters hermatia or tragic flaw when we're analyzing characters in

literature it's always useful to look not just at what they themselves say and do but at what other characters say

about them and to them in the opening scenes of the play even before the audience meets

macbeth he is certainly presented as someone who is highly renowned

in act 1 scene 2 the sergeant describes how brave macbeth killed mcdonald on the battlefield

cutting him open from the nave to the chops whilst this imagery might seem pretty gory and even shocking to us

today it's a good indicator of the violent world in which the play is set

it's a world where people prove themselves worthy of honor by their actions on the battlefield and

we see this echoed throughout the play much later when sirward learns of his son's death in battle he's pleased to

know that his son's wounds were to his front not his back meaning he did not die

running away from his foe but facing them head-on this is a violent play with blood spilled from the

start to the end and it's into this setting that macbeth is placed in a 2010 oxford university

lecture dr emma smith describes how the world the play is set in

is a society which has no principle of rule other than strength where might not right rules i'll be

looking further at that lecture in an upcoming video so make sure you're subscribed to the

channel but for now let's just point out that macbeth is well respected in this world of might and physical

strength act 1 scene 2 ends with king duncan referring to macbeth as noble a town which macbeth's friend banquo

will repeat in act 1 scene 3 referring to macbeth as his noble partner so in these opening three scenes

we see that macbeth is indeed highly renowned from the sergeant who witnessed his

actions on the battlefield the king he serves and his close friend this well-rounded

trio of opinion leaves the audience with no doubt that macbeth starts the play as a man well

respected by others however when macbeth meets the witches who prophesy

among other things that he will one day be king we see what many think of as macbeth's hermatia his ambition to

help us understand the significance of macbeth's reaction to the witches we can compare it to the reaction of

banquo who is with him at the time and also receives a prophecy from the so-called weird sisters and

this is very important from shakespeare as it allows us to compare the reactions and

future actions of both men shakespeare essentially uses banquo as a foil

a foil is a character who contrasts with another character usually the protagonist to highlight

qualities of that other character bancor and macbeth are perfect parallels at the start of the play

both are currently in favor with the king following their fearsome performance in battle

both are given predictions by the witches upon their first meeting in act 1 scene 3

both are promised greatness in the future yet both react in such a different way

banquo is just not that interested and is also a bit skeptical and wary saying that he does neither beg nor fear your

favors nor your hate macbeth's reaction is very different when the witches prophecy he will one

day be king banquo asks macbeth why do you start meaning

why are you so startled the audience might ask themselves the same question why is macbeth so startled well perhaps

it's because the witches have given voice to his inner ambitions of one day

becoming king in an upcoming video we'll look at who if anyone persuades macbeth to kill the

king but one thing is for sure after seeing the witches macbeth descends into the

path of destruction which will ultimately bring about his demise

in act 1 scene 7 macbeth himself admits that it is his own vaulting ambition spurring

him on to kill king duncan he says this in a soliloquy speaking not to another character but to himself

verbalizing his thoughts on stage for the benefit of the audience in terms of the tragic hero macbeth is

here admitting his own hermatia as we all know macbeth goes on to kill king duncan before

ordering the murders of banquo france who escapes and the wife and children of macduff

he descends into a deep pit of evil and rather than look at each scene individually

let's continue with the model from earlier in the video and explore the way other characters speak about and to

macbeth in the rest of the play in act 3 scene 6 lenox refers to the country suffering

under a hand accursed even the witches note macbeth's arrival in act 4 scene 1 with

something wicked this way comes in act four scene three malcolm calls macbeth a tyrant whose

soul name blisters our tongues and labels him devilish in act five scenes seven

young si would cause macbeth a tyrant macduff calls him hellhound in act five scene 8

and in the play's final scene after macbeth is killed malcolm calls macbeth a dead butcher we

might add to this downward spiral into evil by exploring the lack of interest macbeth shows in the news that his wife

has died in act 1 scene 5 macbeth addresses his wife as my dearest love

four acts later in act 5 scene 5 when told of lady macbeth's death he replies she should have died

hereafter it's as if macbeth has lost his ability to feel following the murderous path he's been traveling down

from brave noble and peerless at the start of the play to wicked tyrant and devilish later on

clearly macbeth has fallen from his position of renown however shakespeare is keen to give macbeth some

redeeming qualities and this is worthy of analysis again in his poetics

aristotle stated that the purpose of tragedy is to excite pity and fear we learn to fear the dangers of being

over-ambitious but do we pity him macbeth needs to evoke sympathy in the audience so that when he dies they feel

pity for him if we hate macbeth we won't learn any lesson from his downfall

after all he's not supposed to be an out and out villain he's supposed to be a character of good

reputation whose one fatal flaw leads to his downfall so let's look at how shakespeare tries to

keep the audience at least somewhat sympathetic towards the character of macbeth

in acts 2 scene 2 macbeth murders duncan but this key moment takes place off stage we don't witness the murder

why in order to help the audience to still see some shred of humanity in macbeth

if we witnessed him killing the king with his bare hands we'd surely hate him similarly the murders of banquo lady

macduff and her children do not take place at the hand of macbeth himself but at his order

and why for the same reason surely we could never feel a shred of pity for macbeth

if we witnessed him murder his friends and other innocents shakespeare also uses structure to

ensure the audience never grows to hate macbeth in act 3 scene 5 an angry hecate tells

the witches that macbeth is a wayward son spiteful and wrathful

who as others do loves for his own ends not for you hecate essentially tells the witches

that macbeth is as wayne c booth puts it not a true son of evil and what happens in the previous two

scenes the murder of banquo and the appearance of banquo's ghost in other words at a point in the play

where the audience might be tempted to hate macbeth the hecate speech brings them back in

line to thinking that macbeth is not truly evil in act 5 as the play draws to an end and macbeth's doom

appears to be inevitable shakespeare paints macbeth as heroic and brave just like in the opening scenes of the

play macbeth has some success in the battle for example killing his challenger

young sirwood even when macbeth learns that mcduff was born by caesarean and so is going to kill him he refuses

to surrender telling macduff i will not yield in act 5 scene 8. his statement that before my body i

throw my warlike shield in the same scene is both brave and in this world where actions on the

battlefield are so significant in proving character honorable in fact some critics have gone

so far as to say that the ending of the play is the bravest moment of all for macbeth

if aristotle's view is that a tragedy should excite pity and fear then macbeth has achieved just that

we learn to fear the dangers of being over-ambitious but we also pity the man whose final moments of bravery

remind us of his good standing at the start of the play and whose vaulting ambition

caused everything to crumble around him now there are other ways of looking at the character of macbeth and we will get

into that in future videos so please do subscribe to the channel and if you'd like more of these character analysis

videos do give the video a thumbs up also be sure to check out mr bruff's guide to macbeth which is linked in the

description it contains the complete play a line by line translation into modern english

and detailed analysis thanks for watching