The Character Flaws of Macbeth Essay

     In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Macbeth the main character Macbeth is driven from his status as a well respected warrior and lord of not one, but two Scottish regions to a dishonest, unloyal murderer. Macbeth gets caught in a web of lies and vile acts of murder in which he brings about his own demise. His criminal actions lead up to his tragic ending of life. ‘ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But bearlike I must fight the course.’ His great ambition and gullibility of the witches predictions are two of the biggest factors of his downfall;however, Lady Macbeth was probably the biggest influence in the whole tragedy.

Macbeth's excessive pride and ambition are now his dominant character traits. These features of his personality are well presented when he revisits the Witches of his own accord. His boldness and ideas of invincibility mark him out as lost to the toughs of ambition.

Macbeth is the tragic hero in the play, and due to a large flaw in personality, coupled with the inability to detect and act upon being deceived, he turns into a deceitful person

Each action made by an individual is nothing more than a step closer to his or her death. In fact, the approach one takes towards his or her death is the result of either fate or free will. This concept of fate and free will in a person’s life is best explored in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In the play, the protagonist Macbeth allows external influences such as the witches and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to rule his actions which leads Macbeth to his ultimate demise and the demise of everything around him.

The tragedy seen in this play is the loss of the man that Macbeth could have been, hadn’t he given in to fulfilling his ambition. Shakespeare leads us to see the deterioration in both Macbeth’s character and his morality. Macbeth, being the tragic hero of the play, undergoes some great changes throughout the acts. Macbeth cannot resist his ambition, and this leads him to his downfall. After a lot of deliberating within himself he decides to act on the witches’ prophecies. He freely decides to believe in what the witches

Initially, Macbeth’s mental state starts to decay since his ambition germinates and he is effortlessly manipulated by the others. Corruption of Macbeth’s mental ability begins to occur after the witches adversely affected him by the prophecy. In the beginning of the play, three witches foretell Macbeth that he will be the future king. The witches’ prophecies plant a seed of greed in Macbeth’s mind by provoking Macbeth’s mental condition. After one of the prophecies comes true, His mental state starts to swing between remaining loyalty to Duncan and fulfilling his own ambition. Therefore, the mental instability provokes his fledgling ambition which is replaced the King by killing him develops in the deep mind. Furthermore, his determination

Though he does not intend to execute an atrocious crime by means of assassinating King Duncan, his ambition, Lady Macbeth’s progressive coercion, and the witches’ hopeful diversions keep Macbeth ravening for greatness. One murder after another, Macbeth becomes engulfed in the sorcery of evil and deception. Under the circumstances that he has to be induced in order to commit wicked acts, Macbeth is proven to be a tragic hero rather than a

When challenged by Macduff, Macbeth vows to kill him and his family, to avoid any more problems with his rule. Eventually, Macbeth learns of Macduff and his army closing in on the castle, and decides to fight on the battlefield. Even when he learns that Macduff will be able to kill him due to being born through a Caesarean section, Macbeth prepares to “try the last” and fight to the death, rather than give up the throne (pg 181, line 37). The reckless path Macbeth is on causes him to let his guard down and allows Macduff to kill him. The reader views his last moments of vulnerability, and can understand the forces that manipulated him into lust for

Macduff was the one who ultimately led Macbeth to his demise by beheading him. Macduff’s suspicious and hatred behaviors towards Macbeth began at the beginning of the play upon Macduff’s discovery of King Duncan’s body. Macduff immediately suspected that it was Macbeth who killed him and felt that Macbeth could not be trusted. When asked if Macduff wanted to attend Macbeth’s coronation at Scone, he stated, “Well, may you see things well done there / Adieu, lest our old robes sit easier than our new!" (2.4.40). By this line, MacDuff suggested that he suspected Macbeth would make a worse King of Scotland than Duncan did, and things would not go well for them in the near future. Once Macbeth discovered that Macduff did not show up to his coronation, but instead fled to England to help King Duncan’s son, Malcolm claim the throne, he ordered Macduff’s family to be murdered. “The castle of Macduff I will surprise / Seize upon Fife / give to the edge o' the sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line” (4.1.156-159). Macbeth felt betrayed by Macduff and he wanted to show others how he dealt with traitors. Macbeth’s growing fear of Macduff overthrowing him, made Macbeth try to eliminate him by killing everyone he loved. However, that fueled Macduff even more and evidently resulted in Macbeth’s death. Macbeth’s request for power and the influences of others prematurely destroyed his honorable and noble

Macbeth’s tragic flaw is a dual nature that is bad on both sides. He is overly ambitious and competitive to be king, but at the same time he is weak and easily manipulated. Macbeth cannot live up to his excessive ambition, which he was manipulated into, because he is weak. Macbeth’s weak mind and lack of self-control cause him to go on an unnecessary killing rampage. “Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy.”

People that have ambition are often the ones that experience the downfalls that come with these endeavors. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the author portrays a variety of conflicts that characters come across as a result of their aspirations. To begin, Macbeth depicts dangers that come with ambition. Evidently, his aspiration to become King leads him to his downfall.

Macbeth has countless character flaws. For example, he is easily manipulated by Lady Macbeth, which causes him much distress. And, he seems bold and noble to his companions, yet he is inwardly anxious and frail. This constant internal conflict, combined with conflicts between himself and other characters caused by his own faults will undoubtedly lead to his demise at the end of the play.

Macbeth himself was the biggest factor to his downfall due to the consequences of his decisions. This was first shown when Lady Macbeth says “From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor.” (Shakespeare 1,7,38) Lady Macbeth states that Macbeth is too afraid to act under his own power to obtain the crown. The reason this is an internal force is because Macbeth allows himself to be easily manipulated into doing the wrong thing. At the same time, he is so easily manipulated that he must have some desire of his own to go through with killing Duncan. The final decision is up to him, therefore he has a choice whether he wants to kill duncan or not, but he does not want to seem cowardly and he lets

Ambition is the cause of Macbeth’s downfall, which is his fatal flaw. His desire to become king led him to kill innocents like Duncan, after that Macbeth was killed in battle. Without his complete and total cowardliness he would not have went so off the wall while trying to be king. however his ambition strived further for more success and to be king and to have everything Lady Macbeth wanted

In conclusion, Macbeth's fatal flaw is ambition, which prevents him from reigning over Scotland for a long time. Macbeth's ambition causes him to act rashly and eventually drown himself in blood caused by his ambition. Reading the play through the lens of Macbeth's ambition shows that ambition drives the plot and is key to the