How Does The Play Macbeth Follow What Is Expected In A Shakespearean Tragedy?

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How Does The Play Macbeth Follow What Is Expected In A Shakespearean Tragedy?

The Shakespearean play "Macbeth" follows what is expected in a Shakespearean tragedy by containing characteristics similar to all Shakespearean tragedies. These are the fatal flaws in Macbeth, the fall of noble, respectable man with great qualities, Macbeth, and Macbeth's terrible murder of the King in order to obtain the crown, which causes absolute chaos.  

Macbeth's character contains fatal flaws that cause him to do evil. These fatal flaws are a limitation to Macbeth's otherwise worthy character, and they include over ambition, greed, a power hungry nature and a weak will. For example, in Act 1, Scene 7, lines 25-28, Macbeth admits that the only reason he has to kill the king is ambition, which isn't a good enough reason. "I have no spur | To prick the sides of my intent, but only | Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself | And falls on th'other-" Shakespeare uses imagery here to describe Macbeth's excessive ambition as a horse who tries to jump too high over a fence and falls on the other side. Later in the scene, in line 31, Macbeth tells his wife that he has decided not to go through with the murder of the king ("We will proceed no further in this business"). However, Lady Macbeth takes advantage of one of Macbeth's fatal flaws, his weak will, and accuses him of being a coward and a traitor to his word, which she knows will stir him up and convince him to kill Duncan. "Art thou afeard | To be the same in thine own act and valour | As thou art in desire?" (1, 7, 39-41), "What… made you break this enterprise to me? | When you durst do it, then you were a man" (1, 7, 49). By the end of the scene, Macbeth's weak will has given in to his wife, and she has convinced him to kill the king. "I am settled and bend up | Each corporal agent to this terrible feat" (1, 7, 79-80). This follows what is expected in a Shakespearean tragedy as the protagonist is shown to have a limitation to his otherwise worthy character, or a ‘fatal flaw'.

"Macbeth" is about the...
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  • Submitted by: woho
  • Date Submitted: 09/01/2006 11:54 PM
  • Category: English
  • Length: 5 pages (1,227 words)
  • Views: 656
  • Rank: 79510
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