Character of Macbeth

''Macbeth'' as a tragic hero

⇝Macbeth is a Scottish general and the thane of Glamis who is led by the prophecies of three witches. He is held up as a great hero of indomitable courage and invincible fearlessness. Macbeth is a noble and gifted man who has risked his life for the country’s defence and becomes a villain. He is ‘noble’and ‘brave’,’valour’s minion, ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’’ but his ambition is his ‘hamartia’. His sin of the murder ofa virtuous king leads to his damnation. The testimony of his prior virtue comes from his wife

                        ‘’Yet do I fear thy nature,/It is full o’ the milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way’’

This opinion of lady Macbeth about Macbeth corroborated by his vacillation before the murder of Duncan.

⇝In spite of his moral sense and human kindness, Macbeth murders Duncan for gaining the throne. He does not rest there. In order to make his position safe and secure, he commits other murder ------the murder of Banquo and the slaughter of the Macduff’s family. Indeed he becomes a maniac, a dead butcher’. He makes a hell of Scotland where_
       ’’….each new morn

               New widows howl,new orphans cry,new sorrows

               Strike heaven on the face’’.

⇝ His ambition is instigated by the prediction of the witches, In fact Lady Macbeth is also responsible to bring out his dormant ambition .His secret ambition is fuelled by his wife’s taunts,reproaches and coaxings. He is compelled to murder of Duncan almost in a frenzy. The thought of murder occurs after the fulfillment of first prophecy of witches and when Malcolm is declared as the prince of Cumberland and hair apparent to the throne. It shows that there is a secret desires in his mind  to become king of Scotland.

⇝Lady Macbeth makes a correct estimate of her husband that he is ambitious, wishes to become the king but is afraid to take the risk. He may kill in the battlefield but he is filled with ‘’human kindness’’and he can not equal the task of killing the king to gain the throne. His virtue is attested by his wife’s description_’’he is full of the milk of human kindness’’. He hesitates a good deal before the murder. His soliloquy beginning with ‘’if it is done when it is done’’ shows how he is disturbed but the varied aspects of the ‘’horrid deed’’. As his guest and subject, he cannot bear the knife to him.  He oscillates between reluctance and desires; he makes his final decision not to proceed. But his wife’s powerful speeches overpowers him and he bends his energy to a state of ecstatic condition. After the murder of Duncan, his imagination conjures up terrible moral consequences. The drops of blood plucks out his yes and he feels that  all the oceans of the world will not wash his hand clean.

⇝After the murder of Duncan , he becomes a tyrant, a hypocrite, a liar and a mean conspirator. After gaining the throne, he realizes his ultimate futility of his life because his imagination , his keen sensibility, his fine perception are not destroyed. He pines for the loss of honour, love, obedience and troops of friend. His To morrow and To morrow speech indicates his realization of what he has wasted in his life. Finally he realizes that life is tale told by an idiot.