Danna Vitug
Ms. Pratscher
English IV – 8
19 December 2014
Thane of Cawdor as a Tragic Hero Macbeth surely portrayed the elements of a Shakespearean classical tragedy. Throughout the play, he changed into something he initially did not want to become. His noble qualities turned into cowardice and uncontrollable ambition. Thus, there are three aspects that contribute to Macbeth being a tragic hero: his tragic flaw of ambition, the prophecies told by the three witches, and the controlling manipulation of Lady Macbeth. In order to be a classic tragic hero, one needs a tragic flaw. Macbeth was ambitious to become king, and the prophecies told by the three witches influenced this great desire. In fact, the prophecies regarded Macbeth being named Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland, while Banquo would father a line of future kings. Of course, the prophecy of Banquo motivated Macbeth’s ambition to be crowned king. All of this led to Macbeth desperately doing what needed to be done: kill anyone that gets in the way of his throne. One of the many people Macbeth killed was Banquo. “…And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, / For certain friends that are both his and mine,” (3.2.120-121). In this scene, Macbeth hired murderers to kill Banquo because he cannot perform the action himself. The reason he cannot kill Banquo is because they had mutual friends and he would like to mourn with them. Therefore, this shows Macbeth’s tragic flaw of cowardice. He was unable to fulfill his evil schemes that would potentially lead to his throne. Another scene that exhibits one of Macbeth’s tragic flaws was when he was overconfident while fighting against Macduff. The three witches were also involved with this “mind game” because they showed Macbeth three apparitions. Out of the three was, “The pow’r of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.80-81). Thus, no man born from a woman could harm Macbeth. His dependency on this apparition truly shows when he believed that Macduff could not harm Macbeth. Luckily Macduff was not born from a woman because he was ripped from his mother’s corpse. Therefore, this apparition did not relate to Macduff, and made Macbeth lose his overconfidence. Macbeth definitely depended on the prophecies and apparitions from the witches throughout the play, but he also changed through the influence of his wife. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were a dynamic duo, especially in the killing of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth certainly contributed to the downfall of Macbeth through influencing him to murder Duncan at Inverness, their castle. During the murder