Is Macbeth truly an evil-tyrant, or is he a tragic hero? Essay

The start-off thing that we must get hold of into narrative when analysing Macbeths character is that he is a shape hu reality creation, and like normal human beings, he has moments of weariedness which when played upon can result in huge mistakes. The story of Macbeth is an example of power at the expense of e actu each(prenominal)ything else. He begins the play as a strong character, some(prenominal) admired and respected, and we go steady his personality and actions rifle more and more deceitful which eventually leads to his destruction.The start thing we hear of Macbeth is people singing his praises. We hear the Captain prescribe For Brave Macbeth well he deserves that name and Duncan realizeing him, O venturesome cousin, worthy gentleman. Surely somebody so highly praised could non be an ugly person?Macbeth was an honourable gentleman with no criminal tendencies. With so many people praising his courageous fighting, he returns from a triumphal fight, puffed-up with self-love that demands ever-increasing recognition of his grandness. The first flaw in his personality is that he takes the praise too much to heart and begins to believe that he deserves immense rewards. When he then meets the weird sisters, they prey upon his new-found egotism, predicting his greatest dreams to be reachable. They greet him, Thane of GlamisThane of CawdorKing hereafter. After this initial meeting, he pushes aside their prediction until it arises that he has been given the post, Thane of Cawdor. This take upms too coincidental to him to be able to light touch off. at that place are two main driving forces behind Macbeths birth self-destruction. The first being the witches involvement in encouraging his ambition, and the second, his married woman, chick Macbeths clever emotional manipulation and her blackmailing him into his first injustice deed. The witches develop basically hit his vulnerable spot by telling him that he shall effect King. Macbeth is a true and manly war hero, but deep humble he harbours insecurities of his manliness and the power he possesses over others it is his wife that hits these insecuritiesIn process 1, Scene 3 lines 126 onwards, we ensure that Macbeth plays with the idea of taking things into his suffer hands in order to become King. I believe, however, that had he non consulted Lady Macbeth over the matter, he would have let it drop as he would non have had the strength in him to perform such(prenominal) an evil deed. When she receives the letter telling her of his meeting with the witches, it is as if she takes it upon herself to make it her traffic to ensure he goes ahead and hides Duncan. I gathered this from her soliloquy at the beginning of Act 1, Scene 5, where she says That I may pour my animate in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue in other dustup, she is aphorism that by what ever means she will deviate him to carry disclose the act of strike.Lady Macbeth anal yses her husbands nature, and talks about him being too full othmilk of human bounty to act without pity, which shows us that Macbeth cant naturally be an evil character circumstances and the equivalent of peer pressure lead him to become the character he is at the end.The Macbeths have a really good relationship and in the letter he writes her, he calls her my lovemaking partner of greatness, showing just how devoted and close to her he is. No man who is that devoted to their wife is likely just to brush off what they say.In Act 1, scene 7, we travel to how dead-set against the murder Macbeth authentically is. In a soliloquy we hear him sum up the professionals vs. the cons and he comes to the conclusion that there is but one motivation for him to go ahead with it challenging half a dozen cons. We hear him talk of vengeance, kinship, loyalty, hospitality and religion, among others, persuading him away from committing the ultimate act of evil. I dont believe that a man who is that morally challenged about committing a crime could possibly be a truly evil tyrant, later described as bloody, treacherous, false, deceitful and malicious. He was not born evil and until this point in his life, has never been evil.However, Lady Macbeth is a clever woman and knows what effect her words will have upon her husband. She deliberately hits him where she knows it will hurt him questioning his manliness. When he tells her his decision to not kill him, she immediately uses every tactic she can think of to hooking him into changing his mind. She uses descriptions such as green and pale e.g. sickly and weak to accuse him of cowardice and lack of manliness. She also bribes him with emotional blackmail, claiming that if he love her he would do it and that she would quite kill her own baby than wear down a promise she had made to him. Using vicious imagery describing how she would rather have plucked her nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, she con vinces him to appease with the murder.I dont know about you, but if I had my true love using phrases like that to blackmail me into doing something, it is likely that I would buckle and give in. Macbeth is act to keep his partner happy, rather than do it for his own benefit, which is another reason I believe that he is not an out-and-out villain, as we all possess the desire to please people.The first place in the play where I begin to doubt Macbeths innocence is the beginning of Act 2, Scene 1.Banquo and he have always been trounce chums and incredibly close, but in this scene we see Macbeth deceive his friend and deny that he has thought about the witches prediction.Only a fewer short minutes after this, however, Macbeth beings to hallucinate of a dagger very vividly. This makes me question his control over the situation. His feelings and fears have already created false images in his mind, and he hasnt even committed the deed yet. Surely an evil tyrant strong and powerful, would not be open to such a display of various emotions? Evil thoughts are now deceiving and beginning to take over his mind, every minute increasing as he begins to see large, drops of blood form on the dagger in his mind. This implies a guilt-ridden conscience. Somebody this racked with guilt, surely must not have been born with the cogency of killing another?What we do see, however, from his act of murder is his extreme voraciousness and ambition and perhaps by the way Lady Macbeth can persuade him by threatening his manhood, an inferiority complex. Throughout the play he is trying to create a safe world for himself whereby he is completely in control of Scotland.After killing Duncan, he is absolutely tortured by his own mind punishing him for the deed and cannot sleep or see Amen due to his extreme guilt. Although he come tos with his constant self-torture, he realises that there is no turning back and he may as well continue with his quest for his prefect rulership even if it means being ruthless enough to kill his best friend and a whole family. We know that he tries to leave off out his deed as he says I am horror-stricken to think what I have done.In Act 2, mend Macbeth is completely falling apart, it is Lady Macbeth who keeps them both calm and sane, using the alike tactics of taunting him, calling him a coward. It seems to me that if Lady Macbeth wasnt so pushy over his manliness, that he would not have so much prove to himself and therefor would not result in taking all the actions that follow. Macbeth later takes the same taunting tactics to pursuade the murderers into killing Banquo, so her words have obviously stuck in his sub-conscience, as if something is repeated and drummed into you enough, sooner or later you will start to say it too.Even finished to Act 3, scene 2 where he has already arranged his second murder and is beginning to think of himself as a great dictator, he so far succumbs to the power his wife has over him. Lady Ma cbeth dominance over him is demonstrate by her commands to a servant, Say to the King, I would attend his leisure for a few words. She says this as a command or a allegement, showing her extreme bossiness over him. This shows us that his fantasy of being great and powerful is untrue, because he still basically is ruled and prepared to discover to her advice and is still not totally dismissive of her opinions.However much he wishes to believe that he is untouchable and brave, he is deeply fearful to the state of irrational, crazy behaviour when he witnesses Banquos ghost.By the end of the play, we see the old Macbeth coming back through, the fair fighting warrior who will battle to his deathEven when he knows his time is up, he acts as a true soldier should he fights to his death and refuses to kill Macduff saying My mortal is too charged with the blood of thine already. Does that sound like the words of a ruthless tyrant with no emotions? It doesnt to me.I would sum up Macbeth as an unfortunate character who was led into the path of evil, and continued it through knowing that he had already committed the ultimate evil and nonentity could undo it, or make it any worse. He buckled into the power his wife had over him and let his own ambitions get the better of him. An unfortunate rails of fate that led him to his own death