William Shakespeare Case

The play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is a predictable tragedy. At the beginning of the play, the main character of the play, namely Macbeth, is an honorable, trustworthy, and loyal knight and friend to the king of Scotland, King Duncan. However, as the play progresses, Macbeth's tragic flaws drive him to commit horrible acts against nearly every other character in the play. He becomes a murderer and traitor, killing anyone that even just slightly endangers his rule over Scotland. Shakespeare shows how tragic flaws can bring about chaos and destruction through the character of Macbeth. "Coming at the play from another angle, we realize that its medieval story of the rise and fall of a usurper has been colored by, and also in some sense mirrors, a number of contemporary interests and events"(Mack 1). Macbeth's downfall is the direct effect of his tragic flaws, which are impatience, lowered confidence, imagination, wickedness and his lust for power.

Towards the beginning of the play, Macbeth and his best friend Banquo are confronted by three witches as they are coming home from battle. These witches give predictions to Macbeth that causes him to become impatient, and with that his first tragic flaw is shown. The three "weird sisters"  tell Macbeth that he will become king of Scotland one day, and it's set in stone. As a result, Macbeth begins to wonder whether or not he should wait for fate to run its course and crown him king, or take matters into his own hands to become king himself: "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir," (1.3.257-258). In Scene 4, Macbeth's eagerness to become king has grown, and with that, his impatience follows. At this point in the play, Macbeth still has feelings and has not yet become completely corrupted. "Macbeth continues to give serious thought to the moral aspects of his actions, and he is in no sense an unfeeling villain without conscience or sense of nobility. This is shown when he wants to talk over with Banquo about the prophecy of the witches."(Adade-Yeboah 1) He is still very much aware of his actions, and these thoughts of murdering the king are swept aside, for now.

Macbeth's confidence seems to deteriorate as the play goes on. He is a fairly confident man at the beginning, but as time goes on, he withers away. His wife is not much of a help in this situation. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth puts Macbeth down, making him feel like he needs to follow her commands if he wants to be a true man in his wife's eyes. "Which thou esteems't the ornament of life,/And live a coward in thine own esteem,/ Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would",/Like the poor cat i' th' adage?" (1.7. 519-522). Lady Macbeth insults him regularly, thrusting her evil ways onto her husband. Lady Macbeth does not even answer Macbeth's expressed desire to live in the glow of the golden opinions that are deserved tributes for heroic services to king and country. "Those opinions, for which Lady Macbeth has nothing but contempt, would have been sufficient for Macbeth to live a happy life. The time will come, after he has lost them forever, when he will realize how sweet they were, and how hollow by comparison is the "mouth-honor" extorted by the tyrant." (Jaffa 1). Even though Lady Macbeth is fairly evil towards Macbeth, inherent evil cannot be satisfied so easily if Macbeth just follows her orders. His confidence lies within her, and since she is nothing shy of a demon, he slows becomes more and more like her as the play progresses. Macbeth tries to fight back against her, but no matter how much he tries, he is only left with one decision, to do as she says. "I am settled, and bend up/Each corporal agent to this terrible feat./Away, and mock the time with fairest show./False face must hide what the false heart doth know."