Macbeth: Round Dynamic Character

Macbeth is known throughout history as a classic example of the telling of a tragic hero. With Shakespeare's iconic writing style, the audience are accompanied by the characters themselves as the poetic and dramatic elements bring them to life. As the main protagonist of Macbeth, Macbeth is a round dynamic character. Being such, there’s hardly any black and white lines. The majority of Macbeth’s character is a vast sea of gray: indistinguishable from what’s ethically perceived as right or wrong. As the audience takes a dive deeper into the story, Shakespeare’s writing style defines Macbeth as a round dynamic character.
Macbeth is initially presented in the story as a hero: full of nobility and courage, but stronger than both his nobility …show more content…
This is predominate in the scene when Macbeth is struggling to come to terms with the consequence of murdering King Duncan. Overridden with guilt, Macbeth exaggerates that the blood on his hands is enough to darken an entire sea. In response, Lady Macbeth reasons that “a little water clears [them of their] deed” (2.2.65). This quote employs biblical allusion, which is a reference to Pontius Pilate. Biblically speaking, Pontius Pilate was a criminal who washed his hands in public in attempt to leave his past sins behind. In both the case of Lady Macbeth and Pontius Pilate, this reasoning acts as temporary measure to delay the inevitable, which ultimately catches up to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In effect this line gives us insight on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth foreshadowing what the future may …show more content…
For the near entirety of the story, Shakespeare has been winding up the audience for it to come. Slowly increasing tension as Macbeth descends down into insanity as he commits each atrocity. Additionally the tension of the final battle of Macbeth and Macduff was built up on with tension, albeit in a different way. The first four acts of Macbeth are lengthy and elaborate, while the fifth and final act is much shorter and fast paced, which creates a sense of urgency. Ultimately, the moment that Shakespeare introduces the broken wheel of fate, is the moment that the audience realizes that Macbeth is destined to die. Macduff chants “Behold where stands the [thief’s] cursèd head. The time is free.” (5.8.54-55) and Scotland may be at ease. Relief is achieved when the moment of Macbeth’s fate is met as seen when Macduff states that “time is free”. Time being at a standstill is a metaphor to the tyrannical rule of