Macbeth's Tragic Flaw

Macbeth, was a play written by William Shakespeare in the 17th century. He wrote this paly to express ones mans desire for power, and what such a desire can cause. Macbeth, the main character of the play, is often said to be a terrible person, however he was not innately evil, He was a tragic hero, who's circumstances left him doomed to fall into madness. If it had not been for the whitches and his wife then the paly would have ended very differantly.

Like Every tragice hero Macbeth had suffered from a tragic flaw, in his case it was his ambition, combined with a love of power. Macbeth himself recognises this ambition in act I, scene 7 where he states in a soliloquy “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition”. When he says this it suggests that he knows the only thing that prompts his actions is his ambition. While ambition alone is not a bad trait, it can be very dangerous when it is mixed with a lust for power. By having both of these traits Macbeth was almost doomed to fail. It meant he had a weakness or a flaw, like every human being. At the start of the play Macbeth was seen as a hero, begin described as "Brave Macbeth". His ambition always resided with him but did not cause him any problems untila prophecy was revealed by the witches …show more content…
Their prophecies bagan to dictate his every move. Macbeth's reliance on the witches is seen in the final scenes of the play, Where Macbeth shows increasingly reckless behaviour. He became enveloped in the idea of having power, a desire that would not have consumed him so, had it not been for his interaction with the witches. If the witches had not made the prophecy, Macbeth would not have such a lust for pwoer and ambition to follow a prophecy. But it was not only the witches that contributed to his decent into madness, it was not until he wrote to his wife that the ambition fully started to