The Role Of Madness In Macbeth

A hero can be defined as a person who is noted for courageous acts and nobility of character. The character of Macbeth is a classic example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. In Shakespeare's Macbeth we see that Macbeth is a man of respectable birth who has inner conflicts, and a strong background which leads us to see the qualities of a tragic hero. For example, madness can be described as an internal and tragic characteristic of Macbeth. This plays a significant factor in the decline and downfall of Macbeth because of his fate and his own mistakes. The three factors which draw out Macbeth's internal flaw of madness are his fate which was foretold by the witches, how Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth and Macbeth's own ambition.
To start off it is shown that Macbeth starts to take actions to promote his downfall. When he gets a preview of his fate which was shown by the witches, he tries to avoid it which ends up leading him to become his fate. He would not have been this way if he did not worry about what the witches said to him. Therefore it is seen here in the play that Macbeth creates his downfall when it says, “Speak if you can what are you/ … All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Glamis /All hail Macbeth/hail to thee Thane of …show more content…
A hero is a hero by saving people who are in danger but is still a hero through his other actions, yet Macbeth does not prove this. As a result the reader sees that the theme of madness helps to communicate the development of conflict within Macbeth. Therefore, Macbeth is a tragic hero because he has a good heart and partially ends up realizing what he did wrong. However the reason he is a tragic hero is because he has to live with the continual wrong doing of his actions which he cannot undo and this is seen when his fate was foretold by the witches, when Lady Macbeth manipulates him and through his own