Why Is Macbeth A Tragedy?

4 Pages 1033 Words

The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a tragedy because it possesses the main characteristics of this genre. Aristotle was the first one to define tragedy, together with the other four main genres: comedy, epic, dithyrambic poetry, and lyre-playing. He concluded that tragedy deals with noble characters and their downfall, which is true for Macbeth. Besides, a tragedy is defined with other characteristics that a present at the play of Shakespeare. In a tragedy the main character dies, in the play main characters that die are Duncan, Banquo, and Macbeth. A tragedy arouses sadness to the audience because of the downfall of the main character and the deaths, the cruel murders. The sympathy in the audience is due to the inevitability of the bad events. Likewise, the inevitability is sensed because of the supernatural powers. In Macbeth these powers are represented by the three witches and Hecate.
The main character of the play, Macbeth, is a noble man, very loyal to his king. He is pronounced Thane of Cawdor after his great act on the battlefield and after the previous Thane of Cawdor is killed because of betrayal to Duncan. The king is very impressed by Macbeth and is sure he has to replace the previous to become a noble man. At the beginning the main character really is a noble man, whom everybody is greedy of. He has a noble title, a good friend, which is Banquo, the trust of the king, and his wife. Unfortunately she is very greedy and is not satisfied with the already achieved by her husband. She is the one who takes the decision that Macbeth has to become a murderer so that he becomes a king, as well. He was, otherwise, hesitating between the two possibilities: to wait and see if the prophesy of the witches would come true or to speed the process by killing the . Actually, Macbeth was doubting the need of murdering. Unfortunately, he does kill Duncan, and the first characteristic of the tragedy is completed – the downfall from...