Shakespeare - Macbeth?

Question

Macbeth is an interesting character, because of his dualistic personality and actions some say he represents humandkind. There have been many debates over if Macbeth is a hero or a villain because of the dualism of his character. So what do you think? Hero or villain?

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This is actually an essay question im supposed to answer with at least 1000 words. Due this friday. Id appreciate it alot if you can give me an idea or maybe a link to a website that would greatly help.

Answer 1

Macbeth
Because we first hear of Macbeth in the wounded captain’s account of his battlefield valor, our initial impression is of a brave and capable warrior. This perspective is complicated, however, once we see Macbeth interact with the three witches. We realize that his physical courage is joined by a consuming ambition and a tendency to self-doubt—the prediction that he will be king brings him joy, but it also creates inner turmoil. These three attributes—bravery, ambition, and self-doubt—struggle for mastery of Macbeth throughout the play. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of character. We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak character separates him from Shakespeare’s great villains—Iago in Othello, Richard III in Richard III, Edmund in King Lear—who are all strong enough to conquer guilt and self-doubt. Macbeth, great warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the psychic consequences of crime.
Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth is plagued by worry and almost aborts the crime. It takes Lady Macbeth’s steely sense of purpose to push him into the deed. After the murder, however, her powerful personality begins to disintegrate, leaving Macbeth increasingly alone. He fluctuates between fits of fevered action, in which he plots a series of murders to secure his throne, and moments of terrible guilt (as when Banquo’s ghost appears) and absolute pessimism (after his wife’s death, when he seems to succumb to despair). These fluctuations reflect the tragic tension within Macbeth: he is at once too ambitious to allow his conscience to stop him from murdering his way to the top and too conscientious to be happy with himself as a murderer. As things fall apart for him at the end of the play, he seems almost relieved—with the English army at his gates, he can finally return to life as a warrior, and he displays a kind of reckless bravado as his enemies surround him and drag him down. In part, this stems from his fatal confidence in the witches’ prophecies, but it also seems to derive from the fact that he has returned to the arena where he has been most successful and where his internal turmoil need not affect him—namely, the battlefield. Unlike many of Shakespeare’s other tragic heroes, Macbeth never seems to contemplate suicide: “Why should I play the Roman fool,” he asks, “and die / On mine own sword?” (V.x.1–2). Instead, he goes down fighting, bringing the play full circle: it begins with Macbeth winning on the battlefield and ends with him dying in combat.

Answer 2

The scene with the three witches sets up some important themes that reoccur throughout the play. First, obviously, is the concept of the supernatural, which comes up again with the witches later and with the ghosts. Basically, this sets the scene for more "otherworldly", spooky stuff to come, giving the play an overall dark, creepy feeling. This scene also introduces things that are "unnatural". The witches are definitely unnatural and foreshadow Macbeth's "unnatural" disloyalty to his King. This theme is seen most strongly in the words and actions of Lady Macbeth who, like the witches, encourage Macbeth's actions and is considered to be a very unnatural woman. The scene also introduces the prophecies. Without these prophecies would Macbeth have done what he did? The witches are there to put these nasty ideas in his head (and the heads of the audience). Finally, Shakespeare may have decided to incorporate witches because he wrote the play for James who definitely had a thing about witches (I think he had something like 300 "witches" put to death after he became King, but I'm not sure). So maybe Shakespeare included them to interest the King and put them first because James had a notoriously short attention span. All of this is simply my own opinion, and shouldn't be taken for anything else. Hope it helps.

Answer 3

Macbeth is a hero who falls victim to villains such as his wife and the withes. But i suggest when your wrting it you write both, what makes him a villian and what makes him a hero and conclude by saying that he is both at the start he is hero, when he kills the king he is a villain and by the end when he says why play the roman fool and fall on my sword he is a hero once more as he doesn't run away from his ineveitable death.