was macbeth a tragic hero, in your personal opinion? what constitutes a tragic hero for you?

Answer 1

Yes - Macbeth was essentially a good man who was waylaid by circumstances and other people into perpetrating evil acts.

A tragic hero for me would be someone, like Macbeth, who tries to do the right thing, but ultimately is undone.

Other good examples would Russell Crowe's character in "Gladiator"; Othello; and King Lear.

Answer 2

He had been a hero, up to the battle in the opening of the play.
Fierce, brave, loyal, honest.
What is seen in the play is almost all the flaw, the weak side so, no, he barely qualifies as a tragic hero.
Only at the end is that particular remnant, his personal courage in combat, still seen.

To make a really good tragic hero, the character must be trapped and destroyed by his positive qualities, and his good intentions.

Honour that leads to folly, and promises that should never have been given but cannot be unsaid, they are the classic stuff of a hero heading for ruin.

Answer 3

A tragic hero is someone who brings about his own downfall. Presumably, some realization of this would be involved. To the extent that we make our beds and lie in them, we're all tragic heroes, but only trivially. To measure up to a "tragedy" a story must involve issues of major life-importance.
___And the error that a tragic hero makes is not just a simple one, like a misstep on a mountain ledge. It usually has to do with ambition, arrogance, or pride.
___Tragedy is more popular in historical eras of ascendency, when people are striving with more of a deep common purpose then is out there today, when there's more of a shared sense that the culture is making progress of the sort people believe in. Tragedy plays out the dynamical details of striving, building, and risk-taking.
___In one of his few intelligent comments, Karl Marx noted that comedy is the [narrative] form of an age of decline. (This would include romantic comedies and other happy stories.)
___So read those tragedies, and prepare for a new historical era, whenever it gets around to arriving. And don't expect it to look like the mere extrapolations of futurists. Start thinking some authentically radical thoughts, (not the weak stuff that has passed as radical for the past century or so) and make it happen. Then the reason for wrestling with hubris will become more evident. Striving for authentically radical change means bumping up against hubris; Tragic heroes aren't supposed to be unequivocal bad guys, but strivers, dramatized.

Answer 4

I don't think Macbeth was a tragic hero. A hero's actions should be, well, heroic, and I don't think committing murder at your wife's behest really qualifies.

A tragic hero for me is someone who takes actions that are heroic, but who by those same actions (or motivation for those actions) comes to grief of some sort. An example of the kind of person I would consider to be a tragic hero would be someone who believes that a child or children are being molested, tries by legal means to get the children away from their molester, is unsuccessful, and ultimately turns to illegal means to save them, bringing ruin upon himself/herself in the process. That would be my idea of a tragic hero.

Answer 5

I think he was tragic, but he definitely was NOT a hero. He was an ambitious traitor who murdered the king.

One could argue that he is the hero because he's the star of the play, but looking at his actions and motivations he is in no way heroic.

A more appropriate moniker would be a tragic anti-hero.

Answer 6

Macbeth was no hero. He was a dick... A tragic hero is one who is willing to die for his beliefs or his people.
A better example of a tragic hero would be Martin Luther King

Answer 7

I saw Macbeth as a greed driven fool. A hero is one who gives his life for the sake of another. Not one who dies in himself in mind.

A hero would be St Valintine who laid his life down for nine people sentenced to death