Macbeth By William Shakespeare
Q: Macbeth is a tragic hero. How does an author use characterization to shape our understanding and our empathy of a character?
“Life… is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”, This is a quote that could both start and end a story such as Macbeth, but how can this relate to character of its own? Macbeth is character created by William Shakespeare and carried his thought of a tragic hero. Macbeth is created as a representation of questioning and fortune. How? Well when Macbeth is met by the 3 witches he is told about his prophecy, all hail Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland of its entirety. Though Macbeth does not think of this at first, he is then greeted by a messenger telling him that he has also become the thane of cawdor. This intrigues him but then he stops to think about the last prophecy, The King of Scotland. Macbeth is questioning himself whether or not he will become king. He cannot decide whether or not if he will let fate decide or if he himself will make it happen, thus resulting in the murder of the king and fleeing of the heir to the throne, the kings son. He is questioning himself if he is extremely fortunate or if he had made the right choice to kill the king, of course in the end he is traumatized by what he has done. Despite all the deeds he has done he continued to be called a hero, though obviously changing near the end where he is killed by previous followers. In the end Macbeth was never a tragic hero, he was a self-questioning man who unfortunately couldn’t handle the pressure of his fate and fortune, thus resulting in his demise. 