What makes Macbeth a tragedy?
In a Shakespeare tragedy there is always a tragic hero. (Romeo and Juliet has a heroine too.) This hero is always someone who is noble in some way – not just an ordinary person. The hero is somehow ruined by two things: • A personal weakness. Macbeth’s is his ambition – and perhaps his being too easily persuaded, first by the Witches, then by his wife. • Fate – unfortunate events, or some great evil affecting the whole kingdom. In Macbeth there seems to be evil ‘in the air’ from the start – when we meet the Witches. The tragic hero is in some ways a victim.
