Why is Macbeth classed as a tragedy?
Hi there. A tragedy is the story of a great person who is laid low by a fatal flaw. Macbeth has the great flaw of ambition, which he shares with his wife. The witches initially start the process with their prophecy, when they finish it “Hail Macbeth, who will be King hereafter”. Macbeth discusses this with his wife and her ambition flares up straight away. He doesn’t want to murder Duncan, but he eggs him on, the “To let ‘I would’ wait upon ‘I dare not'” dialogue. Once he has done the deed his innate honesty and decency return and the guilt begins. In classic tragedy the god afflict the sinner until they go mad before destroying them and this happens to macbeth. The path he has set out on leads to more murder as his madness grows and he loses the ability to sleep “Macbeth has murdered sleep, macbeth shall sleep no more”., seeing visions of the dead, of blood, of the dagger. Eventually he dies fighting against his own fate against Macduff, who is “not of woman born”. Interestingly, Lady
