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"(Sometimes a tragic hero is created, not through his own villainy),
but rather through some flaw in him, he being one of those who are in high
station and good fortune, like Oedipus and Thyestes and the famous men of such
families as those." (Poetics, Aristotle). Every great tragedy is dominated by
a protagonist who has within himself a tragic flaw, too much or too little of
one of Aristotle's twelve virtues. In Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth,
a great Scottish general and thane of Glamis, has just won an important battle,
when he is told by three witches that he will become thane of Cawdor and then
king of Scotland. After Macbeth is given Cawdor by King Duncan, he takes the
witches words for truth and conspires against Duncan with his wife. When
Duncan comes to Macbeth's castle that night, Macbeth kills him and takes the
crown for himself after Duncan's sons flee from Scotland. Then Macbeth reigns
for a while, has several people killed, and is eventually slain by Macduff when
he and Malcolm return leading the armies of England. Often people read the
play and automatically conclude that Macbeth's tragic flaw is his ambition;
that he is compelled to commit so many acts of violence by his lust for power.
However, by carefully examining the first act, one can determine the defect in
Macbeth's character that creates his ambition; his true tragic flaw. Macbeth's
tragic flaw is not his ambition as most people believe, but rather his trust in
the words of the witches and in his wife's decisions
At the beginning of the play Macbeth has no designs on the throne, and
he does not start plotting until his wife comes up with a plan. When first
faced with the witches' words, Macbeth expresses astonishment and disbelief
rather than welcoming them when he says, "...to be King stands not within...