Macbeth Absolute Power

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Dangers of Absolute Power According to Aristotle, a tragic hero should experience a rising action due to his exceptional characteristics; and suffer a falling action due to his fatal flaw, which eventually results in his death. However, he should still be able to gain sympathy and pity from the audience. The story of Macbeth truly represents elements of a tragic hero, a brave loyal knight whose fatal flaw is his ambition for power which leads him to betray his friends and king and finally killed by his other fatal flaw, overconfidence. In William Shakespeare, the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, the author uses Macbeth’s ambitious characteristic, evoking pity for Macbeth and finally the danger of absolute power to show Macbeth’s tragic story.…show more content…
To begin, with Shakespeare shows Macbeth as a valiant individual when the Sergeant says “brave Macbeth… with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution, like valour’s minion” (Shakespeare-1.2.17-20). Because of his bravery and courageousness, Macbeth is able to take down Macdownwald by “unseamed him from the nave to the chops, and fixed his head upon our battlements” (1.2.24.25), as well as taking on the Norwegians. The victories ensures that Macbeth is respected by others including King Duncan, who calls him “O valiant cousin” and “Worthy gentlemen!” (1.2.26) Moreover, Macbeth’s valiant and braveness causes him being crowned the Thane of Cawdor by Kind Duncan. Consequently, Shakespeare portrays Macbeth’s exceptional characteristic of being rational and is seen when Macbeth questions the prophecies the three witches, he asks “But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives. A prosperous gentleman, and to be King, Stands not within the prospect of belief, No more than to be Cawdor. (1.3.74-78). from this, audiences see Macbeth’s rationality come into play. He does not immediately believe the three witches, but instead questions how he would become the Thane of Cawdor instead of being king. In addition Macbeth’s rationality is also seen when he decides whether or not and reasons with his wife with regards of killing King Duncan. Macbeth believes that they should not go with killing King Duncan, but instead thinks indifferently and tells Lady Macbeth that “he (king Duncan) hath honored me of late, and I brought, Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss” (1.7.34-36). When Macbeth comes to know that “bloody instructions, which being taught return, To plague the inventor” (1.7.9-10), he says that if
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