Through these battles, Beowulf’s strength, humbleness and courageousness is revealed. These are characteristics that are crucial in defining an epic hero. However, every epic hero has a tragic flaw. Beowulf’s tragic flaw is his pride. His tragic flaw is evident throughout the novel thinking he can win them all.
To begin, Macbeth is viewed as a brave and fearless man with very good military standing he is also viewed as a good leader. Macbeth is a good man at this point in the play but due to some prophecies that are made by, some crazy witches; he starts to betray his closest friends. Macbeth begins to plot against King Duncan, the man who just named him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth realizes the costliness of killing the king and how his actions may damn him forever. Macbeth tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, That he cannot go through with it and she begins to question him, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (Shakespeare I.VII.
This small act awakened the greed that Macbeth had always possessed but never acknowledged. Macbeth afterwards felt he deserved to be crowded king and would stop at nothing to fulfil this dream. This is the first sign that Macbeth’s character is losing control of reality. Furthermore, after honourably receiving the title of Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, being a greedy character, was not satisfied. With the success of the first prophecy, Macbeth recall’s the second prophecy that he “shalt be king hereafter!” (I, iii, 54).
They make Macbeth feel over confident with visions full of double meaning, which easily fools him into a state of content and invincibleness. They first capture his attentions when calling him the thane of Glamis (his original title) and thane of Cawdor. He doesn’t understand the second title, as there is already a thane of Cawdor, but is then informed that the King has appointed Macbeth thane of Cawdor because the previous thane of Cawdor is executed for treason. When Macbeth inquires about the prophesies coming true, Banquo tells him “...But ‘tis strange. / And oftentimes, to win us to out harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths,/ Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s/ In deepest consequence” (I.iii.121).
The symbolism of dark and light is relevant as Macbeth’s light which is his conscious is starting to play him and become unravelled with evil thoughts leading him astray. In context, the quote is when Macbeth finds out that Duncan intends his son, Malcolm to become king. The alliteration ‘deep desires’ displays that Macbeth, here, is overcome by ambition, this leads Macbeth to want to hide his ambition in darkness and reflects on the evil of his ambition. The quote also highlights the depth of this ambition driving him to do
He has become victorious in battle and is going to be rewarded with a promotion by King Duncan. All of the characters in the play saw Macbeth as a hero, not a villain. As the story progressed, however, Macbeth became much darker as his ambition overran his sense of morality. After he had committed his first murder, Macbeth’s peers began to have a sense of mistrust for him. As time went on, this mistrust grew larger and larger to the point of rebellion in the form of mutiny.
He was fighting for the good of his people. However, both of the characters were fighting for what was rightfully theirs. Hamlet was in the bloodline to take over the Kingdom after his father’s death, but his mother married his uncle almost immediately afterwards taking his spot in the kingdom. This sent Hamlet into a deep depression that winds up causing much more than his Uncle Claudius bargained for. Beowulf proves to everyone that he will not only make a name for himself, but also grow into a wise, strong, courageous leader that will do anything to gain fame.
Wiglaf knows of the many triumphs Beowulf endeavors, and sees it as an encouragement. If Beowulf was able to defeat, why couldn't Wiglaf. Wiglaf is extremely brave to continue the fight Beowulf had started and kill the dragon as his loyalty shines through. Beowulf and Wiglaf are genuinely loyal characters in the epic poem. The two inferior men endeavored many hardships throughout because of their loyalty to others.
The reader learns how Beowulf is fighting only for glory and not for power because “Beowulf longed only for fame” (71, 1528-1529). Beowulf was much stronger than Throthgar and could’ve easily taken his thrown but he did not long for power he longed for fame. Another example of how Beowulf fights for what is right is when Beowulf fights Grendel’s Mom. Beowulf had already killed Grendel, had received his riches, he could’ve easily left the Dane’s helpless against this angry mom. Instead, Beowulf does the right thing and because he does fate repays him by allowing “her stabbing blade to be blunted by the woven mail skirt” (71, 1547-1549).
This is a prime depiction of how Macbeth is already uneasy in life and that he will turn to crime to solve a minor problem. If it is this easy then he will continue to do so and commence a vicious cycle of lying, having remorse and killing more individuals. Conversely, as time went on Macbeth thought less about the emotional well-being of his victims and began to focus more on what he was gaining. He was a very proud king. Although it was for very wrong reasons, he still displayed immense