Arguing Macbeth is Not a tragedy

In examining the “tragic hero”, Macbeth, Aristotle states that the character must be suitable to the situation, believable by the audience and consistent in his behavior. Macbeth fails to meet this requirement of a “tragic hero” mainly because he is not believable by the audience. It is clear that he has a conscience because of the struggle that takes place within him regarding whether or not he should agree to Lady Macbeth’s plan to kill the king. This is evident when Macbeth dismissed the idea by saying, “We will proceed no further in this business”. This is also clear later in the scene after Lady Macbeth questions whether he is a real man, when he replies, “Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none”. Even with his

obvious presence of a conscience he still kills the king. After he commits the murder, Macbeth shows regret and remorse for his recent actions. This is clear when he says, “Still it cried ‘Sleep no more!’ to all the house: ‘Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more”. Even after feeling great remorse and doubt Macbeth continues to kill and seems to lose his conscience. This makes his character somewhat unbelievable because Macbeth demonstrates such strong doubt and regret, which strangely seems not to influence his actions just moments after expressing his mind-set. It is unbelievable that a purely evil character can posses and express any sort of conscience. The fact that the character is unbelievable does not allow Macbeth to meet this requirement of a tragedy.

As reversal is progressing so does recognition simultaneously. Recognition is the process that occurs as the play progresses where the hero must move from a lack of knowledge about his true nature or condition to recognition of what is truth of his situation. Aristotle’s requirement of recognition in a tragedy is followed throughout Macbeth until the very end of the play. Macbeth’s recognition starts when his receives his first prophecies. Soon the prophecies occur and Macbeth resolves to see the witches again in hope to better understand the truth of the situation. He is told that he is invincible to any woman born man, that he should beware of Macduff and that he will fall when the Great Birnam forest marches to his castle. After being told these truths he ignores all of them except the one that said he woul

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