Macbeth's Character

Macbeth as a Tragic Hero must have some potential nobility, some good qualities that make his downfall terrifying. He must be examined as a human being with human weaknesses. Is he one who, as Lady Macbeth says, Act I, Scene V, “is too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” or is he the “butcher” that Malcolm considers him to be in the final scene of the play? Or is …

…does he fight him? Is it because Macduff calls him “coward” and his concept of manliness cannot stand this? Or is it because he cannot bear to be humiliated in public and so forfeit his pride? Is there despair in his final words, “Yet I will try the last?” Or is he heroically accepting Fate, knowing that he must die? Dead butcher or Tragic Hero? Given similar circumstances wh! at might we do? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**