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The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

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Macbeth Macbeth is a tragedy written in the 17th century that shows what the desire for power can do to a man. Macbeth is expressed as being the villain. But, Macbeth is in fact a tragic hero, doomed by fate from the beginning into the madness he put himself in. If it not been for meeting the witches and persuasion of his wife, the play would have had a very different ending. Like every tragic hero, Macbeth suffered from a flaw. In his case, his flaw was his strong ambition, combined with a thirst for power. Ambition alone is not a bad trait, but when added with a lust for power, this ambition can become dangerous. At the beginning Macbeth was seen as brave Macbeth and shown as a loyal and brave solider on the battle field. That ambition always resided within him but did not cause a problem until the prophecy was made by the witches. It was the moment that the witches first cast the prophecy over Macbeth that sealed his fate forever. Without the witches foretelling his rise to power as Thane of Cawdor and as the future king of Scotland, the idea would have never came to him. He was a modest character. Once the witches put those thoughts in Macbeth's mind, they started to bother him as he kept thinking about it and the idea soon consumed him. He did not believe what they said, once he was granted the title Thane of Cawdor, he started to consider that it could possibly be true. There is a obvious difference in his attitude about the prophecy before and

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