Macbeth: A True Tragic Hero

A tragic hero “will arouse both pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor thoroughly bad but a mixture of both” (Abrams 322). These types of characters have been around since the early days of literature. Greek philosopher, Aristotle, who shaped western psychology coined the term. The most well-known hero of tragedy is Sophocles' Oedipus, the mythical Greek King of Thebes. Oedipus fell right into his misfortune through a mistake and ended up unknowingly killing his father, and marrying his mother. This prominent character of literature, one of the first of his kind inspired the British playwright, William Shakespeare to create the ever so famous, yet remarkably infamous character, Macbeth. Through his actions, the brave, heroic man quickly turns into a murdering beast, taking the reader on a rollercoaster, evoking unparalleled emotion.