Macbeth Tragic Flaw Research Paper

Macbeth and Tragic Flaw

Tragic flaw is defined as a personality flaw that makes the person commit a serious mistake so gravely that it can cause him/her death. A tragic flaw can also refer to a flawed judgment that a character has passed over a course of action, which is sadly irrevocable. In “Into the Wild”, Chris McCandless can be said to have committed a tragic flaw which has resulted in his death. By stubbornly clinging onto his ideal way to live, McCandless boldly leaves everything behind and ventures alone into the Alaska wilderness. Without being aware of what is to expect in Alaska and with very little preparation, McCandless simply died of starvation in a place where he presumed to be perfect. His death is ironic because instead of finding his paradise in Alaska, he finds his burial place. Similarly, the tragedy of Macbeth is caused by his tragic flaw. While being persistent in one’s belief is a virtue, too much of it becomes a deadly flaw for McCandless.
He secretly takes delight in the promotion to the title of Thane of Cawdor – “two truths are told/as happy prologues to the swelling act/of the imperial theme” (I.iii.126-129). This ambition translates to an immense power that blinds him from moral senses of right and wrong. He reckons that it is his “vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself” (I.vii.27) and makes him turn indifferent to what “even-handed justice” dictates. This ambition becomes Macbeth’s tragic flaw and motivates him to kill the gracious Duncan, to surprise the castle of Macduff, and to kill anyone who is in his way. His greatest punishment is far beyond death. In the end, not only that he suffers from the loss of a dear wife but from every meaning in life. He sees life to be a series of empty “tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow” (V.v.18), “a walking shadow” (V.v.24), “a tale/told by an idiot, full of sound and fury/signifying nothing”