Why Is Macbeth Considered A Tragedy

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a tragedy is ‘’an event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident, crime, or natural catastrophe’’. It is also said that for a play to be considered a tragedy it must follow the three requirements of a tragedy; shock and violence, man of high station falls, and deterioration. MacBeth is considered a tragedy as it meets all these requirements; MacBeth’s ambition drives him to insanity, the murder of King Duncan, and MacBeths death. If it weren’t for MacBeth’s intense ambition, this play wouldn’t have been such a tragedy.
MacBeth was a young man, normal like the rest but that changed after he received his prophecy from the witches. He grew an intense ambition to become
The first tragic death we experience is King Duncan. This was a tragic death because he was loved, well respected and treated everyone with kindess, even though it was said he didn’t act much like a king. Even though MacBeth was the one who killed King Duncan, it had still affected him pretty hard because he knew how great of a man he was and it killed him to see him go, but it is what he had to do to become king. “Hath borne his faculties so meek… the deep damnation of his taking off” (1.7.1) So even Macbeth knows it is awful killing King since he is so meek, but he knew it was what had to be done to become king.
The final tragedy is MacBeths death. MacBeth had been murdered by MacDuff because he had killed king Duncan, then Malcolm became king. This is the biggest tragedy because he was the main character, whom the readers get familiar with and feel a bond with while reading. MacBeth had been murdered by MacDuff, and that is understandable since MacBeth had killed MacDuff’s family and people that others cared about. I believe this is the biggest downfall since MacBeth had received the honour of being king, but lost it after being murdered like he murdered