How does macbeths tragic flaw lead him to disaster?

Answer 1

In order to answer this you have to believe, first, that Macbeth has a flaw in his character. Second, you have to believe that this flaw defines who he is. Third, that this flaw is responsible for all of his misfortunes. Fourth, that he doesn't change at all during the play.

Well, notwithstanding that your teacher is trying to tell you that characters in plays work like this, I'm here to tell you that they don't, at least not in this play. There is a kind of play called melodrama where the characters have fixed and somewhat superficial characters and stay that way throughout the play: the hero is strong and good, the heroine is pure and weak, the villain is evil and twirls his moustache. Victorians (people living 100 to 150 years ago) loved this kind of play and watched a lot of them. Many of them assumed that Shakespeare was writing melodramas, and so imagined them that way. A Victorian guy called A.C. Bradley actually wrote a very influencial book saying so, which your teacher may be referring to.

But Bradley is full of that stuff you flush down the toilet. Macbeth does not have one single overriding flaw. He is no more ambitious than Malcolm is. When the play starts he is a greatly respected warrior, who has worked very hard to save King Duncan from the traitor Macdonwald. He is also the king's cousin, and a natural choice as a successor. He does not know whether to believe the witches' prophecies: sometimes he thinks he should, sometimes he wishes he didn't, sometimes he thinks that they will not come true unless he does something about it, sometimes he thinks they will come true anyway, and sometimes he thinks they are nonsense. He is constantly changing his mind.

That is the point about Macbeth and all of Shakespeare's major characters. They change over the course of the play, and not just because of one aspect of their characters, but in response to what others do, because the others are reacting as well. Macbeth kills Duncan, not because of some "flaw" in his character, but because he is momentarily prodded by what his wife does and says and how he feels about her and about himself to do so. He regrets it almost immediately ("Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!") but from then on he is driven by fear of discovery to Horror after horror. The fear of discovery is not a flaw--it is normal self-preservation--but in this case Shakespeare shows that it works on Macbeth, constantly changing him and eating away at his humanity.

Answer 2

They give him prophecies that are vague enough that he can twist them into feeding his ego and convince himself that he is invincible. It leads him to take actions such as killing Macduff's family that ultimately lead to his downfall.

Answer 3

Macbeth's major flaw is his desire for power. More than anything else in life, he wanted to be king. This led him to murder the current king, which eventually led to him falling apart emotionally and mentally.

Answer 4

Macbeth's tragic flaw was his greed for power, blinding ambition and being naive. He did not think about the consequences of his initial deed of killing Duncan. This lust for power lead him to kill innocents as a way to protect his power. Basically this goes to say once he started his reign in an extrememly frowned upon way, all things to follow only became worse, and made him full of guilt and insanity (which he was resposible for), that then lead Lady Macbeth to kill herself because of his isolation whilst he was trying to fufil his ambitions and power. And then also, his false sense of security and that nothing will harm him, blinded him from the witches prophecies' literal meaning. And so he died.

Another Viewpoint:Macbeth was neither greedy for power nor unusually ambitious, although this is the answer given by English teachers ever since they thought up the idea of the "Shakespearean hero's tragic flaw" over a hundred years ago. Macbeth, while overwhelmed by the witches' prophecy, at first does not think he has to take steps to see that it is fulfilled. "If fate would have me king, why, fate may crown me." Far from being blinded by his ambition he is unusually prescient. In his soliloquy "If it were done when it is done, then it were well it were done quickly" he specifically and accurately assesses the consequences of murdering Duncan. He clearly sees that he would be hated for it, that it would probably lead to more murders, both by him and attempts to assasinate him, and that it was morally wrong in many ways. (Not so much because it was killing someone--this is the man who splits people from the nave to the chaps remember).

We know that Macbeth has some hope of being king; he is of royal blood, cousin to the king, and the most fearsome and redoubtable warrior in the kingdom. In a typically blind act of nepotism, Duncan appoints the feckless and militarily useless Malcolm as his successor, which frustrates and angers Macbeth because of his ambitions to be king. But in the speech in Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth says the only reason he can think of to kill Duncan is his "vaulting ambition" which he holds in contempt. In short, he concludes that he is not that ambitious and "we will proceed no further in this business".

If he had a different wife, that would be the end of it. Malcolm would have become king and soon thereafter died in a losing battle against a dairy farmer or someone. Macbeth would probably succeed to the throne.

But no. Lady Macbeth masterfully plays both on his love for her and his macho nature and temporarily, just long enough to get him to commit the murder, overcomes his good sense and caution. These tiny weaknesses, which in other circumstances would be strengths (love for your wife is usually a good thing, and a macho attitude is not bad in a soldier) are the flaws she exploits and which ultimately destroy him.

It is usually this way with Shakespeare's tragic heroes. Small character traits, sometimes only manifesting themselves temporarily, can in the wrong circumstances lead to disaster. The characters in the comedies have similar traits, and often worse ones, but because the circumstances are different, they prove to be assets.

Answer 5

shat on him :)