Macbeth: A Tragic Hero

Evil is attainted, not by force, but by self-motivation, the antonymic principle to that of attaining a state of tragedy. In Macbeth, by Shakespeare, Macbeth portrays a wholly evil character. Throughout the story he commits evil by deeds of murder, betrayal, and lies where by the end of the book he accepts his core center of evil, stating his lack of remorse for any of his actions. In the essay entitled “Evil,” by Irving Ribner, Ribner uses many fruitful examples from the text to support his chief points of Macbeth being truly evil. Hence to state, Macbeth personifies anything and everything evil, against the belief of him succumbing that of a tragic hero.
One of the defining features that make Macbeth purely evil is his confrontation with it. When the witches first appear in Act 1 of the play, Macbeth voluntarily confronts them, complying with evil in the very beginning. “They [the witches] do not, however, suggest evil to man…for the impulse to evil must come from...