Male protagonists in Shalespeare's tragedies: Macbeth and Gloster

Before having a closer look at the character of Macbeth and Gloster and deciding whether they belong to the group of classical tragic heros, it is worth examining the sources, the historic background and the genres of the plays, which may help discover and understand the motives by which Shakespeare was driven while shaping these characters.

The main source of Richard III (1597) is the same chronicle ( Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles ) that served as a basic material for Macbeth (1605). Shakespeare handled the chronicle quite freely in both cases: to achieve his purpose, he changed several facts or at least the order of certain events.

Historical Macbeth ruled between 1040 and 1057. He was a hard-handed, great king. He had a legal right to the throne that had been takan by Duncan I. Macbeth overcame him in an open battle and we have no data about assasination. However, Shakespeare had a different idea of Scottish history. He read Macbeth’s story in the Holinshed’s Chronicles...