Macbeth Essay

I highly disagree with the statement, "The play {Macbeth} is a tragedy only if the reader understands that Macbeth is a victim of circumstances which he cannot control." I disagree and reject that thesis and substitute my own in support to my opinion. I believe that the play is a tragedy only because of Macbeth's stupidity, which is ironically the only thing he is truly a victim to, stupidity.

Right from the start, Macbeth is a victim to the disease called stupid. When Macbeth is informed by Three Witches that he is to become king and that future kings after him will be descended from his fellow army captain, Banquo, and then believes it, he is digging his own grave. Why would any person in any era listen to witches? It just burns me up to know that he believes what he hears. How could you put so much belief into this?

Putting faith in prophecies is normally a bad business move as it is, but when Macbeth hears that Malcolm is to be the heir to the throne he should have just let it be and figure the Three Witches were wrong. Nope, not Macbeth, after being persuaded by his wife to commit regicide, he decides to take "fate" into his own hands and murder the king. All because of a prophecy he heard from some witches. And the fact that he is haunted by it afterwards proves how idiocy and weak-mindedness can hurt a man. At this point along with labeling Macbeth as a "hopeless moron" I like to category his wife in the same category as the witches: catalyst to death.

Finally, in the most brainless act, after doing so much because of the Three Witches first prophecy (and listening to his wife) he completely contradicts himself. When he hears the witches next prophecy saying that he will be invincible in battle until the time when the forest of Birnam moves towards his stronghold and until he meets an enemy "not born of woman," he just gives it the cold shoulder. He should listen and take heed, correct? Especially because he banked so much on what they said last time, right? Not Macbeth, brainless Macbeth, he disregards this prophecy for some reason and goes and gets killed. If he believed enough that he should kill the king and his fellow officer because of the witches' words, how come he didn't believe his own death coming and did something about it?

It's true the reader needs to understand something in this play in order for it to