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MACBETH AS TRAGIC HERO

Robert B. Heilman (essay date 1966)

SOURCE: "The Criminal as Tragic Hero: Dramatic Methods," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production, Vol. 19, 1966, pp. 12-24.

[Here, Heilman surveys the dramatic strategies that lead us to identify with a hero who is also a murderer. The critic maintains that Macbeth is a tragedy rather than merely a melodrama or morality play, because our understanding of human nature and of ourselves increases through our experience of empathizing with him.]

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The difficulties presented by the character of Macbeth—the criminal as tragic hero—have led some critics to charge Shakespeare with inconsistency, others to seek consistency by viewing the initial Macbeth as in some way morally defective,¹ and still others to normalize the hero by viewing the final Macbeth as in some way morally triumphant. Perhaps a...

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1. Introduction
2. Overviews
3. Psychoanalytic Interpretations
4. Macbeth As Tragic Hero
5. Religious And Theological Issues
6. Further Reading
7. Copyright