I would say hubris is one of Macbeth's most important character flaws, and it is a quality he exhibits from early on within the play. Consider the events of act 1, scene 3, when Macbeth first encounters the witches and receives the news that he will become king. This encounter will motivate his later murder of Duncan. However, consider that ambition and pride are ultimately intertwined in shaping his actions. After all, such ambitions do not emerge out of humility; rather, the opposite is true. His ambition to usurp the throne grows from the kind of hubris that would allow him to consider such a plan of action in the first place.
It's worth noting, however, that prophecy plays a critical role in these considerations as well. Remember, in act 1, scene 3, the witches greet Banquo as one "lesser than Macbeth, and greater," as someone who would...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
father a dynasty (in reference to the Stuarts). However, Macbeth will, later in the play, attempt to overturn that larger destiny by organizing the murder of Banquo and Banquo's son,Fleance, in order to secure a dynasty of his own. In that respect, his hubris and ambition have actually grown, so that rather than acting to fulfill prophecy when it is in his favor (as he had with the murder of Duncan), Macbeth now seeks to dominate fate itself. Thus, in act 3, scene 1, Macbeth states:
There is none but he
whose being I do fear; and under him
My genius is rebuk'd, as, it is said,
Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
When first they put the name of king upon me
And bade them speak to him; then, prophet-like
They hail'd him father to a line of kings.
Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
No son of mine succeeding. If't be so,
For Banquo's issue have I fil'd my mind;
For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace,
Only for them; and mine eternal jewel
Given to the common enemy of man,
To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,
And champion me to the utterance!
Of course, fate is not so easily thrown off course. While Macbeth's assassins kill Banquo himself, Fleance escapes, and the Stuart lineage remains secure.
Hubris in Macbeth is the result of his confidence in the witches' prophecies. Throughout the play, they tell him what he wants to hear, and as a result, he believes he is indestructible. He is especially taken by the prophecy that "no man of woman born" was capable of destroying him, and that he could not be defeated until "Birnam Wood" marched up the hill to his palace. He hangs his hat, as it were, on each of these cryptic statements, and it turns out that this is a big mistake. We see how confident he is at the beginning of Act V, Scene 3, when he says:
Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
“Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
Shall e'er have power upon thee.” Then fly, false thanes,
And mingle with the English epicures!
He is stunned to learn, in Scene 5, that Birnam Wood is indeed advancing on Dunsinane. Malcolm's me, it turns out, have cut branches off of trees, and are marching on the palace carrying them in front of them to obscure their numbers. It looks like the forest itself is marching to destroy Macbeth. Shortly thereafter, he is still somewhat confident in his success when he says a line that turns out to be the height of hubris, telling Macduff that he has "a charmed life, which must not yield/To one of woman born." Macbeth replies that he, in fact, was not "of woman born," but was actually "untimely ripp'd." In other words, he was not born naturally, but by Caesarian section. So Macbeth's confidence in his "charmed life" and the witches' prophecies turned out to be completely misplaced. This is, in short, hubris.