I have a little trouble understanding my essay question.
This question is:
Is Macbeth a tragic hero according to the classical definition of the term or is he merely a monster? Does Shakespeare succeed in creating sympathy for Macbeth?
To repsond to this question in an essay, I was thinking to write as though the question just said "Is Macbeth a tragic hero?" Because I don't really know what it means by "according to the classical definition of the term" and is it relevant?
I haven't written an essay in over 2 months and I'm getting rusty already. This is how I was thinking of structuring my essay so far:
Intro
Main Body
1st Para: About how he was a tragic hero
2nd Para: A different point on how he was a tragic hero
3rd Para: About how sympathy is created for Macbeth - HE starts off as the 'good guy' and slowly turned bad
Conclusion
And while writing the essay, I'll give exmaples and points to say he WAS a tragic hero, but should I also try and argue why he WASN'T a monster?
I have all the points to say why he was a tragic hero, i.e, he was a noble and loyal general to start with, but his ambition along with the influences of Lady Macbeth and the witches, lead to his tragic death etc.
3 answers
* Macbeth is a tragic hero.
or
* Macbeth is a monster.
There's no such thing as a tragic monster, as far as I remember!
=)
It was meant to say Tragic Hero, not tragic monster