Macbeth has always been considered a tragedy. A tragedy is the story of a hero whose flaws have gotten the better of him. The question is, what exactly is Macbeth's fatal flaw? Is this his “jumping ambition”? Is it his pride, his greed? Or was it a general weakness in his character, an uncertainty about his own identity that brought about his downfall? Can we really say that he is a good man? Are the choices he makes really made of his own will? How much of this is his own fault and, if indeed the lion's share of the blame can be placed on Macbeth, what does this mean for his self-esteem? The idea that Macbeth was originally a good man at the beginning of the play is confusing at best. We first see him here through the witches in the very first scenes, which gives him an automatic association with the evil powers present in the play. After that, we hear him described as "noble" but in this same description we also hear that he committed extreme acts of violence which seemed excessive even during the battle "he unsoldered him from the nave to the chops.” Macbeth's actual encounter with the witches does nothing to improve our view of him, as he essentially admits to himself (and therefore to the audience) that he questioned the possibility of becoming king before this. So we are left with an uncertain idea of ​​who Macbeth really is. In order to attempt to understand Macbeth, we must look for a character in the play who would have an effect or influence on Macbeth. The most obvious of these would be Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has the closest relationship of anyone in the play with Macbeth due to the fact that she is his wife. This means that she is in a unique position to understand Macbeth. You could say she takes advantage of this, using her relationship with Macbeth...... middle of paper...... keeping his role as a soldier, where he would be expected to take the orders, rather than acting on one's own initiative. But that in no way excuses his actions throughout the play. The excuse that “we were just following orders” is not valid here for two reasons. The first is that this excuse never stands anyway, because soldiers always have a duty to act justly, despite the orders of their superiors. The other is that Macbeth followed no one's orders but his own, driven by his own desire for power and glory. His choices were his and so the blame goes to him as well. Macbeth did not get lost in the crisis of his life. He created it through his own deliberate actions and then immersed himself in this crisis. Works Cited Shakespeare, William and John Crowther. No Fear Shakespeare: Macbeth. ed. New York: Spark Publishing, 2003. Print.