Tragedy of MacbethIn a tragedy the main character achieves greatness, then continues to fall into a spiral of shame that leads to his downfall. An example of tragedy is Macbeth. Macbeth is pushed up the hill of greatness, then his indomitable ambition leads to his death. The process of a tragedy is slow to allow the audience to feel comfortable with the power and happiness of the main character. Then all the sudden signs appear that the end is coming and the main character heads towards the fall. At the beginning of the play a battle takes place between King Duncan of Scotland and Macdonwald of Norway. Macbeth fought bravely on the side of Scotland and even killed Macdonwald himself. King Duncan learns of Macbeth's noble and courageous qualities and crowns him the new Thane of Cawdor. The king states that the old Thane should not device, "... Our deepest interest: to go and pronounce his present death, and with his ancient title greet Macbeth." (1.2.63-65) Macbeth is hostile to the exception of rank because three previous witches had prophesied that Macbeth would become Thane of Cawdor even though there was one at the time. Since Macbeth has been crowned Thane of Cawdor, Banquo and Macbeth think that the three witches are able to correctly tell them their fate. Macbeth now having a higher ranking authority begins to see his ambition working on him and craves more power. Lady Macbeth arranges the murder of King Duncan, which increases Macbeth's ambition and allows Macbeth to reach the greatest height. The murder is carried out but not as planned and Macbeth is driven to kill the king himself. Macbeth states after everyone has found the king dead, "Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man. My violent love's expedition..." (2.3.111-112) This was the only thing done to destroy and thoughts that may have targeted Macbeth thinking that he could kill the king. The greed for power and the witches' prophecies have made Macbeth a very disturbed man. Believing everything the witches say, Macbeth hires three murderers to kill both Banquo and his son. By having them killed, no one will be able to take away Macbeth's crown. Macbeth then learns that Macduff is pondering how to seek revenge, so Macbeth plans the death of Macduff's family. Macbeth went to his family hoping to hurt him inside to show Macduff not to mess with Macbeth.