The Usurper in Macbeth In William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth there is an ambitious captain who takes the throne of Scotland by force. Let's examine his character in this article. Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes: Slaves of Passion, explores the workings of Macbeth's mind as he plots the destruction of Banquo and his son: If the witches have spoken so truthfully of Banquo as to him, Macbeth sees that he wears a “fruitless crown” and carries a “barren scepter” in his hand; in fact he gave peace and immortality to make the Banquo race king. And proceeds to parley with the murderers, plotting what he dares not do openly, for the fear that comes when we are rivals for a thing and cannot both have it, makes it seem to Macbeth: that every minute of his being clashes against my neighbor 'st of life; and he will kill his fear by having both Banquo and Fleance put to death. (224) In Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack shows how Macbeth complements his wife: His fall is instantaneous, even impatient. , like Eve in Paradise Lost; his is gradual and reluctant, like Adam's. She only needs her husband's letter about the Weyard sisters' prophecy to precipitate her decision to kill Duncan. In an instant she invites the murderous spirits to deprive her of sex, to fill her with cruelty, to thicken her blood, to convert her mother's milk into gall and to darken the world "Let not my sharp knife see the wound it makes" (1.5.50). Macbeth, on the other hand, falters. The images of the act that possess him at the same time repel him (1.3.130, 1.7.1). When she proposes murdering Duncan, he stalls: "We'll talk again" (1.5.69). (189)In his book On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, HS Wilson tells how the audience is inclined to identify with a scoundrel like Macbeth:That such a man must sacrifice all the richness of his human spirit: his kindness, his love . , his own soul - to become a victim of constant fears, a tyrant who kills ruthlessly in a vain attempt to feel safe, to be finally killed like a hideous beast of prey - this is terrible and also pitiful. Shakespeare has here achieved for us in a more touching way the ambivalence of the tragic effect described by Aristotle. Us