Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as tragic heroes in Shakespeare's "Macbeth."

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth are both examples of tragic heroes who possess a tragic flaw. According to Webster's dictionary, a tragic flaw is defined as "a flaw in character that brings about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy." Macbeth held within his character the flaw of ambition, as well as moral weakness and selective perception, which all eventually contributed to his untimely death. In Lady Macbeth's case, the …

…to die. For Lady Macbeth, her main flaw is repression of her guilty conscience and failure to acknowledge that what she is doing is hurting her. The motivation for her blocking of her emotions comes from her own greed. Both characters inevitably die from these weaknesses at the end. In this way, Shakespeare demonstrates that when one cannot exercise control and understanding of their ambition and chooses to ignore their emotions only suffering can result.