Macbeth

Finished my university preparation course essay this way:

Macbeth, clearest in his mind in moments of action, ultimately recognises that his fate is sealed and that his folly is to end life as the weird sisters foretold. His final words show him to be resigned to that fate and damnably unrepentant when, as he faces certain death at the hands of MacDuff, he defiantly calls out:

I will not yield,
To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,
And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'

Heroic to the end but tragically flawed, Macbeth pays the ultimate price for his crimes.

I don't imagine I'm the first to draw such a conclusion but it's done. And that's the point.

.