Macbeth falls into the category of tragedy because at the end of the play, most or all of the major characters die. The play is a depiction of how evil human nature can be under the influence of the dark passions. Greed, desire for power, unchecked ambition, acting outside of morality, in Macbeth this leads to murder and more murder of innocent people.
Macbeth is a tragic hero who has been led astray by the promise of glory and power. We, the reader, recognize the motivation that Macbeth gets from the witches prophecy, he gets caught up in a plot to kill the king because the witches assured him that he would become king.
Macbeth is used by the witches, led to his own destruction, duped by the prophecies that he misinterprets to mean that he is indestructible. It is only at the end when he sees that he is trapped by his own actions and faces death that he realizes that he trusted the witches, a big mistake.
Tragedy is a very effective way to tell a story. The reader gets all the drama involved with deception, plotting, evil and murder, it is very entertaining, and at the end, a lesson in morality is evident. The tragic hero, although he almost always dies at the end of the work, offers the reader an opportunity to learn a truth about life.
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