At the start of Shakespeare's play Macbeth, we are introduced to the main character Macbeth who is an honorable and noble servant to the king. Towards the conclusion of the play we see the same person in a completely different light. He has been transformed from this honorable and noble servant into an evil tyrant who rules over Scotland by fear and an iron fist. Macbeth is a tragedy because we see this noble character fall into the temptation of evil and eventually capitulate fully to it. However even towards the end he still retains some of our sympathy. We can still see that there is some humanity in him.
The contrasts between the portrayal of Macbeth at the start of the play and the Macbeth at the end of the play are great indeed. At the start Macbeth is extremely well loved by King Duncan. This is illustrated by the king saying "Might have been mine! Only I have left to say / More is thy due than more than all can pay". The king is literally moved to tears by Macbeth's loyal deeds and his emotion is evident in his speech. These lines give us an image of Macbeth as a great and loyal soldier to the king. They build up a great respect for Macbeth in the eyes of the audience. Macbeth's response to this great praise is low key and quite humble: "The service and the loyalty I owe, / In doing it, pays itself." The low key response makes the audience like him even more. The picture painted to the audience of Macbeth is that not only is he a great and loyal soldier but he is in addition a humble and modest man as well.
When Macbeth kills Duncan we are shocked that he has actually performed the deed. However, although we are shocked we still sympathise with him as he is obviously psychologically affected by the murder. Shakespeare uses very moving and emotional language to describe what Macbeth experiences. These phrases include the famous line "Methought I heard a voice cry 'Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep".