Research, though toilsome, is easy imagination, though delightful, is difficult.

The centre of the tragedy, therefore, may be said with equal truth to lie in action issuing from character, or in character issuing in action.

Macbeth's deed is done in horror, and without the faintest desire or sense of glory- done, one may almost say, as if it were an appalling duty the instant it is finished, its futility is revealed to Macbeth as clearly as its vileness had been revealed beforehand

The story depicts also the troubled part of the hero's life which precedes and leads up to his death and an instantaneous death occurring by 'accident' in the midst of prosperity would not suffice for it. It is, in fact, essentially a tale of suffering and calamity conducting to death.