Is Macbeth The Tragic Hero of The Play? Is Macbeth the tragic hero of the play "Macbeth?" This question may seem to be redundant; however, not all of Shakespeare's Tragedies are named after their tragic heroes. For example, Julius Caesar is not the tragic hero of "Julius Caesar." A tragic hero must conform to a set of characteristics which evolved all the way from ancient to medieval times. Macbeth conforms to these characteristics and is the tragic hero of "Macbeth." The death of an ordinary person in Medieval times was not considered tragic. This idea was based on the notion of "fall". If a peasant died, his death meant very little because he had