In the openings of both stories, Macbeth and A Christmas Carol, Scrooge and Macbeth have very different flaws. Macbeth’s flaws are positive because he has just won the battle and he is loved by the whole town and he is called a hero. “O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!” Macbeth is being praised by his best friend for winning the battle. Banquo is calling Macbeth his cousin because he is proud to be close to him and he is proud for Macbeth’s fame and he gets some of the fame as well because they are very very close friends. He is a strong and brave and saved the town. Macbeth is presented like this in the beginning of the play to show that the whole town loved him and he was a “hero” for winning the battle and saving the king and everyone else.

Scrooge’s flaws are totally opposite as he is hated by the whole town because he is such a selfish person and doesn’t care about anyone else at all. When they charity workers come to him and ask for money for the people dying on Christmas day he says “if they’d rather die, they had better do it”. He is very wealthy, but very stingy. When someone uses the word die it in a bad way it makes you think of them as a nasty and awful person for telling someone to die. This shows that he didn’t care about anyone and was a miserable person and told the charity workers to leave. Dickens presented Scrooge like this very early in the story because he wanted to show the readers the character of Scrooge right from the start.

As the stories go on Macbeth has an encounter with three witches. When he sees the witches his flaws are negative because he frightened of them. The three witches tell him and Banquo things that will happen in their future. The witches say that Macbeth will become king and Banquo’s children will also be kings one day. “Thou shalts get kings, though thou be none;” Macbeth and Banquo are confused about what the witches said to them. When the witches vanish Macbeth says to Banquo “Your children shall be kings” and Banquo says to Macbeth “you shall be king”. They are both confused because if Macbeth is king then Banquo’s children cannot become king. The thane of Cawdor is still alive. This means the current king must die for Macbeth to become king. “Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more”. Macbeth wants to know more about being king because he doesn’t know whether it’s true or not. Macbeth’s flaws are now much higher because a witch has just told him he will become the Thane of Cawdor. He’s excited, confused and scared at the same time. Scrooges flaws were very negative as the story goes on because he sees the ghosts of Christmas past and he is petrified. He sees Marley’s ghost and all the other ghost that used to work in the same place as Scrooge. Marley’s ghost talks to Scrooge about wasting his life and that he should just be happy and celebrate Christmas.