Abstract: William Shakespeare lived in the Tudor period and in his plays created a series of classic characters, foreshadowing many fundamental traits of modern men. This paper compares Macbeth and Hamlet, two infamous characters of Shakespeare's great tragedies, and analyzes the characteristic defects that led to their tragic fate from the subjective point of view. The study explores the modern meaning of Shakespeare's creation of these two characters. Tempted by ambition Macbeth murdered the king, and later was tormented with fear by a powerful imagination, conjuring up manipulations and cover ups to keep himself safe. In so doing, Macbeth fell deeper in sin with his own actions, sinking into nihilistic nothingness. Hamlet's dilemma is that his highly dualistic metaphysical thinking created for him a world of opposites between thinking and being, essence and appearance, ideal and reality. Paralyzed by the conflict, Hamlet could not bridge abstract thoughts with actions and bring himself to take vengeance. In the end, he could do nothing but submit himself to the will of the unknown God. These two characters by Shakespeare can well be regarded as accurate portraits of the highly subjective and abstract modern people today. Macbeth is an ambitious man who pursues his dream at all costs, while Hamlet is a poetic philosopher who indulges in his ideal world and laments the evils and impermanence of the world.

Key words: Shakespeare, tragedy, imagination, nihility, subjective abstractivity