The Downfall Of Macbeth Shakespeare's drama Macbeth emphasizes the corrosive influence of uncontrolled ambition. Macbeth's demise is ultimately due to a terrible weakness in himself: ambition. However, in the shape of witches and predictions, fate is also to blame for his downfall since they impose his wickedness. Lady Macbeth's quest for power also influences Macbeth's destruction. She uses persuasion as a driving force behind Macbeth to persuade him to kill Duncan and fulfill her wants, all contributing to Macbeth's tragedy. The three witches and Lady Macbeth greatly impact Macbeth, yet he is largely responsible for his downfall because of his actions throughout the book. Macbeth is responsible for his downfall as a result of his ambition …show more content…
Lady Macbeth is characterized as a forceful, ambitious lady who manipulates Macbeth effortlessly. She is immensely power-hungry, prepared to sacrifice her morals in order to obtain a title. "Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, /And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood". She manipulates Macbeth into killing Duncan because she has such a deep yearning for power. She plays on his machismo and bravery to influence his self-esteem. "When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man. "Lady Macbeth does all of this out of thirst for power; she knows she has the potential to control Macbeth, and if Macbeth becomes monarch, she will be able to rule the monarch and be Queen herself. Without Lady Macbeth's influence, Macbeth would not have slain Duncan, and the tragedy would not have occurred. Lady Macbeth brings forth the best in Macbeth, who is not a cold-blooded murderer without feelings. Despite his desire for the prophecy to come true and for him to become King, Macbeth lacks the zeal that his wife possesses to perform the murder. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that if he does not act on his passions, he will think of himself as a coward. Lady Macbeth is largely responsible for Macbeth's demise because of her greedy ambition, which she …show more content…
The witches impose prophecies on Macbeth; the witches motivate Macbeth to commit the murders because Macbeth trusts the prophecies and does not examine whether they are genuine or not. Macbeth also fails to see the unraveling of the witches' predictions when the wood of Beckham begins to move towards his castle, the spirits of Banquo and other ghosts like Banquo, and eventually when Macduff explains that he was born from women after being pulled from her womb. Macbeth ignores his shame and conscience, instead allowing his ambition to rule his actions. Because he knows his future is ruined and that his acts have repercussions, Macbeth's character begins to collapse, putting the drama in motion and leading him to his end. "All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be King hereafter! "Macbeth learns this revelation, but instead of waiting for fate or destiny to make him King, he takes events into his own hands. Although the witches foretell Macbeth's fate, it is ultimately Macbeth's free will that leads him to murder. The witches offered him opportunities and planted thoughts in his head, but it was up to him to carry them through. Without the three witches' help, Macbeth would never have slain Duncan. They are plainly evil and deceptive, and they gradually destroy his character since the
(1.7. 25-28). This shows that he doesn’t want to kill them, but he gives in to his intention and lets the witches' prophecies take control of his actions, which leads him to murder King Duncan, Banquo, and others. Lady Macbeth also shares some responsibility for the tragedy, since she encouraged Macbeth to go with his ambition and be a part of the murders. She acts
In conclusion, the combined effort of the three witches and Hecate led Macbeth to his destruction. The prophecies they provided were some of the factors that motivated Macbeth to commit crimes. Without their interference, Macbeth would have been unaware of his fate and the play would have turned out different.
She taunts him and pokes fun at how he is soft-hearted, and pushes him even further to the edge by comparing his inability to do what it takes to be successful to his inability to love her properly and crawl to the edges of the earth for her. By doing so, she sets off a fire in Macbeth that motivates him to go through with the act of murder. Ultimately, she is successful in persuading Macbeth to murder Duncan, which shows that she is a very controlling, manipulative, and quick-witted woman who can get what she wants. If Lady Macbeth did not persuade Macbeth to kill King Duncan, he would have never gone through with it; her persuasion was essentially the nail in the coffin to sending Macbeth on a moral downward spiral. However, Macbeth goes through with the plan to murder King Duncan not because he fully agreed with Lady Macbeth’s points, but in order to not appear as a coward in front of his wife.
The personality of Lady Macbeth is very untraditional for the time period. She takes on more of a masculine and dominant role in their relationship. Before Macbeth becomes king, he is an almost timid and easily provoked man. Lady Macbeth takes this as an opportunity to manipulate him into making power moves, which she was secretly behind them all. She knew he had a vision for murder but not a hand for it, so when the time came down to it she fell back into her manipulative standpoint, "You do unbend…
Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.
Lady Macbeth plans to invite king Duncan over for dinner, but really she is convincing Macbeth to murder him. She influences him to kill Duncan because he is the only one standing in the way of Macbeth becoming king. Lady Macbeth plans the killing but convinces Macbeth to do the dirty deed. Lastly, Lady Macbeth is one of the causes of Macbeth’s failure because she repeatedly questions Macbeth’s manhood until she persuades him to make a bad choice. “When you durst do it then you were a man” (1.7.53-58).
The witches put it into his mind that he will be king and Lady Macbeth helps him act on the ambition they instilled in him. By allowing his wife to plot the murder of King Duncan, he goes along and murders him in his bed. No matter his loyalties to the king, he allowed the witches and his wife to influence his decision on who to listen to: his wife or his conscience. He follows his wife’s plan, and murders the king, and the
Macbeth went from being a respected warrior to a murderous, tyrannical king. What dreadful events could have possibly occurred to have him fall so horribly from his honorable position? Throughout the play, Shakespeare displays many issues that occur due to events that Macbeth cannot control and how the former great warrior responds to these problems; however, Macbeth’s responses usually only make his situation worse than it was before. The main causes of Macbeth’s downfall have to do with uncontrollable forces, errors in his judgment, and tragic flaws in his character. Shakespeare also uses Macbeth as an example to display when one has too much confidence in themselves or others, one usually ends up betrayed or hurt.
Often times, people go through rises and downfalls in their lives that they themselves are responsible for. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, both main characters, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, himself, are responsible for the downfall of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy because she convinces and manipulates Macbeth into doing the deed. However, Shakespeare accomplishes in showing that Macbeth is more responsible for his own downfall than Lady Macbeth because he listens to the witches and follows his ambition rather than his conscience. To begin, Lady Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy because she convinces and manipulates Macbeth into doing the deed by insulting him when he changes his mind.
Macbeth even thinks that it’s because of the witches that everything has happened. “He curses the Witches for deceiving him,...” (Bradley 43). Macbeth's final encounter with the witches in Act 4, Scene 1, solidifies his belief in their power and ultimately leads to his downfall, as he is consumed by a false sense of security and becomes overconfident in his abilities. Overall, the witches' manipulations and prophecies are a constant presence in Macbeth's life, and their influence over him ultimately makes him a victim of his ambitious desires and the dark supernatural forces at play in the
At the end of the play, Macbeth’s ambition caused him to lose Lady Macbeth to suicide and to no longer have moral sense. Ambition led to Macbeth’s downfall because Lady Macbeth and the witches caused him to make brainless decisions that caused his collapse. Macbeth’s ambition led to his downfall because of Lady Macbeth's ambition. Lady Macbeth had
The witches appear to Macbeth and tell him prophecies in multiples of three. At the beginning of the play, he is told by the witches he will become king which ignites the ambition and corruption in his soul to kill Duncan. If the witches never told him this Macbeth would most likely be Thane of Cawdor and a follower of Duncan; however, this is not the case because of the witches. The next time Macbeth sees the witches he is told another 3 prophecies which ultimately lead to his death. The witches appear a few different times, and each time they influence Macbeth in some way and make him do something that corrupts him even further.
As soon as she heard Macbeth’s prophecy, she was willing to do anything to get him into the position of king. She was even willing to aid in the murder of innocent people who stood in the way of Macbeth’s ascension to the crown like, King Duncan. Her greed led to Macbeth’s downfall. When Macbeth stated that he was questioning his intentions to kill the king, she pushed him and assisted in the plotting. “We will proceed no further in this business. /
She insults him and calls him a coward while also questioning his manhood which makes Macbeth come to a realization that not killing the king is the way of a coward and he is motivated to carry out the plan and murder the king because of Lady Macbeth’s insults and speech that she gives him. By successfully persuading Macbeth into murdering the king this shows that Lady Macbeth is controlling towards people and she can be a very manipulative person. It shows that she is the type of person that gets things done by manipulating other people to do her dirty work for her. Lady Macbeth can simply achieve her own goals by getting into anyone’s head and turning their own conscience against them in, which is essentially what she did to her husband. Macbeth would have never went through with killing King Duncan if Lady Macbeth had never persuaded him because he really does have a soft heart and is good and honorable.
The witches did give his apparition but they didn 't tell him to kill the King and while murder passed Macbeth’s mind he never truly had the guts to go kill the King. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth had this whole plan and the confidence to execute it, she was the only one from everybody else that was actually willing to commit a crime for the throne. Her confidence and her ambitious personality convinces Macbeth and made him kill the King but even after he killed the kill he never really sure if he wanted to go this way and receive the power with doing a dastardly deed. Later the continuous support leads him to become heartless and made him oblivious to his downfall. Lady Macbeth’s techniques to convincing Macbeth and her greed and her ambitious personality lead Macbeth 's undoing and caused him to suffer through agony.