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How Responsible Is Macbeth For His Demise?

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How responsible is Macbeth for his demise? Macbeth is a play rife with tragedy. Written by William Shakespeare most probably in the year 1606, the play was very loosely based on somewhat true events. The play focuses on Macbeth’s rise to power, and then his subsequent demise shortly thereafter. Macbeth's ambitions were too big, and the choices that he made were the wrong ones. If he had never chosen to kill the King, then he would not have been killed in return. And while prophecies were made that predicted what would happen, Macbeth was the one that set them into motion, and he was the only one responsible for his own death. Firstly, he put too much stock into what the witches were saying. He was told by the three witches that he would …show more content…

(1.3.63-68). It shows how, after having the former Thane killed, the King tells Ross and Angus to tell Macbeth that he was named the Thane of Cawdor. The trouble with Macbeth believing the witches so much is that he absolutely believed that he would have to become King, so he did everything he could to make it happen. If Macbeth had decided that what the witches were telling him was not the complete truth then none of the other events would have been set into motion. The choices that Macbeth made resulted in the death of many characters, including himself. And while Macbeth’s ambitions were unquestionably big and a major part of the reason that he set out to become King in the first place, it is most likely that the witches were the catalyst that set off the ensuing events in the rest of the play The second reason that he was responsible, was that he let himself be goaded into killing the King by his wife, Lady Macbeth. While she was his wife, surely Macbeth would have been able to resist the temptation to kill the King, especially if he was as good of a man as people thought that he was. Macbeth lets himself be persuaded far too easily by his wife. All she really had to was calling him a coward and then he gave …show more content…

Macbeth is glad to hear this and even gladder when he hears the following because he thinks that it is not possible: Third Apparition: … Macbeth shall never be vanquish’d be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dusinane Hill Shall come against him. (4.1.89-91) By the end of the play Macbeth had become to cocky about his skills and what the apparitions told him. When he meets Macduff at the end of the play, instead of running away like he should have he taunts Macduff about the fact that he can not kill him. That is until Macduff says this: Macduff: Despair thy charm, And let the angel who thou still hast served Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb Untimely ripp’d. (5.8.14-16) This basically means that Macduff was born prematurely and that it had to be done by a Caesarian Section, which was most likely done by a man. So, essentially, Macduff was not born of a woman but a

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