Why Macbeth Caused His Own Downfall Macbeth is ultimately responsible for his own downfall. He let his ambition control him, he didn’t think of the consequences to his actions, and he gave in and listened to Lady Macbeth and the witches. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was noble and brave, but as the tragedy goes on he becomes a murderous tyrant. He becomes his own worst enemy that lead to his demise. Macbeth constantly acts on an impulse and does not think of the repercussions to his actions. For example, after he kills King Duncan, he decides, on a whim, that the guards must go too. Macbeth tries to confess his murderous crime by saying, “O, yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them” (II.iii.100-101). Macbeth trepidation makes him abandon the plan, made by Lady Macbeth, and act irrationally. He does not take a moment to stop and think that killing the guards will lead people to think that he, himself, might have murdered Duncan. Macbeths lack of thought in this situation caused him to become a suspect. Soon after that, Macbeth spontaneously commits another murder; that of his best friend Banquo. Banquo and …show more content…
Macbeth allows his wife to manipulate him and he allows himself to be bossed around my her. Instead of listening to his own mind, which at first told him not to do murderous things, he allowed himself to listen to the witches and Lady Macbeth. The three witches have a similar effect on Macbeth as Lady Macbeth did. The witches approach Macbeth and explain all that he was going to become. They told him that he, the Thane of Glamis, would become the Thane of Cawdor, and eventually the King of Scotland. They were trying to lure Macbeth into doing horrible things, and Macbeth let their prophesies be a justification to his murderous deeds. Without Lady Macbeth convincing Macbeth, the three witches putting ideas in his mind, Macbeths downfall might have not
The great and admired Macbeth, turns everything for the worst. Macbeth is at fault for his downfall and the murder of King Duncan. With that being said he made his own decisions throughout the play and even though there were other characters who could be to blame for “influencing” Macbeth, he still made his own choices which lead to his downfall.
I believe that regardless of any external influences or manipulations from parties around Macbeth, he is responsible for his own downfall. If he was truly benevolent at his core, the words and pressures of others’ in the story would be unable to change his path towards such wicked ways. Macbeth must have possessed a fatal flaw that caused his own demise. I do not believe that he was a good person driven to evil acts solely via external manipulations. Nonetheless, there were many factors that aided in the breakdown of Macbeth. He was not only an extremely ambitious and somewhat naïve individual; he was also subject to the influences of witches, his wife, and the societal allures of power and kingship.
The first reason Macbeth is responsible for his own downfall is because of his ambition, which is normally a good thing except in this case. From there he encounters the witches and hears their prophecies that he will become king, that no man born of woman can defeat him, and that he will not be vanquished until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. This news makes him very power hungry, in which his desire to be king is so powerful that he is willing to do anything to make it happen. He becomes very ruthless and anyone that poses any kind of threat he takes care of, which causes him to become very disconnected from the real world and how he used to be.
Without a doubt, Macbeth is to blame for his own downfall due to his ignorance of Lady Macbeth and the witches’ manipulations, paranoia of losing the throne, and his vaulting ambition. Firstly, Macbeth is ultimately responsible for his failure because he was unaware of his surroundings and did not understand that he was being manipulated by Lady Macbeth and the witches. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is first manipulated by his cold-hearted wife Lady Macbeth who wants to kill King Duncan so that she can become the Queen of Scotland. “What beast was’t then / That made you break this enterprise to me?
There are many notable causes for the downfall of Macbeth, including the witches' prophecies, Lady Macbeth's manipulation, and Macbeth's own ambition and greed. By planting ideas in Macbeth's mind, the witches' prophecies led him down a path of destruction and violence. Additionally, throughout the play, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth and feeds his ambition, which had a significant impact on Macbeth's downfall. Although it is undeniably true that external forces played a major role in Macbeth's downfall, in the end, Macbeth's own actions proved to be the cause of his downfall, showing that he was ultimately responsible for it.
What drove Macbeth to ruin? Was it greed? Was it his desire for power over the entire kingdom? Or did he in fact suffer from the mental illness identified today as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The symptoms shown by Macbeth include his need for perfection, his need to be in control, and the fact that he caused great harm and death to others.
Lastly, we find Macbeth himself as the ultimate protagonist that causes his own demise. In the beginning of the play Macbeth is recognised because of his bravery and courage during the Scottish battle. A battle where he was awarded for murder and ironically that was his downfall in the end. Because of his already present power craving and ambitions the prophecy from the witches proved to be the confirmation he needed to put his plan in motion, no matter the costs. As mentioned before equivocation takes place with the target being Macbeth.
William Shakespeare writes Macbeth, a tragedy, for King James I of England in the 1600’s, about Macbeth who is a tragic hero, meaning he possesses a tragic flaw that will lead to his downfall. He holds a high position of Thane of Glamis and the trust of King Duncan, the current king of Scotland. Three witches tell him a prophecy that alludes he will become King of Scotland in the future. Killing his way to the throne, Macbeth becomes a tyrant and lives his life under endless guilt and paranoia. Macbeth is accountable for his own tragic downfall due to his uncontrollable ambition, disregard of his own judgment and continuous guilt.
The witches play a key role in the play by setting the theme. They tell Macbeth the procholey and gain his trust. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to act upon their saying and perform the evil deeds, that he later on does. He is responsible for his own downfall, because in the end, it was his decision to question himself, “Am I doing the right thing?”. If he had questioned his thoughts after his encounter with the witches, he would have had a much different outcome because he would have asked himself “Am I doing the right thing by trusting these strangers. He allows himself to be manipulated by his wife, but in that moment if he had asked himself “Am I doing the right thing by allowing my wife to persuade me to my own grave”, he definitely would have had a different outcome. In conclusion, Macbeth is responsible for his own downfall with the influence of the witches and Lady
I have always believed that everyone chooses their own destiny & that no one can make you do anything you do not want to do. For this reason, I consider Macbeth to be the maker of his own demise due to his ambitious ways and lack of courage. However, I do not ignore that both the witches and Lady Macbeth did influence Macbeth’s decisions at first. Nevertheless, the choice of killing the King, his best friend and MacDuff’s entire family was ultimately his.
People that have ambition are often the ones that experience the downfalls that come with these endeavors. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the author portrays a variety of conflicts that characters come across as a result of their aspirations. To begin, Macbeth depicts dangers that come with ambition. Evidently, his aspiration to become King leads him to his downfall.
For that reason, he began to kill everyone and anyone that stood in his way. After having Banquo murdered, Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at a feast and begins to have a panic attack. The guilt of taking away a multitude of lives had finally begun to catch up with him. Lady Macbeth was also tormented by guilt, which lead her to sleepwalking and then killing herself. It was both the ambitions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth that contributed to their ultimate
The Causes of Macbeth’s Downfall How far would you go to fulfill your desire? Macbeth, a play written by the great William Shakespeare in the seventeenth century, was a tale that answered that very question. It reached the top ten list of plays written by Shakespeare for that very reason. This play truly demonstrated just how far one’s lust for power would change a man. This man’s own ambition lead to his premature downfall.
Macbeth's internal combination of ambition and passivity create his susceptibility to the witch's prophecies and allow him to commit murderous deeds, but his unwillingness to take action-and to do evil-create his internal conflict that ultimately leads to his downfall. Although Lady Macbeth tries to goad Macbeth into action, it is Macbeth's character flaw that causes him to take action. At first Macbeth is unwilling to murder Duncan, citing his loyalty to Duncan
The witches were the very first factor in Macbeth’s progression to becoming a power hungry and bloodthirsty character. Their speech was always laced with a hint of truth but mostly false hope as they were creatures of the supernatural. Their half prophecies played Macbeth like a puppet, constantly trying to live by their words, though they were just illusions to make his life look good, through a mirage of carefully planned schemes. Looking back at the opening of the play, Macbeth was portrayed as “brave”, as he, Banquo and his army had just won a