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Macbeth's Downfall

Good Essays

Macbeth, written by the famous author, William Shakespeare, is a play incorporates the story of a tragic hero, Macbeth, who was initially good and was later influenced and corrupted by the events and characters surrounding him. The story of Macbeth is not just a story of a ruthless and ambitious murderer. It’s a story of a hero turning into a devil. In order to better understand the story, one has to be aware of the transition Macbeth made and how he was able to change from a hero who saved Scotland into a ruthless monster resulting in his demise and at last tragic end. The three witches’ prophecies and Lady Macbeth’s evil mind, together with Macbeth’s own weakness were the reasons that led to his downfall. He realizes his flaw too late …show more content…

The three witches in the tragedy Macbeth are introduced right at the beginning of the play. They recount to Macbeth three prophecies that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis and then become King. These prophecies introduced Macbeth to ideas of greatness; they were full of temptations, and influenced Macbeth. The witches’ prophecies were always dominating Macbeth’s decisions. He was first tempted by the prophecies and thus, killed the king. He was then influenced by the prophecies and killed Banquo and tried to kill Banquo’s son. He was again dominated by those prophecies and didn’t care about any other potential dangers he might encounter. He was told that the only person that could kill him was one who wasn’t born from a woman’s womb. This prophecy made him bold and careless which led …show more content…

She is a woman of strong will who is ambitious for herself and astute enough to recognize her husband's strengths and weaknesses, and ruthless enough to exploit them. She recognizes the essential good in him, and feels that, without her, he will never win the Crown. She is an ambitious woman and Macbeth seemed like a puppet in front her. She had always wanted more power than anything, and when she saw an opportunity (Macbeth’s letter to her including the witches’ prophecies), she took the chance and created a master plan of killing Duncan and seizing power. Macbeth looked like nothing more than a puppet in this plan. The hero who once saved Scotland was now manipulated to do the devil’s deeds. Lady Macbeth was also very intelligent in which she always knew the proper words to say and this influenced Macbeth a lot in his decision makings. She once said “and you shall put/This night’s great business into my dispatch”(I.v.66-67), which proves that she was leading Macbeth into believing that he would have no physical role in the murder of the king. Lady Macbeth thought this strategy will work because she described Macbeth as a man who "wouldst not play false/And yet would wrongly win”(I.v.20-21). She greatly influenced Macbeth and that made her one of the greatest factor to corrupt

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