The downfall of a great man to a paranoid, murderous, monster is a sad sight to see in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Macbeth is too ambitious to settle as just the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor; he needs to be king, and the only way to do that is by committing despicable deeds. The witches are a key component of Macbeth's demise. They crave mischief and evil and they plant the ideas into Macbeth's head which send him on his killing spree. Therefore the witches are the most important factor of Macbeth's downfall. They control the lives and actions of the characters through their evil powers and play mind games on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible because she calls Macbeth a woman and, more subtly than the witches, messes with …show more content…
Lady Macbeth hopes that Macbeth will fulfill his ambitions and make her queen. As well as Macbeth, she too is very ambitious and hopes for things of her own in her life as queen. She uses Macbeth to kill Duncan so that he can become king and she can become queen. She mocks Macbeth by calling him a coward and a woman, but the real cowardly act Macbeth commits was listening to his wife and murdering the king in his sleep. This deceitful woman convinces Macbeth that she will help him kill Duncan but she keeps changing her story. First she says that she is going to plunge the knife into Duncan along with Macbeth. Then, she says she will be there next to him, and then finally she backed out completely because she claims the king looks like her father while he is sleeping. After the murders that she causes, Lady Macbeth is made crazy by her guilt. Even though she persuades Macbeth to carry out the murder, she regrets it deeply because it makes her whole life spiral out of control. Just as Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to kill the king, Lady Macbeth is indirectly persuaded to convince Macbeth. The witches take control of her in order to carry out the rest of their plan. Lady Macbeth in some cases mimics the witches and this insinuates that she may be under their control. When Lady Macbeth receives the letter from Macbeth she states wants to go through with the plan to kill the king but she …show more content…
The witches are able to manipulate Macbeths ambition, control his and his wife's actions, and make him too confident going into his final battle. The witches tell Macbeth many things that he believes and completely trusts. They tell him that he will be Thane of Cawdor and King, they tell him he will not be killed until Birnam wood moves, he will be killed by a man not born of a woman, to fear Macduff, and several others. Everything the witches tell Macbeth does end up being true but that is because they make their prophecies come true. The witches manipulate everybody to get what they want. Once they plant the idea in Macbeth's already ambitious mind all they need is for Lady Macbeth to do a little persuading. The witches tell Macbeth that he can not be killed by the average man so when the battle comes he has no fear and is reckless until he finds out what is different about Macduff (Hacht). Even in his final moments Macbeth never argues the fate of the witches; Macbeth knows he will be killed by Macduff but fights him anyway and dies. The witches curse the sailor the same way they curse Lady Macbeth. She is sleepless, and Macbeth fears sleep as well because he killed the king in his sleep. This is an example of the magic powers of the witches and how they disrupt Macbeth and his wife. By the time of the battle he has recently lost his wife, because she commits suicide, is sleep deprived, and
She eventually succeeds in convincing her husband to assassinate King Duncan. The reason being why Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to kill King Duncan is because her ambition is to become a queen and her husband a king. She gained her ambition when she receives a letter from Macbeth about the Witches prophecy, the letter quoted, “who all-hailed me ‘Thane of Cawdor’…and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail, king that shalt be!” , this denotes the impact of the letter which transformed Lady Macbeth to a negative figure. Coming to the near end of the tragedy play Lady Macbeth dies, she dies off stage this indicates how insignificant she has become to Macbeth.
When Macbeth first learns of his prophecy of becoming King of Scotland, he sends a letter to Lady Macbeth, who immediately thinks of the quickest way to get Macbeth onto the throne. She calls on the dark spirits to help her plan the murder of King Duncan and hopes that the darkness can be in her. She wishes so that she may be able to commit the murder with her husband and be free of the guilt afterwards. Lady Macbeth never doubts these murderous thoughts, showing that she is ambitious and power-hungry. She is also characterized as clever when she persuades Macbeth into committing the murder when he is unsure of doing the deed. Her strong-willed mind is also shown when she takes the daggers from Macbeth, who is too shaken up by what he had done, and she puts them back in Duncan’s chambers. After the murder, Lady Macbeth seems the least guilty of the two, and she can feel as if nothing has happened. Her character starts to change, however, when she feels unhappy in her position as queen. She starts to feel the regrets of killing King Duncan, and she begins to doubt herself. Lady Macbeth soon feels so guilty that she sleepwalks, talking in her sleep about her and her husband’s horrible deeds. This takes away from her powerful characterization in the beginning. Lady Macbeth goes from being a ruthless, dark woman to a guilt-burdened sleepwalker with little
In Macbeth, the witches use foreshadowing, characterization, and the characters in Macbeth use allusions. The witches play a large part in the play. They lead Macbeth to kill the king, and they lead to his demise. They are the main factor that moves the play along as well as help Macbeth use his tragic flaw of overconfidence. Macbeth believes everything that the witches tell him and he does not think for one moment that the witches might be telling him something else that would be hidden in the predictions. They were the reason that Macbeth decided to kill the king, and the reason why he was so paranoid with everyone. He killed his best friend all because the witches told him that Banquo will be father to a line of kings. Macbeth went on and
In spite of this they decide to play create a false sense of security with Macbeth, “security is mortals’ chiefest enemy”. To do this they made the aspirations that Macbeth sees, sound like nothing can hurt, kill or dethrone him, “none of woman born can harm Macbeth”. The witches are responsible for Macbeth’s downfall because they make it seem that he cannot be killed by anything, thus enhancing his sense of security. This heightened sense of invincibility causes Macbeth to kill MacDuff’s family, and then fight with the thought that no one can hurt him. Macbeth is not totally responsible for his downfall, the witches twisting of words cause Macbeth to misinterpret the message, which causes his eventual death.
A character’s tragic downfall is often influenced by other characters, but this is not the case in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth. Macbeth conforms to the conditions of a tragic hero because in the beginning of the play, Macbeth is an honourable and trustworthy nobleman to King Duncan and all of Scotland. However, throughout the play, Macbeth commits evil deeds such betrayal, treason, and murder solely because of his ambitions to remain in power. Macbeth murders others upon hearing the witches’ prophecies and even proceeds to return to them to remain in power. Macbeth is influenced and manipulated by his wife Lady Macbeth and The Witches, but he is ultimately responsible for his own tragic downfall. Macbeth’s tragic downfall is caused by his ‘vaulting ambition’ to become king. Thus, Macbeth has no one but his ruthless, cruel, and greedy self to blame for his own tragic downfall.
To begin, the witches are the catalyst to Macbeth’s crimes because the convince him that he will become king. Macbeth first meets the witches while returning from a gruesome battle and it is safe to say that they greet him with some audacious titles. They initially greet him as the Thane of Glamis and the Thane of Cawdor, but it is their final greeting which has the greatest effect on Macbeth. The witches hail Macbeth as someone “that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.53). This ignites a fire inside Macbeth, who is an immensely ambitious person. He begins to fantasize about the luxurious life he would have if he were the king of Scotland and he suddenly has the temptation to kill King Duncan. Although the witches’ prediction is favourable, Macbeth has no reason to believe them, at least until one of their other predictions turns out to be true. This
Witches are often the scapegoat for humans when something goes wrong as the malevolence of these witches can turn loyal subjects into mercurial rulers. Macbeth is one of these instances as he is manipulated irrevocably by the witches and is also pressured by his wife to murder the king. The Macbeths soon receive the crown, but continually murder their friends in hopes of securing their title longer. Karma soon arrives and Lady Macbeth is haunted by their actions to the point where she kills herself. Macbeth is not left without repercussions either as his tyrant ruling is met with a fatal end when the rebels battle him for the crown.
Bradt Lopez r/w #5 p:7 I'm stories, there are going to be people that you blame for the bad things that happen in the story. Usually every story has someone that causes the negative things to happen throughout the plot. There might now be, because it is just a happy story but most due. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, there isn't a person that you can blame for, for the downfall of Macbeth. There are multiple people that caused Macbeth to become the monster that he did.
The witches manipulate Macbeth into becoming a murdering, power-hungry evil being, by telling him, “someday you’ll be king.” “I'll drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid. Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.” (I,i) The witches use the two other prophecies to get in the mind of Macbeth. They say that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor, and Banquo will be the father of future generations of kings. Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.They give Macbeth a false sense of security with the visions they perceive. These influential women are the ones that instill the idea of murdering the king. Macbeth lets greed get the best of him. The witches sway Macbeth into killing Duncan for the throne. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (I,i) The Witches intend to turn Macbeth from his good ways, into something evil. As the only character that understands their cruelty, the witches want Macbeth dead. The witches give Macbeth the temptation to kill the king by telling him their prophecies. In the end,
In Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 56-57, "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 orchestrates Macbeth’s self-esteem by taunting his manliness when Macbeth doesn’t plan on following through with her plan. Moments later, she tells him how he should act and what he needs to do, in Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 71-75, “When Duncan is asleep...look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” She successfully augments Macbeth’s ambition and exhorts him to commit atrocities. After Duncan’s murder, Macbeth no longer values Lady Macbeth’s opinions- his actions are rash and selfish because they are made promptly. Interaction between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth falters since Macbeth is now swept up with erasing his tracks. The two perish as individuals- Macbeth is miserable with guilt caused by cold- blooded Lady Macbeth’s attribution of influence and plan. But instead of comforting her husband and talking him out of murdering more people, Lady Macbeth only gives one feeble attempt.
laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none born of woman / Shall harm Macbeth."
But the witches who could supposedly foretell the future, add temptation, and influence Macbeth. They had told Macbeth that he would be King he became impatient and tried to hurry it as quickly as he could. But they cannot control his destiny. Macbeth creates his own misery when he is driven by his own sense of guilt. This causes him to become insecure as to the reasons for his actions, which in turn causes him to commit more murders. The witches offer great enticement, but it is in the end, each individual’s decision to fall for the temptation, or to be strong enough to resist their captivation. The three Witches are only responsible for the introduction of these ideas and for further forming ideas in Macbeth head, but they are not responsible for his actions throughout the play.
The tragedy of Macbeth comes about because of a single event in his life. If that one moment, the meeting with the witches on the heath, had not happened then Macbeth would no doubt have gone on to be a loyal and respected subject of King Duncan and, later, King Malcolm. However, the meeting did happen and the powerful force of ambition was unleashed within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is the combination of these two factors, the meeting with the witches and Macbeth's own inner demons, that lead to tragedy, and make the play 'terrifying' in the Aristotelian sense.
Lady Macbeth has the power over her husband to persuade him into doing anything she requests. She manipulates Macbeth with incredible efficiency by overruling all of his thoughts and changing his perspective on the present. Even though the many tasks that need to be completed are difficult to understand why they need to be done, Lady Macbeth will always convince Macbeth to do it. Her husband often tells her that she has a “masculine soul” which is obvious due to her murderous and envious actions. When the time came to kill king Duncan, Macbeth believes that his wife has gone insane and tells her that the crime they were about to commit was a horrible idea. As a result of his questioning, Lady Macbeth says that executing the crime will show his loyalty to her. On the night of the assassination Lady Macbeth watched the guards of the castle become drunk and unaware of what was going on. Lady Macbeth sent her husband into the castle to kill King Duncan. The married couple fled the scene leaving the guards covered in the evidence. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are stained with the blood of their victims and the feeling of guilt in their stomach.
The witches are partly to blame for Macbeth's downfall by equivocation and misleading information. Near the beginning of the play, the witches say that Macbeth "shalt be king hereafter", foretelling what happens in the play. In this scene,