Explain Why The Witches Are Responsible For The Downfall Of Macbeth

Alongside his wife’s fiendish greed is how influenceable Macbeth truly was, dooming him from the very start. His morals change rapidly throughout the play, starting as a heroic soldier and ending as a treasonous tyrant. Swayed easily by the witches and his wife, Macbeth’s desperation to prove himself and control his fate transform into a numbing sense of entitlement. Macbeth becomes blind to his arrogance- and the subsequent consequences. When Macbeth first spoke to the witches, he is horrified by violent thoughts and vows that “if chance have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir”, intending to let whatever happens to happen. Instead, after speaking to his wife Macbeth decides to take fate into his own hands, killing King Duncan and launching himself towards madness. Perhaps with a stronger sense of self Macbeth would have stood up to his wife, or realized taking advice from witches was unwise. Ironically Macbeth only starts making his OWN decisions out of paranoia of losing the throne, a situation he would not have been put in should he have made wiser decisions from the very beginning. In the same token, after getting a taste of power both Macbeth and his wife are

Macbeth murders many to gain power. He causes the suffering of families and murders former friends. The violence starts with the murder of the king, Duncan, who’d trusted and honored Macbeth; Macbeth kills him to gain the position of king. Duncan’s death is the catalyst; Macbeth subsequently begins to use violence as a regular way to attain power. He murders his former friend, Banquo, refusing to accept that Banquo’s sons will be kings as prophesized by the witches. He says in regard to the prophecy, “Rather than so, come fate into the list, / And champion me to th' utterance.” Instead of accepting fate, he challenges the prophecy and orders Banquo’s death. His final homicide is the massacre of Lord Macduff’s family. When Macduff hears of the brutal slaughter, he cries, “That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on, / And would not take their

The witches cannot be blamed, nor Lady Macbeth, for Macbeth himself acting on his ambition and making his desires become reality. When the witches tell Macbeth of his future, his first thought is how murdering Duncan would be "fantastical". This shows that Macbeth is prepared to kill simply to climb the hierarchy. Although the witches give predictions and Lady Macbeth persuades him, neither have actual control over Macbeth. He recognises that he is "so far" in blood but instead of changing his ways, he decides that it would be "tedious" and pointless. He realises after killing many people, he can never go back to the man he was before. His ambition continues to drive him forward and he embraces evil. Macbeth chooses not to tell his wife about his plans and slowly begins to cut off connection to her. Even when she dies, he shows little remorse by saying "she should have died hereafter". This demonstrates that he has little human emotion left. By the end of the play, Macbeth has fallen from a hero to a

In Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth is seen to be the grounds of his own downfall. Macbeth’s actions bring upon his downfall, because it is he who eventually chose to kill Banquo and MacDuff’s family. These actions were due to his ambitious nature. Lady Macbeth is also to blame for her husband’s demise because she is the one who originally pushed Macbeth into killing Duncan; her actions cause Macbeth to eventually meet his own death. Lady Macbeth is not the only factor that cause Macbeth’s downfall. The three witches are also responsible because they heighten Macbeth’s confidence and put the idea that he cannot be killed by anything. Macbeth’s ambitious nature

Throughout the play Macbeth falls deeper and deeper into insanity until he breaks while losing all conscious and traces of any good. What caused this descent? Well, he had influences such as the witches and his wife, but I don’t believe they were the main cause. I believe that Macbeth caused his own downfall. He had his ambitions too elevated and he was gullible enough to listen to the other bad influences around him. He could have just ignored the witches like Banquo did. Even if he did not ignore them, he still could have said no to his wife. Instead, he took the easy way to his dreams and tried to fix things himself. Unfortunately, his ambition for more and lust for power blinded him. He might have gained power, but in the end he lost everything. He lost his soul, which is the worst thing one has to lose. Macbeth teaches us a lesson on how not to give in to the lust for power. It’s ok to dream, but if you let your ambitions blind you to where you can’t see what is right and wrong anymore then you are losing everything. If the line between right and wrong is blurred then do not follow that dream. Instead, get into God’s word and pray about it. If your dream is in God’s plan for you then he will make it happen in his time. If God tells you it is not a good idea, then don’t do it. If you are patient and wait for Gods will then things will work out. Don’t take the easy way out like Macbeth did.

Macbeth’s desire to become king and take the crown from King Duncan ends up hurting him more than helping him. Initially, Macbeth was against murdering King Duncan and didn't think he could do that to his very own king. Lady Macbeth believes that her husband will not go through with his plan however he does end up killing him. She states “Yet I do fear thy nature; It is too full of of the milk of human kindness. As he kills the King he starts to see things like the floating dagger and that seems to make him extremely

The choices that Macbeth makes during his pursuit for power ultimately result in his descent into madness. This all begins when he meets the witches at the beginning of the play. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.51-53). By choosing to believe what the witches preach, Macbeth takes destiny into his own hands. Every decision he makes from this point on is so that he can take over the kingship and retain this position. The witches drive Macbeth into creating his own destiny by planting the idea that he is going to be the king into his head. Once he gets it in his head that he is going to be the king, he will stop at nothing to make it happen. After Macbeth has killed King Duncan and become the king, he still has the threat of Banquo’s line of kings looming around him. Even though Banquo is one of Macbeth’s friends he decides Banquo needs to be killed. Macbeth is so controlling of his own destiny that he doesn’t want to leave anything up to chance. He won’t leave his fate in the hands of anyone else. He decides that he is going to kill people in order to solidify his kingship. “So is he mine (enemy), and in such bloody distance that every minute of his being thrusts against my near’st of life.” (3.1.132-234).

Macbeth tells the story of a man named Macbeth and his struggle for power. He and his friend Banquo are told by three witches that Macbeth will become King and Banquo’s children will become king as well. Macbeth, content with his prophecy, goes home to tell his wife. Lady Macbeth, his wife, tells him that he should just go kill the king and take control of Scotland on his own. Hungry for power, he kills King Duncan, frames Duncan’s chamberlains for the murder, and takes his throne. He then feels threatened by the others in line for King, so he tries to kill banquo and his son. Banquo is killed but his son escapes. Macbeth continues to indulge in murdering people who are a threat to his tyranny.

He becomes so completely enveloped with the idea of growing in power that he doesn’t come to the realization that everything he is doing is harming the lives of other people. Macbeth simply thinks of himself whereas before he began his mental deterioration, he thought of his country over all else. Macbeth went to the war in order to save his people and when he returned, he was deemed a higher rank in the nobility. This shows just how much the people in his kingdom appreciated him and everything he did for their society. However, once Macbeth begins to kill to grow in rank and stay there, his personality completely changes for the worse.

    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

After Macbeth learns that he will become king once Duncan passes, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Lady Macbeth encourages him to murder Duncan. Macbeth goes forward with the plan, but deals with the guilt afterwards. This leaves him feeling insecure about his position as king, and he hires murderers to kill his old friend Duncan. Overtaken by his own greed and ambition, he murders Macduff’s family.

This killing has opened up an evil inside of him that causes him to want to kill even more and to gain power until it destroys him. Macbeth will eventually run out of power to ensue, and it will make him self implode. Macbeth soon wants to kill even more people, and his life will revolve around gaining power by ending life. He has sold his soul to the devil, and now there is no looking back: “and mine eternal jewel, Given to the common enemy of man” (Macbeth Act 3 Sc 1 li. 71-72).

He will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means killing innocent people. Macbeth continuously makes the wrong decisions, and he doesn't think he needs to pay the consequences for the terrible outcomes. Macbeth says, “Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”, (2.1.42-43). Macbeth admits murdering many different people in this line, and everyone in their right mind knows that killing others is bad. Therefor, Macbeth purposefully does wrong to others, just to try and gain power for

Macbeth had a lot of tough choices to make. He had to make choices that would change his life forever. After he became king he started losing people who liked him. Soon everyone was against him. Macbeth went from a fierce, trusted warrior to a lying traitor . He was killed by Macduff who wasn't born from a

Naturalist and essayist John Burroughs once said, “A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame someone else.” Blaming somebody else other than the person who made a mistake does no good for anybody. If somebody makes a mistake, they should only blame themselves. Readers of Shakespeare’s Macbeth might believe the three witches are responsible for Macbeth’s downfall even though they are not guilty. They only implant the idea of being a king in Macbeth’s head. When Macbeth visits the witches for a second time, they show him visions pushing him along the fate he already chose. The witches do not advise him to kill his king Duncan, his fellow soldier Banquo or Macduff’s entire household; wife, servants, and children,