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Macbeth's Downfall

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In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title character’s downfall is brought about by his failed attempts to change fate throughout the play by committing his three great crimes are due to his hubris and desire to control and maintain his kingship. Killing King Duncan as the stepping stones to obtaining power and making the witch’s prophecy he would become king true, leading to the downfall of his moral conscience, hiring murders to kill Banquo and Fleance out of Macbeth’s ambition to keep kingship leading to his mind deteriorating with hallucinations, and killing Macduff’s family out of rage causes a war against Macbeth, leading him to his death and the witches’ deception of Macbeth’s fate causes the downfall of his character.
Firstly, Macbeth’s …show more content…

“The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step/On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap,/For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;/Let not light see my black and deep desires.” (1.4.55-58) Macbeth realizes that his thoughts of potentially taking over the throne with evil and deep desires is morally wrong, but because of the witches’ prophecy that he will become Thane of Cawdor and soon king, Macbeth will do anything as far as changing fate by killing Duncan in order for him to achieve the power of king. The killing of Duncan is the first look on how his failed attempts to change fate lead to his downfall because of how he is letting the forces and nature of evil make the decisions for him in the sense to gain power. Macbeth is not relying on his conscience to make the decisions for him, but to let the influence of others to do so. This is also proved when Macbeth says “Each corporal agent to this …show more content…

He will kill his family out of revenge and his instincts of Macduff’s betrayal. “The firstling of my heart shall be/The firstlings of my hand.” (4.1.163-164) Macbeth at this point in the play has completely lost his sense of morality, thus saying that his first instincts that comes to mind is the decision he will make, thinking that he is invincible after the witches’ apparitions, leading to his sense of downfall as a brave and wise solider that was first thought of him, and letting the evil nature to control his mind and make the decisions and actions for him. This sense of the evil nature affects him by making the decision that eventually is the death of Macbeth when the people who left Scotland rallied a war against Macbeth to reclaim Scotland from him. Macbeth realizes that his downfall was brought by the witches’ deceptions of the fortunes and apparitions when he says “I pull in resolution, and begin /To doubt the equivocation of the fiend.” (5.5.47-48) the use of the witches’ language through equivocation put a deceiving mask on how Macbeth’s fate was planned out if he was to become king. Macbeth desired for power so much that he let his instincts get to him killing Macduff’s family out of revenge when the third apparition said “The power of man, for none of woman born/Shall harm Macbeth.” (4.1.87-88) he let his instincts and his desires take the best of him thinking he

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