Essay about The Downfall of Macbeth

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the story of an ambitious royal turns into the followings of a murderous tyrant. The Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, is motivated by his fear that his deep desires will not come true, and his tyrant, gender role-breaking wife, Lady Macbeth, to kill off various successors to the throne. Macbeth is introduced as an ambitious heir to the the throne, but is quickly displayed as a raging king. In William E. Cain’s essay “Murderous Thinking in Macbeth”, he describes the relationship between the audience and Macbeth as “sympathetically connected.” Macbeth is seen as a vicious tyrant to the rest of the characters, but his deep desires are seen by the audience or readers. The audience is shown Macbeth’s guilt and remorse throughout the play, up until he kills Macduff’s family. Macbeth obtains the mindset of a power hungry, murderous tyrant when he kills Macduff’s family.

     In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Macbeth the main character Macbeth is driven from his status as a well respected warrior and lord of not one, but two Scottish regions to a dishonest, unloyal murderer. Macbeth gets caught in a web of lies and vile acts of murder in which he brings about his own demise. His criminal actions lead up to his tragic ending of life. ‘ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But bearlike I must fight the course.’ His great ambition and gullibility of the witches predictions are two of the biggest factors of his downfall;however, Lady Macbeth was probably the biggest influence in the whole tragedy.

The tragic downfall of Macbeth was not determined by one single cause. It was rather caused by a combination of three dark forces: supernatural, external, and internal. Supernatural forces are represented by the three witches and dark powers behind them. Lady Macbeth is an outer force that pushes Macbeth towards the bloody deeds. Macbeth's own ambition acts as deciding power in brining him to his downfall.

This shows the audience that Banquo believes that the witches are telling them simple truths to deceive them and influence them to the path of evil. It also gives the audience the impression that Macbeth is hungry for power and fortune and is willing to take evil routes. In this part of the scene Shakespeare uses stage craft to create suspense. Macbeth moves ‘Aside’ when he refers to the witches so the audience can hear his thoughts.

Macbeth’s downward spiral of events was created through his own free will. The witches did foretell his future but they never directly controlled his actions. The sisters did not cast a spell to make Macbeth go crazy. He was engulfed in his lust for power and his battle with his conscience. This led to his insomnia

"Macbeth" is a tragic play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600’s. It revolved around the character Macbeth and his urge to become king of Scotland. Macbeth had to do anything possible to become the king including murder, lying, and deception. However, Macbeth committed these evil deeds due to some influential people in his life. Between Macbeth’s wife persuading him to do anything to become king and the witches prophesying over him causes Macbeth to try and bury the past and control the future.

     The character Macbeth in the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth faces decisions that affect his morals. He begins as an innocent soul, dedicated to serve his kingdom and its king, Duncan. As time passes and opportunities present themselves combined with the deception of the evil witches, Macbeth begins his descent into madness. Macbeth’s innocence and loyalty are completely corrupted due to his over confidence, guilty conscience, and the inevitability of human nature. Macbeth looses sight of what is morally right to do in life because his logical choices are changed by these factors.

Initially, Macbeth is viewed as a brave and loyal soldier, with Duncan praising him by expressing that “More is thy due than more than all can pay” (1.4.21). At this point, he has not been influenced by the three witches. Yet, by Duncan implying his importance, Macbeth gains a sense of self-worth and this arouses power within. His clear desire to be titled Thane of Cawdor while then having a growing temptation to commit regicide clearly demonstrate the early stages of his corruption and forms a basis for utilizing illegitimate power.

At the first encountering of the three weird sisters by Macbeth, they present to Macbeth a foreshadow of his destiny by saying, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis!;/ All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane

At the beginning of the passage, Macbeth contains confidence because of the words of the witches. Macbeth states, "Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

William Shakespeare’s play entitled Macbeth is a bloody tragedy about ambition, evil, guilt and moral corruption. The story emphasizes a lot on the consequences or aftermath of the bad deeds that Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth do and the growing impact it has on them in turn. Lady Macbeth a woman driven by her assertiveness, boldness, strength and ambition for her husband could not escape the guilt that eventually caught up to her and destroyed her. In Act 5 scene 1, Lady Macbeth is sleep walking and goes insane due to the guilt and remorse that finally catches up to her. This scene is the most important because it changes the reader’s view on Lady Macbeth and Macbeth as characters and it also

Lady Macbeth? The driving force behind Macbeth’s downfall? Certainly not. Macbeth was completely and solely responsible for all the acts of great evil which were to lead to his downfall, and to even suggest the blame can be shifted on his wife is ludicrous.

The chaos begins when three witches appear to Macbeth and his buddy Banquo, and they proclaim, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! ...that shalt be king hereafter!” (I, iii, 50-51), which confuses Macbeth because the thane of Cawdor is still alive, and he thinks it impossible for him to become king. The witches also say

It was predestined that Macbeth would find the witches' words to be unavoidable. MacBeth was bound to believe the witches’ prophecy after which Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor. After seeing that this part of the prophecy came true, he truly believed that to be king was his rightful destiny. Macbeth may be fated to be king, but he decides how he will achieve it. Therefore, MacBeth is the one who chose for himself that this was his to be his future. He creates his own fate and misery when he is driven by the guilt of his actions. Therefore, though the witches’ manipulation of his future choices is valid, it was MacBeth who determined for himself that he would accomplish the prophecy by taking matters into his own hands. If he truly believed in the witches’ prophecy, deciding with complete faith that fate would act, then he would not have felt so rushed to go as far as killing the king.

"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!" (I.iii.49-51)