Who Is Ultimately Responsible for the Tragedy of Mackbeth

Macbeth is a heroic character at the beginning of this play "unseaming men from the nave to the chops." He has much potential as a warrior, and has great love and respect for his country. Coming back from battle one day, he is greeted by three witches, who are known to have great and terrible powers to foresee the future. They meet him with predictions when they greet him as

Macbeth's destiny and his lust for power, confirmed by the Three Witches and Lady Macbeth, leads to destruction. Every act that Macbeth commits effects the kingdom as a whole. Macbeth's indecisiveness and his understanding of success cause this destruction. This lust for power leads Macbeth, as it would all men, to an evil that exist in everyone. It is his destiny to fail.

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy about a war hero named Macbeth, who follows his ambition with evil and who is repaid with evil. He is responsible for his own demise although only to a certain extent. There were many other factors that contributed to the tragic that could have been avoided - for example how the witches’ predictions are responsible for influencing Macbeth’s thoughts although ultimately no one told Macbeth to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth was also a very influential character which manipulated Macbeth into doing bad deeds however he is responsible for putting power into the hands of Lady Macbeth and letting her influence him. Finally, Macbeth acknowledges his guilt of wrongdoing and is thereby responsible for his

At this point in the novel Macbeth is using the witches as a guideline to his life. The apparition that he cannot be harmed by anyone born of woman creates a false sense of security within himself. Even at this point, Macbeth still has a choice of whether or not to believe the witches. The weird sisters have not put any spell on him; they have just filled his greedy mind with a sense of security and power for kingship.

The second reason that he was responsible, was that he let himself be goaded into killing the King by his wife, Lady Macbeth. While she was his wife, surely Macbeth would have been able to resist the temptation to kill the King, especially if he was as good of a man as people thought that he was. Macbeth lets himself be persuaded far too easily by his wife. All she really had to was calling him a coward and then he gave

Lady Macbeth is the one who instigates most of the mischief in the play. Near the start of the play, we know that Lady Macbeth wants to be queen, and it is evident that her ambition for her husband to become queen is the reason she persuaded her husband to commit all of the terrible crimes. It is obvious that Lady Macbeth is going to manipulate Macbeth when she says, “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. (1.5.26) Lady Macbeth baits Macbeth to kill the king. She questions his manhood, and calls him a coward. Lady Macbeth tries to make Macbeth feel guilty by saying,

The three apparitions which appear to Macbeth are, "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife. / Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man; for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth. / Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him." Macbeth translates these prophecies as a meaning that he will reign as king until the day he dies of natural causes and will no longer have to fear Macduff for he can do no harm to him. Although he is assured by the equivocate predictions, his uncertainty gets the better of him. This can be seen in his actions; he kills Macduff 's family but leaves the man himself alive, he enters into battles screaming that no man of woman born shall ever harm him, not knowing that Macduff was born of Caesarian section, and eventually his foolish actions lead to his death at the hands of Macduff.

Macbeth’s unfettered lust for power led to his biggest detriment, the transformation into a man living in fear who cannot possibly escape this continuous cycle of trepidation. Though Macbeth may hide these fears behind a strong exterior throughout the play, it remains a primary emotion and potent motivating force in his life.

Macbeth’s ambition is powered by the sisters. Through the sisters he learns that he is to be king, he does not know how he is going to become king however. Ambition is the key to his downfall. Before he had this ambition he said that he would never have dreamed of killing the king to become king. The ambition drove him to kill the king, so that he could become then king.

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare recounts Macbeth's meteoric rise as a soldier and promising future leader whose megalomaniacal ambition led to his tragic downfall. In addition to Macbeth's ambitions, which initially enable him to be strong leader and soldier, he is influenced heavily by his wife, Lady Macbeth, and the three witches that prophesize his ascent to the throne, as well as warn him of his eventual demise. It can be argued that it is Macbeth's ambition that allows him to succeed in his endeavors, however the goals to which he is working toward influence the results of his hard work. Macbeth's ambitions help him to become a war hero, and as his goals change, his ambitions drive him to become a tyrannical villain.

She convinces her husband to kill the king even though Macbeth decides that, “We will proceed no longer in this business” (1.7.32). Lady Macbeth pressures her husband into murder after she begs for evil spirits to unsex her. The witches can easily prevent the evil spirits from changing Lady Macbeth but they let the spirits turn her insane. Her insanity inflicts her to stab herself leaving Macbeth bereft of his wife during the battle. The witches then omit Lady Macbeth’s suicide to Macbeth when they tell him prophecies so that Macbeth would believe he was invincible before the

In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, is a brave and loyal subject to the King of Scotland, but as the play progresses, his character begins to change drastically. Evil and unnatural powers, as well as his own passion to become king, take over his better half and eventually lead to his downfall. The three main factors that intertwine with one another that contribute to Macbeth's tragic end are the prophecies told by the three witches, Lady Macbeth's influence, and finally, Macbeth's excessive passion and ambition which drove his desire to become king to the utmost extreme. The prophecy told by the three witches was what triggers the other factors that contribute to Macbeth s downfall. In the first act, the witches

They have a malicious attitude towards the human race. The witches themselves believe that they are greater than man, and use each man’s fatal flaw against them. For example, they prey on Macbeth’s ambition. They speak to him in rhyme coupled with foreshadowing to further irritate him: “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to the, Thane of Glamis / . . . Thane of Cawdor / . . . that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.51-53). They confuse Macbeth by giving him pieces of his future; yet let him ponder over the prophecies. They manipulate him by their choice of words and usage of double speak. Though it appears that their rhyming gives them a frivolous tone, it actually intensifies their sinister attitude towards Macbeth. However, their continuous use of rhyme allows them to have the most complex rhetoric of all the characters. Later they further confuse him by sending an apparition in the form of a bloody child who says: “The power of man, for none woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.91-92). The Witches give him false hope, as he believes that no man can kill him. However, they send more apparitions after him, each a mirrored image of Banquo, who has been haunting Macbeth. Therefore, it is obvious that the Witches have no sympathy for humans, especially Macbeth. They enjoy feasting on his defeat. The witches’ attitude towards

At the very beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is provoked by the letter she receives by Macbeth and starts plotting the murder of Duncan. She also wishes she were a man such that she could commit the murder all by herself saying so in Act 1 Scene 5, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty” (Macbeth 1.5.36-52). She appeals to these spirits to remove all aspects of her femininity and seeks to gain power through the prophecy of the witches. Her fear about the ability of her husband to commit the murder is subdued in her designated gender. Lady Macbeth manages her feminine power through her sensuality and pretended weakness through her fainting streak at the notice of Duncan’s death. Manipulation, usually through sexuality is often depicted as the source of women’s power still Lady Macbeth uses this power of hers to commit murder, a masculine demonstration of power. Lady Macbeth in her soliloquy about the planning of Duncan’s death refers to her husband as an individual who plays honestly and does not engage in wrongdoing.

Purpose: This dramatic irony is to show Macbeth’s belief that the witches speak the truth and are responsible for his success. This belief can, and does, influence his future actions.