The witches are being sneaky here to give Macbeth the illusion that he cannot be harmed. Macduff eventually kills Macduff. Does Macduff, who is not born of woman, (his mother passed before he was born) kill Macbeth because of fate? Maybe he does but why does Macduff want to kill Macbeth anyway? Macbeth killed the king and took the throne, so there is an apparent reason that it was Macbeth?s choice.
Macbeth betrays King Duncan because the witches told him he will become king. He also betrays his friend Banquo because the witches gave him predictions that can affect Macbeth. The three weird sisters betray Macbeth because he wants things to go his way. In “Macbeth”, Shakespeare demonstrates that betrayal is lead by unreasonable decisions that cause bad consequences. Macbeth
Macbeth desire to be king causes him to believe the witches for their prophesies have come true before. He is unable to see the witches as the most dangerous characters in the play. Without the witches playing upon Macbeth’s ambitions, it is doubtful that Macbeth would have committed the murders. The witches play the part of the instigators, and help Macbeth to continue his acts of violence. Even though they are able to see that his acts will lead him to his downfall, they continue to let him kill others.
An example of this is his lack of any legitimate reasons for killing King Duncan and obtaining the throne except for his own ambition and greed to become king. The prophecies that Macbeth receives from the witches seem so true that he relies on the words of these predictions alone, instead of taking action himself to secure the works of the prophecies. Macbeth let his ambition blind him; as did the ruler in “Ozymandias”. Another consequence of ambition is loneliness. Ozymandias and Macbeth had so much ambition that they put themselves above all of their peers and former supporters.
Macbeth’s Downfall Macbeth is at complete fault that lead to his downfall. Instead of waiting to see if the prophecies and apparitions came true, Macbeth decided to take fate into his own hands, and paid with his life. Although the witch’s prophecies and apparitions were quite startling, he could have waited to see if they were telling the truth or not; how far can you really trust a witch? One prophecy told Macbeth that he would be thane of Cawdor. He did not interfere with that prophecy.
Although unsuccessful (only Lady Macduff and her son were killed), it proved that Macbeth was willing to go as far as it took to keep himself on the throne. The witches however, did plant the seeds again that led to this murder and therefore should be considered at least semi-accountable. This theory is supported even more by the murder of Banquo. The witches prophesised that Banquo’s sons would succeed Macbeth’s rule. Macbeth, now seeing Banquo as a threat, hired more people to murder Banquo and eliminate all possibility that he or his sons could dethrone
In his tragedy Macbeth, Shakespeare reflects the principle that an individual is responsible for his own actions and therefore determines his own fate though the protagonist Macbeth, who is determined to make the three witches’ prophecies come true by killing Duncan. The three witches’ three “prophecies” are the main cause for Macbeth thrusting his own fate through the decisions he makes. However, there are not three prophecies; in fact, there is only one. A prophecy is a foretelling of something to come. Therefore, two of the three predictions are not in fact so because they have already occurred.
One of them being his fatalism described the witches. The witches informed Macbeth’s of him becoming Thane and afterwards the King; however, Banquo’s son was prophesized to become the king after Macbeth. Macbeth feared that part of the prophecy and it was an additional explanation for his downfall. He became paranoid and he reacted only how a threatened individual would: by eliminating the threat. His paranoia reached the point to where he was mentally unstable.
Thesis: Shakespeare did not have Macbeth kill Banquo with his own hands, even though he did with Duncan and the guards, to show that Macbeth is starting to learn how to use his kingly power to his advantage, but does have a guilty conscience on his hands. Evidence/Commentary: “Both you know Banquo was your enemy” (III.i.115-116), Macbeth’s convincing argument to get the murderers to kill Banquo for him, was a tactic he learned from his wife. After his wife had manipulated Macbeth into killing King Duncan, Macbeth used that same manipulation to his murderers. In both situations the arguments made were that deep down, they all truly wanted and knew if it was not for a certain person in their way, they would live a better life. Shakespeare starts to develop a more in depth personality to Macbeth, and showing how much his character has grown since the beginning of the play.
Because of this, he decides he must kill Banquo, so that there will be no heir. “Macbeth plots the murder of Banquo, out of jealousy and insecurity.” (Hompi 1) This is obviously an absurd idea, and prior to Macbeth’s murder of King Duncan he never would have considered it as a solution. Shakespeare uses this to show how power corrupts even the best of people. It is obvious that this is still a problem in society today, as people start off with good intentions but slowly get sidetracked. Before long, their objectives have changed completely.