This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was. This is true for Lady Macbeth as well, as she convinced Macbeth to follow through with the plan, even with Macbeth doubting himself so much. I don’t think anyone could have predicted how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both responded to Duncan’s murder. In committing the murder, Macbeth became king, but he would also become a nervous wreck that could be executed at any
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.
Therefore the witches could foretell Macbeth’s fate and his downfall. Although, the witches were not completely honest, Macbeths' actions were more ambitious and destructive than the witches, since Macbeth used violence to advance in the game of power taking harmful actions to the advance to the next. Proving, that Macbeths' actions fed his ambitions and led him to his downfall. Secondly, the witches told Macbeth the apparitions as if they were complete truths not just mere predictions. The witches mislead Macbeth into believe a certain fate that could possibly have been a false truth.
His paranoia reached the point to where he was mentally unstable. One source of motivation for the killing of the king derives where most people would not most commonly suspect: his own wife. The idea of her becoming queen engulfed her mind; therefore, she urged Macbeth to proceed with the killing of King Duncan. Following Duncan’s murder, the only thing bothering Macbeth was the prophecy told by the witches about Banquou’s son becoming the king. Fearing the worst, he allowed his paranoia take over his thought process, by not it should be obvious that his paranoia played a big role in his decision making.
Lady Macbeth is not satisfied with power, as soon as there is an additional opportunity for abundant power Lady Macbeth is committed to getting that power by any means necessary, moral or immoral. She desires for her husband to gutlessly murder King Duncan and expects him to be mentally stable after the murder. However, she is the one who is driven to complete insanity because of all the killing that Macbeth is doing and all the bloodshed that the pair has caused. This is essentially Lady Macbeths fault as she bestowed her corrupt morals onto Macbeth. She shaped the mindset that it was necessary to murder someone who trusts you for more power and accordingly she changed Macbeth’s way of thinking.
Macbeth: Justice or Injustice Murder, deceit, and immorality are not a rare occurrence in the story of Macbeth; in fact they are the basis of the story. The three witches play with Macbeth’s mind and make him thirst for the throne, Lady Macbeth encourages her husband to murder King Duncan, and says Macbeth is a coward for his hesitation, to trick him into killing the King. And Macbeth not only murders King Duncan, but also Banquo, the Macduff family, and attempts to kill Fleance, son of Banquo. The question remains; is justice served where justice is due in this story? A lust for power already existed in Macbeth, but it was his encounter with the three witches on his return from battle that triggered his thirst for the throne, and subsequently the deaths of many, Macbeth among the deceased.
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
The devil, or the evil spirits, take up many disguises, one of which is through Lady Macbeth. Our tragic hero does not realize that every murder will come back to haunt him. We begin to see the slippery slope Macbeth slides down as he promptly kills his best friend, Banquo, and attempts to murder Banquo’s only child, Fleance, without any outside influences. He was content killing his closest ally because he worries about the witches prophecy that “the seeds of Banquo’s kings, rather than so, come fate into the list, and champion me to the utterance…” (III.I.70-73). Even when you believe Macbeth cannot be any worse he slaughters Macduff’s entire family when he hears Macduff has fled to England; he said that he would “give to the edge o’the sword his wife, babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line”.
The witches are also responsible for this murder, because once again, the witches put ideas in his head. Although the witches can be held responsible for the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macduff and her son, they cannot be held responsible for the murder of Banquo. The witches only speak of Banquo when Macbeth meets with them for the second time and Act 4, Scene 1, after Banquo has already been killed. This murder is the complete responsibility of Macbeth, because the witches had absolutely nothing to do with it and it was only Macbeth's own suspicions that brought him to have Banquo killed. If Macbeth had not taken action to fulfill the witch's prophecies, he would probably have been happily living as the thane of Glamis and Cawdor
In part of the play, Macbeth even admits to his ambition, "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other." As a result, many decisions were influenced negatively. His choice to kill the king was made too quickly, and had begun the snowballing effect of killing innocent people. After the witches had told Macbeth the four apparitions, he felt as though Banquo needed to be killed, since he was in the way of Macbeths becoming king. Other Characters in the play greatly influenced Macbeth.