Witches come and reveal to him a prophecy of his future, which makes him want it straight away. Lady Macbeth keeps pushing for Macbeth to do whatever it takes to get what the weird sisters have predicted will happen, and finally goes ahead with it. Macbeth kills numerous people to have his prophecy fulfilled and is now the complete opposite person of who he was at the beginning of the play, but it is hard to blame Macbeth for his own demise because of these other factors because they play a role in boosting his actions Macbeth wasn’t an ambitious character until he met the witches. Macbeth is the most “worthiest cousin” of the Kind and is a “brave” soldier serving under him. He is established as a good character in the play and it is apparent that he had no real ambitions until he met the witches.
Lady Macbeth is an evil and ruthless woman who, being aware of Macbeth’s ambitious nature decides to exploit it and manipulates him into murdering King Duncan. When Macbeth, hesitates to commit the murder, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s manhood and states, “When you durst do it then you were a man,” in an attempt to appeal to Macbeth’s guilt as well as to challenge him to commit the crime. She even trivialises Macbeth’s fear that he would
The statement “Fair is foul and foul is fair” comes into play, because becoming king sounds fair, but Macbeth doesn’t know that he will have to kill to achieve it. The main betrayal throughout this play is the moment Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, who has never been anything but kind and good. It is because of the supernatural power of the witches that Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, and start his decent into madness. Violence and murder are main themes in Macbeth. Although mostly offstage, the violence is described in great detail.
Lady Macbeth plays an important role in this play as she provides a scheme for Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. After Macbeth had killed King Duncan, he later regrets on his wrong doing. Macbeth's first murder was a trying experience for him, however after his first murder, killing seemed to be the only solution to maintain his reign of the people of Scotland. Therefore, it was Lady Macbeth, through her plan, who introduced the concept of murder to Macbeth. Macbeth's ambition also influenced his declining character.
Macbeth agrees, and betrays the king’s trust by plotting his murder. He and Lady Macbeth plan to blame the murder on the king’s two chamberlains. Another act of betrayal is when Macbeth hires a group of murderers to kill Banquo, Macbeth’s friend, and Banquo’s son. Macbeth was trusted by both the king and Banquo. However, the need and urge for power overcame his senses and he was disloyal to both of them.
Finally, we see this concept taken to the extreme with the weird sisters. The witches make Macbeth believe something that is false, and lead him on for most of the play. Potentially, if the witches had not given Macbeth this sense of confidence than he may have never killed, Duncan, Banquo or Macduff’s family. This concept of appearance vs. reality not only caused Macbeth to rise up and become king, it also caused his inevitable downfall. Throughout the play Macbeth uses his acting abilities and deceptive qualities to make people believe something, which in reality is false.
In act 1 scene 3 the three witches foretold that Macbeth would become Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. If not for the prophecies Macbeth’s curiosity and ambition to become King might never have begun in the first place, however when hearing the prophecies of becoming king, horrible imaginings of murder came across his mind. As it gets further into the play Macbeth increasingly relies on the prophecies given by the witches, this lead to the murder of many people and slowly corrupted Macbeth near the end of the play. The manipulation and influence of Lady Macbeth was also a factor of Macbeth’s becoming more and more evil. When Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter, she is afraid that Macbeth is not evil enough to do what he must to get the crown.
It was Lady Macbeth who had planned King Duncan’s murder and the framing of the guards because Macbeth was too worried about the consequences. However, the greed for power corrupted and changed Macbeth. “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed.” (Act 3: II, line 50-51) Macbeth consoled Lady Macbeth about the necessity of the terrible things planned. The desire for power drove Macbeth to planning a second murder so he could feel secure. “I am in blood stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (Act 3: IV, line 167-169) After committing the murders of Duncan and Banquo, Macbeth had decided that he had already gone so far to get
Is Macbeth Responsible For His Downfall? Who is responsible for the downfall of Macbeth? He is manipulated by the witches, encouraged by his wife, but ultimately he chooses to act. His first conference with the witches, Macbeth’s ambition was planted and his mind was overwhelmed with thoughts of murder and betrayal. It fair to say, in addition, that if his betrayal caused this extensive pain that clouded him after he murders Duncan, Banquo and the Macduff’s that it wasn’t a case of fate and was his own doing.
Macbeth becomes inspired by what he learned from the witches. “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater,” and “not so happy, yet much happier”; Then they tell him that he will never be king but that his children will sit upon the throne. The three witches are tools in Macbeth’s actions because they are the ones who plant the seeds in his head. The witches are responsible for giving Macbeth a reason to kill the king. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/ Without my stir”.