Shakespeare’s Macbeth serves as the quintessential roller coaster of treachery and death, to the point where even productions of the work are shrouded in tragedy. Sufficiently soaked in blood, the car only halts with Macbeth’s climactic end after five acts of absolute madness. While Macbeth’s death marks the extent of the regicidal hysteria, it more significantly shows the true price of unbridled ambition. An incessant desire for power marks the entirety of the play, but Macbeth does not seek such authority inherently. Instead, Lady Macbeth pursues the throne with enough tenacity for them both, at times nearly forcing her husband’s hand. Though influenced by Lady Macbeth’s rhetoric, Macbeth alone holds the blame for his demise as he opens Pandora’s Box and sends Scotland in to chaos. Though Macbeth at first claims he will only allow that "chance may crown me" (I. iii. 151), he is more than willing to take action, starting the chain of events that leads to his fall. His claim to remain a spectator to the potential change of kings is neglected and Macbeth, the very man who decidedly denounces an ambitious reach for the throne, plunges a dagger into Duncan 's body the next night. By killing the king, Macbeth becomes the sole holder of blame for the successive events. He alone is responsible for his physical actions, and …show more content…
Macbeth 's downfall comes from his own actions, and despite the effect that his wife 's constant push to take the throne must have on him, it is ultimately by his own hand that Macbeth meets his end. Shakespeare 's portrayal of Macbeth as a tragic hero illustrates the capability of a person to go entirely too far for power. However, the question remains, is Macbeth fully in control of his actions or is he truly insane? If he is not insane at the beginning of the play, does his wife 's invocation of evil spirits make him so? Either way his death is his own fault, but his character seems to beg for a deeper examination of the why rather