Double Trouble, and Fatal Flaws I feel that Macbeth is a tragedy of both fate and character. It is a tragedy of fate, because of the witches’ prophecy. Their words, from the very beginning, tell of a fate, but also have a double meaning that at the time isn’t realized. It is a tragedy of character, because both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth deal with a test of their character. In my opinion, the witches play a central role in the shifting of ambitions and actions, because without their prophecies, Macbeth would not have felt the necessity to murder Duncan, because he wouldn’t have felt the need to fulfill the prophecy of the witches or to become the king of Scotland. Their first prophecy stated that they would meet again "when the battle's lost and won" and when "fair is foul and foul is fair". Macbeth seems to feel that it is his fate and destiny to kill the king, yet his character won’t allow him to commit this awful deed. Macbeth realizes that his biggest flaw isn’t a lack of values, but actually a lack of drive to carry out that terrible deed. Lady Macbeth is quite the opposite of her husband. Because she swore to make the witches prophecy true, she had to denounce her feminine qualities. This just means that she cast aside all her sentimentality, and romanticism. …show more content…
The double meaning of the witches is just a smaller example of the plays ambiguity. The witches tricked Macbeth. They never said that he had to kill Duncan, Banquo and Macduff’s family to become king but Macbeth still believed he has to act on the witches' prophecy. The weird sisters seem to sort of represent the evil that is in Macbeth that does not come to the surface until the witches’ prophecy of Macbeth becoming king. The witches plant the idea, Lady Macbeth encourages it, and from there it grows wildly on its own within Macbeth as he plots the murders of Banquo, Duncan, and the Macduff family to enable his becoming