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Macbeth's Destruction Essay

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Many people recognize the name Shakespeare and the plays he has written. His most famous plays include many tragedies that occur, a very popular tragedy is Macbeth. Macbeth’s tragedy stems from a prophecy that three witches gave him. This prophecy said that Macbeth will be a thane, Macbeth would be king, and Banquo's sons would be kings. This stays in Macbeth’s head until the very end of the play. This is why the witches are the most influential part of what destroys Macbeth. There are still more forces that played a role in the destruction of Macbeth, like the influence of Lady Macbeth’s opinion on what Macbeth decides to do. Macbeth also played a role in his downfall, he had many bad characteristics primarily his ambition and ruthlessness. …show more content…

This idea is the same in Macbeth, it is predictable that witches are primarily evil because, during the Elizabethan Era, a lot of women could be accused of being witches and could be killed because of it. I think Shakespeare knew this when writing Macbeth because the first encounter Macbeth had with the witches is they were making potions and casting spells. Macbeth asks them if they can tell him about his future. “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: So all hail Macbeth and Banquo. Your children and descendants will be kings”. (RSC) After Macbeth hears this prophecy he is happy because this is his chance to become Thane of Cawdor. It is obvious the witches' intention when giving Macbeth these prophecies was to bring out the bad qualities in him and make him greedy. Soon after Macbeth hears his prophecy he sends a letter to his wife Lady Macbeth about the news he …show more content…

Before the witches told Macbeth about the prophecy, he was just returning from a battle with rebels. This battle shows how ruthless he can be. It is hard to see Macbeth as cruel because he is also caring for his wife. Macbeth is seen as ambitious because of his need to keep improving no matter how much success he already has. As the play progresses Macbeth’s ambition becomes ruthlessness as he wants to protect his kingship. Even though Macbeth is trying to avoid his fate he only gets closer and closer to it. “Although he is encouraged by the Witches, Macbeth’s true downfall is his own ambition. Lady Macbeth is as ambitious as her husband, encouraging him to murder to achieve their goals. Both Macbeths fail to see how their ambition makes them cross moral lines and will lead to their downfall.” (SN) This quote explains that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were both very ambitious, this amount of ambition between two people resulted in both thinking that no matter what they had to do they needed to make what they truly wanted to come true. What Macbeth wanted was to become king, and Lady Macbeth wanted her husband to become king because she thought it could make them both happy. This didn’t happen though because both of them regretted murdering

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Macbeth doubts his plan to murder Duncan and is unable to motivate himself to take action. There is tension between Macbeth's unwillingness to move ahead with his plan and his acknowledgment that his ambition is leading him down a dangerous path. Macbeth notes, “I have no spur to prick the sides for the intent, but the only vaulting notes ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other” (1. 7. 25-29). Macbeth knows that he has lacked motivation and ambition, and he knows that it’s the only thing preempting disasters to come his way as he makes mistakes.

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Some might argue that Lady Macbeth was the cause of Macbeth’s downfall. However, Macbeth said in a aside, “Stars, hide your fires/ Let not light see my black and deep desires” (1.4.57-58).This quote shows how Macbeth didn’t want others to see his true intention. Macbeth’s deep desires were to gain more power, which shows an example of him being power- hungry. Later in the play, Macbeth hallucinates a dagger, for an example, “Is this a dagger which I see before me/ The handle toward my hand?”

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When we are first presented with the character of Macbeth he is pictured as a noble and loyal warrior. However, once his future is presented to him by the witches saying that he, Macbeth, is to become the next great King of Scotland, he begins to lose focus and makes the wrong decisions. Macbeth begins to only make choices that will benefit only himself and to gain power. Becoming almost unrecognizable to the person he once was. After confronting his wife, Lady Macbeth, he isn't the only one with a lust for power.

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In Macbeth’s downfall, the witches and Lady Macbeth played a part and they did affect Macbeth’s life. The three witches were the ones who planted the seed in Macbeth’s mind with deep dark thoughts. “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” The words of the witch.

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At the start of the play, Macbeth visits the witches with Banquo at the closing of the battle. The witches speak to Macbeth and Banquo and get the idea of a prophecy in Macbeth’s mind. “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis./ All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor./ All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (1.3.46-48). When the witches get the prophecy in Macbeth’s mind, he believes it will come true and misunderstands the prophecy of the witches. Although the witches make Macbeth believe in the prophecy of becoming the King, Macbeth is responsible for his downfall because they do not recommend Macbeth to kill Duncan.

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Macbeth is responsible for his destruction because in life we make our own decisions however he was heavily influenced by the three witches and Lady Macbeth. The witches foretell Macbeth becoming king and Lady Macbeth persuades him to kill the king, which backfires on her. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can be compared to Ahab and Jezebel in the Bible in that they both got selfish and went after things that would catch up with them and cost them their lives. Macbeth is ultimately responsible for the decisions he made but he was first influenced by the three witches visiting him telling him he would be king.

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Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.

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The audience can now see his desires as well as his ambition. At this point, Macbeth is still hesitant of revealing his true nature, but the audience gets a peek of what he yearns for. In addition, the witches’ predictions are known to be paradoxical, their predictions are never straightforward; they tend to have different interpretations. Macbeth kills King Duncan to obtain the power he was told he’d get. Despite that, the witches never said to kill King Duncan; they told him he would become king.

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Macbeth’s ambition is what is causing him to intervene with his prophecy and pursue his goal (rather than leave it to chance). In a way, it is Macbeth’s own “black and deep desires” that make him kill in the first place as the witches never tell him to do so. Furthermore, apart from ambition, it is Macbeth’s own weak will and moral system that causes him to do the actions that result in his downfall. Macbeth’s weak will is undeniable and is illustrated before killing Duncan. “I have of spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/And falls on the other” (I, VII, 25-28).

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The witches played a colossal role in Macbeth’s downfall and ultimately, his death. Since the first part of the prophecy stated Macbeth as being the new Thane of Cawdor, he believed he could continue to become king as well. In knowing his prediction, Macbeth also realized that since the king was in good health, so he would have to kill the king himself. For the rest of his prophecy to come true he would have to kill the king for himself. “All hail, Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter!”

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The next step the reader sees of Macbeth’s growing ambition is in Act II. Macbeth is writing a letter to his wife informing her of the prophecies made by the Weird Sisters, and also of the King’s intentions to visit their household that evening. Reading this, Lady Macbeth promptly concocts a plan to murder the King in their household. That night, Macbeth tries to draw off the plan, “We will proceed no further in this business” (1.7.31). This shows that Macbeth’s ambition has not become so strong as to kill someone, nonetheless, this does not last long.

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