Was Macbeth Responsible For His Own Fate

Macbeth – Critical Analytical Essay

Macbeth is responsible for his own fate. Macbeth displayed a great show of ambition throughout the course of the play and this ambition was only fueled by the people around him such as the witches and his wife.This ambition led to his downward spiral into insanity experiencing hallucinations. While you can argue that he was not responsible for his fate because of these negative influences, at the end of the day he was not forced into anything and always had a choice. The first log of firewood was added to the flame of ambition when Macbeth received the prophecy that he would become king. The three witches tell Macbeth he will become king after they inform him of his becoming the Thane of Cawdor. When the

This prophecy sparked a light that was then stoked into a smoldering flame of ambition once Macbeth came up with the idea that he would have the murder Duncan to become the king. This flame was then stoked further when his wife questioned his masculinity saying “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” because he hesitated to commit the murder. Macbeth was surrounded by people that seemed like they only meant to help but were doing nothing but hurting him; however, this does not excuse what he did. Macbeth could have chosen not to take what he heard as deeply as he did and he could have chosen not to listen to his wife’s poor idea, but because of his ambition he listened and carried out the plans that he created which led to him feeling immense guilt that brought him into a state of delusion and insanity. It’s hard to blame other people for telling you to do something when you have a choice; you almost always have a choice. Hallucinations in Macbeth play a very important role in accentuating the guilt of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play, Macbeth hallucinates a floating dagger, a voice that says he’s