Who Was Responsible For Macbeth's Downfall

982 Words4 Pages

In Shakespeare's Macbeth there were a lot of influences for Macbeth downfall. From Lady Macbeth, to banquo, to Macduff, and even Macbeth himself had a part for his downfall. However, the key characters that played a major role in Macbeth’s demise, were the three witches. From the very first prediction they gave him put in his head that he had to kill in order to gain power or out of fear of being dethroned. If they hadn't given Macbeth the predictions he wouldn't have killed Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's family. Shakespeare perceived Macbeth as someone who was loved by all in the beginning of the play, especially by King Duncan. He was so loved by king Duncan that after his fearless battle with Macdonald and he had beaten Macdonald, …show more content…

When they received the next line, made Macbeth fear Banquo in a way “Your descendants will be kings, even though you will not be one. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!” (1.3.68-69). Macbeth feared that Banquo's sons would assassinate him to become king, the same way he did for Duncan in order for himself to become king.This fear in his heart made think that murdering a child and his very own best friend I would help satisfy his own paranoia. So Macbeth decided to murder Banquo and fleance, so that Banquo wouldn't have anymore more sons to dethrone Macbeth and also so fleance couldn't dethrone him later on in the future. But, fleance escaped into the forest and was to never be found again. After the killing of Banquo, during the banquet scene, Macbeth started to hallucinate that Banquo was there. He started to reveal all of the terrible and horrendous things he has done so far to the lords in front of him. This had all happened because he encountered the 3 witches, which he had happened to stumble upon once again. This time giving him 3 apparitions, that will soon lead up to his 3rd killing, the Macduff …show more content…

Once Macbeth bumped into the 3 witches for the second time, they had given Macbeth 3 apparitions. “Beware Macduff, Beware the Thane of Fife”(4.1.78-79) by telling Macbeth that, he started to fear he'll be beaten by Mcduff, since Mcduff was a general he had military experience and could easily take Macbeth down, plus he knew that Mcduff didn't fear him and would not hesitate to dethrone him and would not hesitate to reveal to everyone that he killed 2 innocent men and almost murder an 11 year old boy. Once Macbeth received the next line it seemed to make him more of afraid of Macduff “The power of man, for none of women born shall harm Macbeth”(4.1.88-89) They were telling him that anyone born naturally from the vagina could not defeat Macbeth, but since Macduff was born by a C-section, he started to fear Macduff even more and because of Macbeth's mindset that he had to be on top, he then planned to murder Macduff. Coincidentally, Mcduff was in England with Malcolm, Macbeth later on had decided to murder Macduff's family instead, killing his wife and children. Why did he do that? Was it to show the Macbeth didn't fear Macduff and he should be feared or was it just cold-blooded murder and out of spite? No one can know those answers for sure because of how deranged and psychopathic Macbeth was near the end of the play. Every single event that had happened was because of the witches. If the

More about Who Was Responsible For Macbeth's Downfall