Is Macbeth Responsible For His Own Downfall Essay Sample

Written by Shakespeare during the reign of James the first, the tragedy of Macbeth explores the disharmony of Macbeth and the crumbling society he resides in. Shakespeare tells a narrative of Macbeth’s fall from power whereby he had undone himself by setting foot on an irreversible path of pain, suffering, futility and self-destruction. Macbeth’s excessive sense of ambition leads him to his downfall throughout the play. Macbeth’s fatal flaw is his downfall and is primarily his ambition, as well as his moral weakness and insecurity, these are what leads to his own downfall. But Macbeth Is solely responsible. 

Lady Macbeth is significant in influencing Macbeths actions and is partially to blame. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into murdering Duncan, however, becomes weak and unaware of Macbeths further actions, thus, although Macbeths downfall is his own responsibility due to his “vaulting ambition”, it would not have been apparent without the presence of the witches and Lady Macbeth. Firstly, Macbeth imagines killing the king, but this “image doth unfix my hair” he observes, which conveys his horror at killing Duncan. He tells her “We shall proceed no further in this business’, but she refuses to accept this, bringing up the horror of the recent death of his child. She suggests she would “dash its brains out” if their child were still alive and kill it rather than go back on a promise. After much consideration he tells Lady Macbeth to “proceed no further in this business” to leave it up to “chance…without my stir” which proves that Macbeth is still a good man.   

In Act 1 Scene 3, after receiving the title King of Cawdor and realizing that the witch’s prophecy bore truth, Shakespeare presents us with a soliloquy from Macbeth “…My Though, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state if man That function is smother’ d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not”(Act 1 Scene 3). Macbeth is expressing his concerns about the plan to murder Duncan. He is completely uneasy murdering Duncan without a worthy enough reason. Through showing us an insight to Macbeth’s psychology at that moment, Shakespeare reveals Macbeth’s immediate contemplation of murdering Duncan after he is presented with the prophecy from the witches and a promise to the king’s throne. “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! Of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal: to me you speak not.” From this quote, Shakespeare shows that when given the chance to transcend the feudal hierarchy, the change in Macbeth’s character is almost immediate with no hesitation. In this scene Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches, the witches aren’t to blame for Macbeths actions, even though they contribute to his downfall by influencing his ambition therefore effecting his subsequent actions, they are the ones who offered Macbeth prophecies that lead him to his downfall as he tries to achieve the prophecy, but it was Macbeth who chose to kill the king due to his suffering ambition. But by telling Macbeth that he will become the future king, this stimulates his ambition and lights a pathway of violence and injustice. In Shakespeare's time people believed in witches. They were people who had made a pact with the Devil in exchange for supernatural powers. If your cow was ill, it was easy to decide it had been cursed. If there was plague in your village, it was because of a witch. Macbeth then addresses his ambition in Act 1 Scene 7 when he says “I have no spur to Prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other”. Through this line, Shakespeare shows that Macbeth’s only driving force is his vaulting ambition, this is a foreshadowing to the events that take place later in the story.

In Act 2 Scene 2, Shakespeare portrays Macbeth as miserable and panicked through his discourse, whereby he drops out of blank verse and speaks in short, brief interrogative sentences asking for information, such as “Who’s there? What ho?”. Macbeth is aware of his crime and Shakespeare emphasizes the fact that Macbeth does indeed have a moral compass and a sense of reality which in turn makes him culpable to his own actions, because he is culpable Macbeth suffers the guilt insecurity and paranoia due to this act of moral weakness. Macbeth is willing to let his ambition overtake his moral compass, forfeit friendship, loyalty and kinsman ship to gain power. We see in Act 3 Scene 1, Banquo suspects Macbeth’s crime of murdering Duncan we see this when he says “Thou hast is now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, As the weird women promised, and I fear Thou played’st most foully for ‘t”. Because of this, the ensuing conversation between Macbeth and Banquo, who were once heroes who fought side by side, is now filled with tension and lack of trust. The discourse between Macbeth and Banquo shifts and polite forms of address such as sir, good lord and etc. are used. This shift to a use of more formal language depicts the break in Macbeth and Banquo’s camaraderie as well as a shift in the power dynamics between the two. 

In Act 3 Scene 1, Macbeth plants to have Banquo killed, now there’s a shift in Macbeth’s social sphere, he was once surrounded by noblemen but now he is surrounded by desperate, corrupted murderers. Macbeth has descended the social ladder and now operates in a completely different moral dimension due to his ambition. The insecurity and paranoia derived from the guilt of killing Duncan, due to ambition Spurs and endless cycle of murder. Macbeth then proceeds to then murder Fleance and Macduff’s family, he kills whomever he needs to remain secure. But now it is clear that Macbeth has gone too far as he reached the point of killing innocent people and families. Macbeth addresses his endless cycle of killing in Act 3 Scene 4 “I am in blood Stepped In so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er”. Shakespeare uses the imagery of a river of blood in which Macbeth has been swimming through it for so long/far that it would be easier to keep going rather than turning back. Macbeth is also becoming aware of the monster he’s becoming and the endless cycle of violence he is inducing. Macbeth has created a chain of events and consequences that can only result in destruction in another sense Macbeth’s submission has also religiously destroyed the natural chain of being and with that himself. As we would see it, a Jacobean audience would see Macbeth as a sinful and gullible character but yet a man who is noble and a good leader. As we know his actions were done by his choice back then 400 years ago, they would have believed it was the witches that have caused Macbeth to behave this way as they have supernatural powers which changed the way Macbeth behaves and thinks.

During the time period in which Shakespeare wrote Macbeth people believed in the divine right of kings, dictating that kings derived the right to rule directly of the will of God therefore the crime Macbeth commits by murdering Duncan contextualized is an act of blasphemy. By murdering Duncan Macbeth kills not only one person, but an entire system of belief and govern. In the play, the physical world responds to Duncan’s murder as an owl has killed a hawk, this is all to show the impact in Macbeth destroying the chain of order. Furthermore, in Act 2 Scene 2, Macbeth says, “I could not say ‘Amen’ When they did say ‘God Bless’”. Macbeth is unable to say Amen because by killing the King Macbeth has drawn a line between himself and his religion. Duncan envisions a world of growth and fruitfulness in Act 1 Scene 4 he says “I have begun to plant thee and will labor to make thee full of growing”. This theme of fertility contrasts with the theme of sterility after Duncan is killed in Act 2 Scene 1, “Now o’ er the one half-world Nature seems dead”. While the world is full of abundance and growth, with Duncan as rightful king,  the world is reduced to a barren wasteland after Macbeth destroys the natural change of order and to restore the order that Macbeth destroyed, the right heir to the throne must be restored; and Shakespeare does so by having Macduff, the rightful heir to the throne, kill Macbeth and end the play with a noble speech. Macbeth’s ambition to overachieve in this rigid, restricted, feudal society causes him to commit crimes and because he is morally culpable the paranoia and security of committing these crimes causes him to commit even more wrongdoing, ultimately leading up to his downfall. The cosmology in which Shakespeare suggests through this play is that excessive ambition will have moral corners turned and lead to the tragic downfall of a once great hero. Macbeth becomes consumed by his guilt and is no longer known as the brave hero he once was.

Macbeth is responsible for his own downfall because of his ambition which overrides his values of loyalty. But without the presence of other people and events in the play such as the witches, Macbeth’s downfall and false ambition would not have occurred. However, they cannot be help completely responsible as Macbeth began to act on his own towards the end of the play, and he chose to trust the witches. Therefore, its his vaulting ambition that is to blame. And his ambition slowly leads him to his downfall as it gets more unstable.