Lady Macbeth is Responsible for Macbeth's Death Essay Sample

📌Category: Macbeth, Plays, William Shakespeare, Writers
📌Words: 674
📌Pages: 3
📌Published: 21 June 2022

“We can’t think that way about what we did. If we do, it’ll drive us crazy.” This is a quote from Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is the reason for Macbeth’s death. She persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan, continues dinner even though everything was going wrong, and constantly pushes Macbeth to lose his sanity. The other responsible people are The Witches and Macbeth himself. They are important factors of his downfall but are not chosen to be important because they are minute factors instead of major ones. 

The Witches are a reason for Macbeth’s downfall because they told him the prophecy. If they never told him the prophecy, he never would have gone unstable and killed people. “All hail, Macbeth, the future king!” (Macbeth 1.3.51). This quote shows that they told Macbeth he would be the future king. By not telling Macbeth he would be king, he would have stayed Thane of Glamis and kept his sanity.

Macbeth is another reason for his downfall. If he had not become deranged, he could have remained king, kept his sanity, and still be alive. Even though Lady Macbeth persuaded him to do horrific deeds, he still had the option to not do them. He decided that his downfall would be becoming king, becoming as powerful as possible, and he followed through with it; killing even though he knew it would end horrendously. Macbeth says, “I can’t go back. I’m afraid to even think about what I’ve done. I can’t stand to look at it again” (Macbeth 2.2.49-50). He knew that it was the wrong choice, that he couldn’t do it again, and that he couldn’t think about it again. The choices he made by killing the first time, the second time, and beyond, caused his own downfall.

Lady Macbeth is the person responsible for Macbeth's downfall. The first reason she managed to be responsible is that she urged him to kill Duncan and then attacked his masculinity. She states, “My hands are as red as yours, but I would be ashamed if my heart were as pale and weak” (Macbeth 2.2.85). She talks about how weak he is and that he is no man. She also says, “Now the time and place are just right, but they’re almost too good for you” (Macbeth 1.7.54). She is talking about how it is the right time to kill Duncan so Macbeth can take the throne. 

The second reason Lady Macbeth is responsible is that she continues the dinner even though everyone in the room can tell that something is wrong with Macbeth, but she decides to tell them to stay. Saying that it was a long–term condition he had, she convinces the attendants to sit back down. If she never would have told them to stay, no one would have seen Macbeth become unhinged because Fleance wasn’t killed and he had seen Banquo’s ghost. By saying, “Sit down, worthy friends. My husband is often like this, and he has been like this since he was a child. Please stay seated” (Macbeth 3.4.53-54) caused his downfall because he had gone insane at the moment.

The last reason Lady Macbeth is the cause of his downfall is that she constantly persuades Macbeth to do things. By persuading him to do his biddings, he loses his sanity and will to live. He knows he will die so he continues to kill because he doesn’t feel anything anymore. “I’ve almost forgotten what fear feels like. There was a time when a shriek in the night would have filled me with dread, and a ghost story would have made the hairs on my skin rise up as if they were alive. But now I’ve feasted on true horrors, and horror is so familiar to my bloody thoughts that it can’t startle me” (Macbeth 5.5.10-15). These lines show that he has grown tired and doesn’t feel anything anymore. She pushed him over the edge by telling him to do multiple things that he felt guilty for in the beginning.

“We can’t think that way about what we did. If we do, it’ll drive us crazy.” This quote shows us that Lady Macbeth is the downfall of Macbeth. By persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan, continue dinner even though everything was going wrong, and constantly pushes Macbeth to lose his sanity. Lady Macbeth is the reason why Macbeth lost.

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