What Was Macbeth's Downfall

In his book, ancient greek philosopher, Aristotle wrote Nicomachean Ethics, claiming that virtue is a difference between over-achievement and deficiency, where success is something worthy of praise. He emphasizes the feeling of never achieving success and how fulfillment can affect a person to where they overestimate themselves and lose sight of their original intention. William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, takes place during the fifteenth-century in Scotland and tells of a hero, Macbeth, who experiences a tragic downfall due to his own mistakes. Macbeth’s goal was to be king, but his goal was unreachable once King Duncan deemed his son as the next heir and made Macbeth’s ambition is driven enough to kill the king. After his achievement of

Throughout the play Macbeth is constantly sacrificing a part of his sanity just to satisfy his ambition. In his soliloquy, Macbeth is expressing his inner conflict with his decision of whether he will kill King Duncan or not and must argue with his moral conscience, “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself” (I.7. 25-27). Macbeth explains that his only motivation to killing the king is through the soul ambition, but soon after establishes that he has decided to kill the king when debating to Lady Macbeth. Though he has completed the deed of killing Duncan, Macbeth consults Lady Macbeth after he is in shock of the ultimate crime he has committed, “But wherefore could not I pronounce ‘Amen’?/ I had most need for blessing, and ‘Amen’/ Stuck in my throat” (II.2. 34-36). Once Macbeth exclaims his grievances, he can realizes that he has done the most unforgivable crime, going against nature and God by killing the king, where he will never be forgiven and his soul can never reach heaven. From this point forward, Macbeth believes that since he is already damned, his actions are irreversible and unforgivable by any force of nature or being. Macbeth then comes to realize that there is no reason in acting upon his moral sense and stops concerning himself with the consequences of the situation and does what he pleases in order to maintain his reign from anyone else interfering. After achieving the throne, Macbeth’s new goal is protecting it from everyone else, in which his ambition causes the discontinue of his concern for other people, regardless general moral