A lot of terrible trials and difficulties happen to people in this world. There really isn’t any one person to blame in some situations, but in the play Macbeth you can only lay the blame on one sole person, which is Macbeth. In the play Macbeth we see three main reasons why Macbeth is to blame for his own downfall, he has his own agency, and no one chooses to do anything for him. He also has a conscious and he decides wither to listen to it or not. To end he didn’t just stop killing people after he was king, no he continued to kill more people without strong reason. In the play Macbeth we see that Macbeth is to blame for his downfall because he has his own agency and ultimately he chooses to kill Duncan. We realize as we read through the …show more content…
We all have a conscious, some call it the soul while others say it is just our brain but either way it is described on Dictionary.com as “The inner sense of what is right or wrong in ones conduct or motives” Or in other words your conscious tells you if what you are doing is right or if it is wrong. Macbeth has a conscious; however by the end of the play he no longer can hear it. Dr. Jeff Ronne depict in his article Free Will that “Your thought and actions are a product of your prior existence and observation”. He is basically saying that how a person lives for a small amount of time can and will become how that person is all the time. This is what has happened to Macbeth, he stopped listening to his conscious and gradually over time he changes to where he can no longer hear it and this causes him to develop into a monster. He becomes a monster when he tells his wife “The very firstling of my heart shall be the firstling of my hand” (Act 4 Scene 1 lines 147, 148). This tells us a lot about Macbeth’s mental state. The first dreadful thought his heart comes up with is what his hands will do. This tells us that it is his heart that has turned evil. Another idea it tells us is that he no longer believes he can be saved so he is just going to continue killing people. Showing us that his conscious no longer exists and if it does it is so distant in his heart he no longer …show more content…
In the article A Biblical Theology of the Human Conscience Jim Eckman states “A human being may actually be sincerely following a wrong moral standard that deepens convictions about the “rightness” of certain action”. This could have been Macbeth. He could have been enticed by all the greed so that he could see how awful it was, and then repented, for lack of a better word, and seen his wrongdoing and become a restored person. This however is not what happens at all. Instead Macbeth tells his wife that “I am in blood stepped so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’ver”(Act 3 Scene 4 Lines 137-139) Macbeth feels that he has killed to many people and feels to much guilt to ever be able to return to the way he was. Macbeth just gives up and keeps killing people instead of trying to fix what he was done wrong. Therefor you could only rightly blame him for his own
Throughout the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth continuously makes bad choices and the consequences of these decisions catch up to Macbeth and result in his mental deterioration, however with Macbeth’s almost infant feel for ambition this makes him susceptible to manipulation, which then grows into an insatiable appetite for power. The acts of this, with the manipulation from outsiders, causes his blind ambition, his false sense of security and then finally his guilt, which all contribute to his derangement. Some will argue that all the choices made by Macbeth were continuously his own, that he had these opportunities as a man to put his foot down and say no, and be able to draw the line where things should come to an end, the fault of a mental deterioration was not there, that from the beginning Macbeth was an evil man who had a twisted way of achieving things. Macbeth’s ambition is to remain king for as long as possible, and he will kill anybody who stops this from happening. Macbeth feels as if he was given a childless rule, and that his legacy will not continue on in fear his rule will be taken away by someone outside his family.
Firstly, Macbeth had an extremely active conscience and recognition of human moral values. His conscience put up a great deal of resistance to the prospect of murder, and after the act it continued to torment him until his death.
In the play, Macbeth was responsible for his downfall and let his greed take over. He was always ambitious, but ended up abandoning his loyalty from King Duncan, the King of Scotland and slowly changed him from a trustworthy, brave and loyal soldier to a merciless tyrant. Lady Macbeth and the three witches are responsible for Macbeth’s downfall. The prophecies changed Macbeth for the worst and is willing to remove any threats that stand in his way. Macbeth, although a loyal warrior, had always possessed ambitious motives that finally turned him into a murderer.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play. Macbeth’s rise to the throne was brought about by the same external forces that ensure his downfall.
There is an ambiguity in Macbeth - do the witches represent inevitable fate, and is there in this instance the triumph of the forces of darkness, or does Macbeth have free will? If the responsibility for his actions rests with him and him alone, it may be argued that it is his weakness and his ambition that matter. His weakness lies in allowing himself to be bullied and shamed by Lady Macbeth into the murder of his king and guest.
Macbeth may have been a bad king, but he was not responsible for his collapse. The first reason is because Lady Macbeth questioned his manliness and drove him to kill Duncan which led him to murder more people as he got away with the first murder. The second reason is because of Banquo’s suspicion causing Macbeth to be fearful and later on, insane. The final reason is the witches as they encouraged him to let his guard down and they told him he was going to be king which led him to kill Duncan. These three influences were the main causes of Macbeth’s fall. If they had not been there he may have been a fair and just king. These evil outside influences drove a great man down into the ground. But as Geoffrey Chaucer said, “All great things must come to an end”
Everyone is influenced by other people, including leaders or authority, to make the wrong decisions at some point in their lives. In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is responsible for the evil doings of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible for this by using his love for her to persuade him into killing King Duncan. Because Macbeth loved and trusted his wife, he was vulnerable to her opinions and suggestions. We also know that she is responsible for these heartless things because she has so much guilt that she commits suicide. Macbeth would never have done any of those horrible things if it were not for the murder of King Duncan, which was forced on by Lady Macbeth.
Macbeth, the main character in William Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth was not secure in his manhood. This insecurity led to the downfall of Macbeth because he felt the need to prove himself to Lady Macbeth. After he proved himself by killing Duncan, Macbeth became desensitized to killing.
Macbeth is swaying between the forces of good and evil. He wants to stop killing but he also wants to become king and in his mind the only way to do that is to kill whoever is in his path, saying “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,/ Returning were as tedious as go o'er.” (3.4.168-170). Macbeth is already deep into this situation and if he were to turn back now, it would cause him greater hardship than relief. Macbeth has been dealing with this inner conflict ever since he was told by the weird sisters that he is fated to become king. This conflict ties everything together, between fate versus free will and sane or insane. Macbeth started the play as being a glorified war hero, however as time moved on he transformed into a bloodthirsty tyrant. Macbeth has gone through so much that he has shifted into a guilty man haunted by nightmares and hallucinations but will not stop until he gets what he came for. Macbeth has gone so far into the void of guilt that his name has now fell into infamy, as shown by quote by Young Siward saying “The devil himself could not pronounce a title/ More hateful to mine ear.” (5.7.10-11). Macbeth had already grown a name for himself while he kept his innocence, however with all the killings macbeth has made, he has done nothing but shame his name. Macbeth name to others is more hateful and there is nothing that Siward would rather do than to end Macbeth’s life, thus ending all the guilt and evil inside
Macbeth’s visions and the prophecies of the witches cause Macbeth to make poor decisions, which lead him to his eventual downfall. Macbeth started off as a noble, virtuous man, he was loyal to the king and was well respected by the other noblemen. The prophecies and hallucinations corrupted Macbeth’s intentions and as a result, Macbeth became power hungry and overzealous. A combination of Macbeth’s ambition and paranoia lead to many senseless murders.
People tend to point fingers at people a lot. In this case, the question is “who is to blame for all the killings?” Most say Lady Macbeth because of her disturbing thoughts, words, and actions. But Macbeth is the one who murdered. Macbeth is ambitious in killing and is well enough to make his own decisions, so putting the blame on Lady Macbeth does not make sense. In Macbeth no one is to blame and he is truly the one at fault.
To begin, Macbeth experiences an internal downfall due to his ambition where he battle between his desires and moralistic values. Initially, the idea of attaining power over Scotland by killing King Duncan sparks a sense of fear and paranoia in Macbeth, however, his conscience struggles to take over his ambition: "that we but teach/ Bloody instructions, which being taught, return/ To plague the inventor. [...] I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Valuing ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And falls on th' other-" (1.7.8-28). At this moment, Macbeth contemplates on killing King Duncan as he visualizes the long term consequences of committing the crime. The reader can grasp his moral judgement as he understands that by proceeding with the murder, he is only causing his own demise and punishing himself. With that b...
All things considered, Macbeth remains accountable for the events in the play rather than the minimal influence Lady Macbeth presents. Within Scotland, Macbeth plays a substantial role as his tyrannical influence drags the country into the ground. The actions of Macbeth overcome the words of Lady Macbeth. Specifically, Macbeth murders King Duncan while Lady Macbeth only subtly influences him. Afterwards, his own ambition drives him insane which then leads him to plot the murder of Banquo and Fleance. Lastly, Macbeth remains responsible for the murder of the family of Macduff as he tries to secure his power as the king. All in all, Macbeth turns to the wrong people for guidance when he needs it and his unchecked ambition leads to his collapse. People who strictly follow their ambitions wish to face a series of unfortunate events.
The character Macbeth in the story of Shakespeare’s Macbeth faces decisions that affect his morals. He begins as an innocent soul, dedicated to serve his kingdom and its king, Duncan. As time passes and opportunities present themselves combined with the deception of the evil witches, Macbeth begins his descent into madness. Macbeth’s innocence and loyalty are completely corrupted due to his over confidence, guilty conscience, and the inevitability of human nature. Macbeth looses sight of what is morally right to do in life because his logical choices are changed by these factors.
Throughout the play of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is supposed to be a likeable character until he kills the king. By committing this heinous act, Macbeth instantly becomes a villain and continues to commit murderous acts, all stemming from his first terrible mistake. One of his motives consists of choosing power over integrity, therefore he kills the king. Another reason why Macbeth is a villain is because he continued to kill innocent people to hide his doings. Lastly, since Macbeth is a villain and murderer, he deserves to be condemned and disdained.