How far is Macbeth responsible for his own fate?

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30 August, 2001

How far is Macbeth responsible for his own fate?

During the play, Macbeth's fate is a downward spiral. He begins the

play as a rich, respected and successful Thane, and a feared warrior

on the battlefield. He has a good relationship with his wife, and he

is liked and respected. By the end of the play he is a murderer, his

men have abandoned him, his wife has committed suicide, and in the end

he is killed by a former friend.

His fate could have been the fault of himself, his wife or the

witches. Or it could have been nobody's fault, just Macbeth's destiny.

I agree that it was Macbeth's own responsibility, and his downfall was

his own fault.

One factor contributing to Macbeth's downfall could have been the

actions of the witches. In Elizabethan times, people believed in

witches and they were greatly feared, particularly at around the time

MACBETH was written, as there had just been a large witch case that

had raised people's awareness. Therefore, Shakespeare writing about

witches would have had a great effect on his audience. Witches could

sail in sieves, turn into animals, cause people to lose sleep and kill

people and animals. In Act 1 Scene 3, one of the witches says, "But in

a sieve I'll thither sail, And like a rat without a tail."

The witches greatly influence all of Macbeth's actions. They promise

him things, and he relies on their promises and becomes a lot more
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confident. "I will not be afraid of death and bane, Till Birnam forest

come to Dunsinane." He seems to have forgotten the warning Banquo gave

him the first time they met the witches. "The instruments of darkness

tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betry's in deepest

confidence." However, the witches let him down by tricking him into

believing he is safe and invincible. They tell him he will not be

harmed by a man born of woman, or until "Great Birnam wood to high

Dunsinane hill shall come against ...

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