Act 1 Scene 5, we move onto the letter that Macbeth has written to Lady Macbeth. This is when Lady Macbeth comes into play with the situation. On lines 15-16 she says ‘Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness’ She is worried that he is too weak willed to go ahead and kill Duncan. And line 25- ‘That I may pour my spirits in thine ear’. She has put it upon herself to persuade Macbeth into doing terrible deed. She wants to be the voice that argues away all of Macbeth’s conscience. When a messenger tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan intends on staying at their castle she gets excited and sees this as an opportunity to kill Duncan. She calls up the spirits of darkness and asks them to ‘unsex’ her to take away all that makes her a woman. She asks to be made insensitive so that she may carry out her scheme, she wishes to be filled with ‘direst cruelty’. ‘Take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers’ (line 46) This shows that her character is strong, she is sure
that she can get Macbeth the crown. She seems to welcome evil, whereas Macbeth seems wary and even fears it. Once Macbeth is back at castle, this is when Lady Macbeth takes control of situation. She tells him to ‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t.’ (Scene 5, line 64) Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to deceive everyone by looking happy and normal. She doesn’t want her plans to be ruined.
I feel that Act 1 Scene 7 is a very important scene. Lady Macbeth is at her strongest and Macbeth is at his weakest. At the start of the scene, Macbeth doubts whether to go ahead and kill Duncan. Lines 7-8, ‘But in these cases, We still have judgement here, that we teach.’ This shows how Macbeth was thinking about the consequences of killing Duncan. This is just a glimpse of Macbeth’s human side. It shows that he did have a conscience. Lines 25-28 he says no real reason to kill Duncan apart from his ambition. Lady Macbeth then tries to persuade Macbeth into doing the terrible deed. ‘Was the hope drunk’. (Line 35) This is very clever of Lady Macbeth, implying that Macbeth is a coward and that he was drunk when dreaming about becoming King. She almost patronises Macbeth in line 59- He has said, ‘If we should fail?’ and she quickly cuts in ‘We fail?’ she is almost ridiculing him, she is saying that it is not going to happen. She is eliminating any doubt that may be in Macbeth’s mind. At this point in the play Lady Macbeth has had a large amount of influence on Macbeth and many people believe that she was completely to blame for the killing of Duncan.
Before the murder, Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger covered in blood with the handle pointing towards him. Macbeth speaks another soliloquy. He wonders whether the dagger is inviting him to do the murder. His mind is now full of dark thoughts. When Macbeth sees the dagger this shows us that he is going slightly mad even before the murder. He talks of things inviting him to do the murder. This shows that he thinks everything is right about the murder and he should do it. Macbeth goes ahead and murders king Duncan, his sons flee from Scotland. It leaves Macbeth to be crowned king.
After he had been crowned king, Macbeth becomes paranoid about being caught and is worried about Banquo. Macbeth knows that Banquo has his suspicions, as he was there when the witches made their predictions. Macbeth hires two people to kill Banquo in Act 3 scene 2. This is when Macbeth shines and he verbally persuades them why he is asking them to do this. He manages to twist the truth. Lady Macbeth has no part in this decision. Over the next couple of scenes Lady Macbeth is not seen alone with Macbeth. I feel that he is slowly distancing himself from her and from this point onwards Lady Macbeth no longer has any influence on the downfall of Macbeth. Macbeth has changed in the sense that he does no longer ask his wife's opinion and he doesn’t need to be persuaded by someone to murder someone. He has become cold hearted and ruthless, two things that stopped him from rising to greatness.
From now own Macbeth’s downfall is caused by himself. In Act 4, scene 1, Macbeth commands the witches to answer his questions. He thinks that he is control of them and begins to order them about. They tell him in 3 apparitions, Macbeth is too ignorant to actually look at what the witches are showing him. They tell him to be aware of Macduff, no man born a natural birth from a woman may ever harm him, and when the witches tell him that he will never be defeated until the Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane, Macbeth merely dismisses the idea. ‘That will never be: who can impress the forest; bid the tree.’ ( line 95) Macbeth believes that he is invincible and afterwards doesn’t even try to think of the possibilities of the woods moving, he is so arrogant that he won’t even consider that there may be a way. He then sets off to seek revenge on Macduff’s family. He gets soldiers to rape and murder his wife and children. In Act 5 scene 5, Lady Macbeth kills herself, Macbeth does not seem to care. ‘She should of died hereafter’. ( line 16) He has lost all of his compassion. In the end Macduff kills Macbeth.
I think that Lady Macbeth, the witches, and Macbeth are to blame for the downfall of Macbeth. If the witches hadn't of made predictions and suggested that he would become king then Lady Macbeth would never have pushed him in to killing the king. If the witches had not suggested it then he would never of killed Duncan Also I think if his wife hadn't of been so persuasive then he wouldn’t of done it. Basically it was fate that he would meet the witches and they would make such accusations and it would just so happen that the king would be coming to stay that night making the perfect opportunity for the killing. The great tragedy of the play is of the kind of man Macbeth could have been and almost was, could have risen to greatness. But it was the fatal mistake of giving in to his ambition that contributed most to his downfall.
