Explore the role of the supernatural in Macbeth

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Is Macbeth responsible for his downfall?

Edoardo Alhadeff

Macbeth is only partly responsible for his downfall, for his death and for the negative outcome of his plans; it is his ambition and the fact that around him there are a lot of people who put pressure on him to become king. Macbeth is a noble man, but when his ambition to become king takes over he loses all his friends and eventually his life.

The first people to influence him are the three Witches, they predict that he will become king “ that shalt be king hereafter”. He convinces himself that the witches are telling the truth, because deep down he wants to become king.

Even if his biggest ambition is to become king, he knows it is wrong “my black and deep desires” ”bloody business” because in those times only God could choose who was to have the crown for the Divine Right of Kings. In England at the time only God had the power to choose the king, only the true descendents could have the crown.

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In act 1 scene 2 Macbeth has an hallucination in which a dagger appears “ is this a dagger which I see before me?” He uses the dagger as a proof that the Witches prediction was correct, but he knows that the hallucination is not real “ I have thee not”, “yet I see thee still”. Macbeth is a weak, fragile, passive character and he always tries to find excuses, like the dagger hallucination, to fulfill his dreams.

Lady Macbeth is also an excuse, because he knows that she is more ambitious than he is and she will certainly help ...

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