How Far Do You Agree With the Argument That Macbeth Was Responsible For His Own Downfall?

HOW FAR DO YOU AGREE WITH THE ARGUMENT THAT MACBETH WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS OWN DOWNFALL?

Macbeth is a tragic play that traces the rise and fall of the main character: Macbeth, a virtuous man, corrupted by power and greed. Macbeth could be seen to be the sole cause of his downfall but in my opinion the three witches and Lady Macbeth are more responsible. Although Macbeth committed many foul acts I believe that they were done only because he was under the influence of three or arguably four powerful witches.

During the seventeenth century it was widely believed that witches had the power and ability to control a person’s mental and physical being. Lady Macbeth, although not a ‘secret and midnight hag’, could most certainly be considered a witch according to the standards of Shakespeare’s day. In the same way that the three witches subvert the natural order of religion and society, Lady Macbeth subverts the order of sexes and the family by attempting to have more power than the head of the family: her husband. Not only does she act subversively, but also several of her actions imply that she is actually witch-like. It was said that witches in those days could cause impotence Lady Macbeth challenges her husband’s manhood by being more aggressive than he is, taunting him and suggesting ‘when you durst do it, then you were a man’. Secondly she calls upon seemingly malevolent ‘spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts’ to ‘unsex’ her, making her a man and aiding her to overcome her husband’s reluctance and to force him to kill Duncan.

Act one, scene three brings about the very first meeting of Macbeth and the witches. He is with fellow Scottish general, Banquo. During this encounter the witches ‘hail Macbeth Thane of Cawdor’ and tell him that he ‘shalt be king here after’. They also inform Banquo that ‘he shalt get kings, though thou be none’. Following this meeting Macbeth listens and believes the witches ‘rapt’, but he is able to retain he ability to act as a morally responsible person and he controls his ambitions. He does consider that by committing murder to achieve the prophecies he stifles the idea, telling himself that ‘If chance will have [him] king, chance will crown [him], without [his] stir’. It is after this that he realises that he has become Thane of Cawdor and he is delighted by this news but also extremely perplexed. It is at this point that the witches begin their immense influence on Macbeth’s downfall. This is so because Macbeth reveals his ambition to be king and thinks about murdering Malcolm, the prince of Cumberland. He decides Malcolm is ‘a step, on which [he] must fall down, or else o’erleap’. Imagery is key to this soliloquy because Macbeth hopes that ‘light’ will not see his ‘black and deep desires’. The ‘light’ being goodness and heaven, and his ‘black and deep desires’ signifying evil and hell. This scene also creates great tension between the audience and Macbeth by using dramatic irony. The audience know that Macbeth has evil in mind and that his ideas are now becoming more serious, but he is still scared by the evil thoughts he is having.

Lady Macbeth hears of his new title, prophecies, and his wish to become king in a letter from her husband. Even without the presence of her husband Lady Macbeth begins to think about what needs to be done in order to achieve the prophecies. She fears that Macbeth is ‘too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way’ and that he is ‘not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it’. Lady Macbeth calls upon evil sprits and uses violent imagery such as blood and darkness to make this scene dramatic. It is Lady Macbeth who ...

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While Macbeth considers Duncan’s admirable qualities, pictures of angels and cherubims seeking retribution assail and frighten him. This adds to the imagery of the play because Duncan throughout is seen as a good man and is now being symbolised by angels and other heavenly creatures. This soliloquy enhances the dramatic element of the play, as do all the others. They allow the audience to be incorporated in the build up to important events and the use of dramatic irony also helps to increase tensions between the viewers and certain characters. Blank verse or iambic pentameter is also widely used and is the main expressive medium in which the play is written. It can be used in many different ways and to capture different moods and tensions in scenes.

When Lady Macbeth becomes aware of her husband’s doubts she questions his manhood and tells him that she would ‘have plucked [her] nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had [she] sworn as [he had] to this’. He worries about failing and Lady Macbeth reassures him if everything goes to plan then they wont fail. At the end of Act one Macbeth decides that the murder of Duncan will go ahead and he ends almost a whole scene of tension between himself and the audience. The end of Act one emphasises Lady Macbeth’s ability to control and persuade Macbeth and it is clear that se has been aided by the evil spirits she called upon earlier in the act.

Act two brings about the murder of Duncan but before this occurs Macbeth envisions a dagger covered in blood, with its handle pointing towards him. In my opinion he is so much under the influence of the witches that he is having hallucinations and even talking to them. Macbeth comes to believe that the dagger is a sign telling him to kill Duncan. When Macbeth hears a bell he believes that ‘[he goes] and it is done: the bell invites [him]. hear it not, Duncan; for it’s a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell’. The scene ends wit this rhyming couplet. This gives it extra resonance and depth as it concludes the scene and points to central moment. Macbeth completes the task of murdering Duncan and from then after his mind is transfixed with thoughts of guilt and murder combined. The imagery of blood is immense during the scene after Duncan’s death. Macbeth feels that his heart is stained with blood and that even ‘all great Neptune’s ocean’ cannot wash away the blood on his hands. The blood symbolises different images, firstly the literal one of murder and death and secondly it signifies evil and darkness.

Once the murder of Duncan has been found out, Malcom and Donalbain flee for their lives and Macbeth is named the new King of Scotland. Banquo begins to suspect Macbeth’s involvement in Duncan’s murder, after he remembers the prophecies of the witches. At the same time Macbeth is worried that the third prophecy that Banquo’s children will become king will, like the first two prophecies, come true. With out consulting the witches or Lady Macbeth, he plots to murder both Banquo and his son Fleance. Macbeth, convinces two murders to commit the act, and while doing so he uses similar means of persuasion that his wife used with him. I believe that at this point Macbeth still remains under the power of Lady Macbeth and whether subconsciously or not he copies her method. While the murder of Banquo is taking place Macbeth holds a great feast. During the feast one of the murders appears and tells Macbeth that Banquo is killed but his son Fleance has escaped. On hearing this Macbeth is deeply disturbed and by allowing himself to been seen with the murderer he is putting himself under great risks. This is an indication that he is utterly desperate to know the outcome of his plot. The appearance of the murderer adds greatly to the dramatic tension of the scene due to the huge difference in class between the murderer and Macbeth. Soon after this Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost sitting on his chair and he enters a state of panic and almost complete insanity. This helps us to image how great an influence the three witches have on Macbeth because they have the power to control his state of mind and even make him see a ghost. During his encounter with the ghost he claims that ‘what man dare, [he] dares’. What he doesn’t comprehend is that spirits cannot be fought against. This suggests that he may not have realised that what he was seeing was a ghost.

After such a horrific event Macbeth returns to the witches, his source of insanity and his leaders. Before his actual meeting with them they prepare for the event with their leader Hectate. From this scene one could assume that Macbeth is no longer a victim of the witches’ evil, but more an apprentice of their ways. Hectate calls Macbeth a ‘wayward son’ indicating that he is perhaps a son to them; one of their creation. But the word ‘wayward’ also suggests that he is still self-willed and therefore chooses what he does. This is why I believe that Macbeth was in some way responsible for his own downfall because he knew what he was doing, but on the other hand he was a ‘son’ to the witches and so much influenced by them that he could not help his own actions: his mind was trapped by the evil ways of the witches. On his return to the witches he is told of three more prophecies. He learns that he should fear Macduff, that ‘none of woman born shall harm [him]’ and that his kingship is secure until Birnan Wood comes to Dunstaine.

Macbeth, after hearing of the new prophecies, also comes to realise that Macduff has fled to England and so he decides to have Lady Macduff and her son killed. This is his immediate reaction to the prophecy that he should fear Macduff and the fact that he kills two innocents including a young boy shows how desperate he was to keep the prophecy from coming true.

During her sleep Lady Macbeth reveals to us her poor mental state and also talks of her guilt. This establishes that although somewhat accountable for Macbeth’s downfall she is not as responsible as the witches because she reverts to her human side and shows emotions, and therefore showing that she isn’t as mentally strong as the witches and that she doesn’t possess the same evil capabilities as they do. She then commits suicide showing further her mental weakness. After this occurs Macbeth’s castle is set to be attacked and even after warning he still believes that he will remain King until, as the witches prophesised, Birnan Wood moves. He is so sure that the witches are correct that he even risks his life in order to prove this to himself this. When he is told that the wood is in fact moving he still dismisses the news and moves onto his the last prophecy that he cannot be killed by any man of natural birth. He remains unworried and his ignorance eventually leads to his death, by Macduff who was apparently born unnaturally, by caesarean.

Macbeth started off as a honourable man, with high regards for his fellow countrymen, but he was misled and wrongly influenced by the three witches. He soon became a vicious, murderous and mentally insane man. His mind was corrupted by his wife and even more so by the three witches and this was the ultimate cause of his downfall. Consequently he was an atrocious king and when compared to the contemporary King James the sixth of Scotland and first of England, he bears no comparison. James was very much against evil acts such as witchcraft and branded the belief and practice of it to be illegal. On the other hand one could argue that Macbeth’s obsessive following of the witches eventually led to his demise. His character was therefore considered to be evil right from the start of the play. James was also very much for the loyalty of his subjects, however Macbeth was unfaithful to Duncan, Banquo and all the other high status people. The character of Macbeth is a study of how one person can degenerate from ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’ to ‘this dead butcher’, the way in which a person can go from such a high point in his life to a murderer and then death.