The witches’ corrupt Macbeth's mind by making predictions using their supernatural powers, which tend to become true. The Three Witches set Macbeth upon his murderous path. This then makes Macbeth feel that their predictions are coming true and it encourages him to gain the throne and be king. They trick him by telling him the predictions but they don’t warn him of the consequences. When Macbeth is told of the prophecies he tries to question the witches to find out more, but they disappear without explaining what they mean. Macbeth thinks that the witches are just trying to mislead him, until it is revealed that he is Thane of Cawdor. At that time he starts to consider the possibilities of him being king.
Lady Macbeth’s role in helping to perform the crime is done so that her husband is given the excellence he is promised. She decides to help him gain the crown as he is too kind to fight for the position. Lady Macbeth decides that Duncan will be killed while staying there and she plans how the murder will be carried out. She tries to get rid of all kind thoughts in Macbeth's head so that he can perform the act. She tells her husband to appear normal, even while he plans to kill the King. Macbeth’s letter inspires Lady Macbeth and she persuades him to go ahead with plans each time he has doubts. Lady Macbeth criticizes her husband for being a coward and she says that she would rather kill her child then withdraw from a promised agreement. Lady Macbeth does corrupt Macbeth because every time he backs out she convinces him to change his mind to his first decision. She succeeds in persuading him by using the words ‘I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.’ Near the beginning although she shows calmness and control, Lady Macbeth is eventually conquered by her inner demons. In a scene, she reveals her guilty feelings and tries to wash invisible blood from her hands. Her death is reported a few scenes later. Macbeth listens to Lady Macbeth because he needs to constantly feel secure and he thinks it is essential to prove his manhood to his wife. She gives him courage and tells him to pull himself together she says ‘You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness off your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go carry them and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.’ This shows how vital her existence is to him now that he has committed the crime. She persuades him by inducing him to prove himself to her. Lady Macbeth knows that the only way to get her husband to do her will is by making the most of her feminine charms and persuasive powers to convince him to do what she feels must be done. Lady Macbeth has already shown herself to be more ambitious than Macbeth. Now she tries to force out all her natural emotions; she tries to identify the darker side of herself, to take control of her, to make her into a beast, so that she may persuade Macbeth to do this awful deed. She wants to be completely evil, cruel and empty of any peaceful feelings. She asks the evil spirits to turn the milk in her breast to poison, in contrast to her husband, who is "Too full o' th' milk of human kindness". It appears that Lady Macbeth is becoming tough, so that her husband may find the courage in her to put into practice her plan. Lady Macbeth struggles to maintain control of herself eventually what she thought she could control is controlling her, her emotions, her conscience and all the things she thought she could hold back return to trouble her.
Duncan’s murder has made Macbeth edgy and tense it has made him develop a guilty conscience, which makes things more difficult for him. As he is always struggling to control his mind and do what he wants to do, however sometimes he is persuaded to make certain decisions. He becomes very unease and feels discomfort; it is now when he has lack of sleep, the nightmares, and the loss of appetite that he is suffering from however he has to hide these emotions for the banquet. Things are worse after Banquo’s murder because he starts seeing illusions of Banquo’s ghost. He tries to carry on but he sees the ghost again and then is excused from the banquet for not being well. This shows that Macbeth was not sure of what he was doing; he could not take up an option and that he was persuaded all the time. He was persuaded either by Lady Macbeth or taken over by his own determination to fulfill his ambition of power and status. All the time that Macbeth was questioning his intelligence to ask himself whether he was doing the right thing or not, he was motivated by his wife or his self-indulgence. We know that he feels guilty because he is always having doubts and he asks to be left alone before the banquet so he can appreciate company later this is shown when he says ‘to make society The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself Till supper-time alone. While then, god be with you!’ He also says ‘To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus’ which means being king is nothing unless he is safe, this shows no matter what he does he has fears. Before the murder he is very determined to accomplish his ambition but after the murder he has doubts and starts to become afraid and starts to think about the negative side in life.
Macbeth's humanity starts to disappear we see that Macbeth eventually loses his honesty and honor as a result of his own actions. Macbeth is not happy with who he is and what he has done even though he gets what ever he sets out to gain and trying to obtain everything meant that he lost everything. Macbeth failed to understand that he needed to be more proud of himself than of the status that he could gain. Macbeth has a conscience so strong that the simple thought of his crimes torture him to no end. Macbeth's guilt remained an issue as he had a guilty conscience and he kept thinking of the events that led him to the position he is in now, he doesn’t know whether what he did was worth what he gained. We can clearly see it wasn’t worth it, that the hunt of power and control was indeed worth a great price. The effect of Lady Macbeth's death on Macbeth makes him very scared yet he is still holding on to the third prophecy. He then has an easy victory over young Siward and that boosts his confidence. He does not change roles with his brave wife in fact he is the opposite of her. He becomes a ‘dead butcher’ from a valiant soldier, in the process of gaining power he loses his humanity, his respect, his pride, his honor and his honest all just to maintain the crown. The most evil character through out the play is Lady Macbeth she is tortured by guilt she uses her feminine charms to corrupt Macbeth and makes him listen to her evil ways and plan to perform the murder. However Lady Macbeth pays for her sins and is tormented by her guilt right till her death.
In this essay I have bought to your notice the events and people that persuade Macbeth to perform such evil acts. He is a man who, for the simple sake of his own ambition, is willing to murder his king and his best friend. Macbeth is no longer happy with who he is or what he has done despite the fact he gets all that which he set out to gain. Therefore, in trying to obtain his idea of "everything" Macbeth tragically lost everything instead. He was a man that indeed was brave, honest, respectful, and powerful but the greed and hunt for more risked everything that he had. Macbeth was a good person at the beginning of the play but he changed due to being challenged by his wife. His wife motivates him by saying ‘Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now to look so green and pale At what it did so freely? From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard To be he same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ Like the poor cat I’ th adage?’. Following that she says ‘What beast was’t then that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than that you were, you would Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fitness now Does unmake you.’ Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth of just about all his actions and Macbeth in the rage of gaining power just does what he is told. Lady Macbeth has a big hand in all these awful actions of Macbeth because if she did not use her charms and basically challenged him then he would have backed out ages ago. She knew he did not have the intension to kill for the position but therefore made him kill not once but many times. I think that Lady Macbeth was the cause of all these murders and actions but I also think that Macbeth's determination also persuaded him.