When returning from battle, Macbeth and his best friend Banquo come across three witches who tell them three prophecies. The three witches tell them of Macbeth’s new title, Thane of Cawdor. They then surprise Macbeth by saying:
“All hail, Macbeth that shalt be King hereafter!”
They then tell Banquo that his sons will be kings but he will never rule a King. This news frightens Macbeth and both try to dismiss these ideas. This is until one of the king’s men greets Macbeth and Banquo and gives great news to Macbeth:
“He bade me (from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor, in which addition, hail, most worthy thane! For it is thine”
These words trigger Macbeth’s ambition. Macbeth begins to think that the witches are speaking the truth and one day he will become King. He travels to the King who officially names him Thane of Cawdor and tells him that he will visit Macbeth’s castle to celebrate. Macbeth writes a letter to his wife, telling her about the witches and his new title
Macbeth is content with his new title, until Lady Macbeth, being the dominant figure of the couple, conspires and convinces her gullible husband to kill Duncan so that Macbeth can become king. Lady Macbeth receives a letter from her proud husband, who tells news of his new title and the title that is predicted of him, King. Lady Macbeth begins to plot the murder of King Duncan. However, she feels that Macbeth is not man enough to commit such a crime:
“Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way thou wouldst be great. Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.”
Lady Macbeth then tries to taunt Macbeth by saying he is not manly enough to carry out the murder. After Duncan’s death, his body is discovered and everyone is told that Duncan’s killers were his guards, who were killed by Macbeth to cover up the truth. That was just the start of Macbeth’s evil.
Now the roles have turned and as Lady Macbeth was at fault for the first tragedy, she is feeling very guilty. However, Macbeth is growing stronger and more ruthless, leading to more murders including the murder of his ex-best friend Banquo. Macbeth sees that Banquo is becoming suspicious and has Banquo murdered, along with his son Fleance, who manages to escape.
“O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives”
Macbeth places all his trust in the witches’ prophecies. He clearly changed from a noble, trustworthy soldier, to a disloyal, murdering man. Macbeth begins to hallucinate and finds himself seeing the ghost of Banquo at a banquet, in which all the Kings’ noblemen are invited. This leaves everyone thinking that Macbeth is going insane. He then goes to visit the witches again:
“Beware Macduff! Beware the Thane of Fife.” “None of woman born shall harm Macbeth.” “Macbeth will never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunisane Hill shall come against him”
These three new prophecies give Macbeth the impression that no one can harm him. Macbeth now relies solely on the prophecies Lady Macbeth is now becoming weak and is beginning to hallucinate by seeing blood all over her hands. This get too much for her and she eventually commits suicide.
Had Macbeth not been spurned on be his aggressively ambitious wife he would never have carried out the murder of King Duncan. He would have become Thane of Cawdor, and lived a noble life. This leads me to the conclusion that the tragedies of Macbeth were not at all Macbeth’s fault. His only fault was his gullibility and innocence, which was targeted and abused by the real source of evil, his wife.
