Act 1 scene 5 Lady Macbeth now comes into the play and is worried that her husband is too weak to become King. A messenger informs her that King Duncan will be coming to stay at the castle and this she sees as an opportunity to kill the King. Lady Macbeth wants to be the voice that argues with Macbeth’s conscience and persuades him that they should kill the King. She calls upon the spirits of darkness and asks them to take away all that makes her a woman. She wants to be made insensitive so that she can carry out her evil scheme; she wishes to be filled with cruelty’. Take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers’. This shows that she is a strong character and is sure that she can get Macbeth the crown. She seems to relish in evil whereas Macbeth himself is wary and fears it.
In act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth is at her strongest and Macbeth is at his weakest. At the start of the scene, Macbeth is not sure about going ahead with the killing of the king. This shows how Macbeth was thinking of the consequences of killing Duncan. This is a small glimpse of Macbeth’s human side and shows that he does have a conscience; he has no real reason to kill Duncan other than his ambition. Lady Macbeth becomes clever in trying to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan. She implies that he is a coward and that he was drunk when dreaming of becoming King. She almost patronises and ridicules him by saying it is not going to happen. She tries to eliminate any doubt in Macbeth’s mind that he can become King. Lady Macbeth has a lot of influence on Macbeth in this scene and I believe she is completely to blame for the murder of Duncan.
Before the murder takes place, Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger covered in blood with the handle pointing to him. Macbeth then speaks another soliloquy. He wonders if the dagger is inviting him to commit the murder. He now begins to think dark and evil thoughts. When Macbeth sees the dagger it shows us that he is beginning to go mad even before the murder has taken place. He thinks that everything about the murder is right and that he should do it. Macbeth goes ahead and kills King Duncan, his sons then flee Scotland which allows Macbeth to be crowned King.
After being crowned, King Macbeth becomes paranoid about being caught and is worried about his friend Banquo. Macbeth knows that Banquo has his suspicions, as he was there when the witches told him of the prophecies. In act three 3 scene 2 Macbeth decides to hire two people to kill Banquo. This is when Macbeth begins to shine and 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 and over the next few scenes; she is not seen alone with Macbeth. Macbeth seems to be slowly distancing himself from his wife, so now she no longer has any influence over his downfall. He no longer asks his wife opinion and does not need to be persuaded to murder anyone. He has begun to be cold hearted and very ruthless, the two things that stopped him from rising to greatness.
From now on Macbeth’s downfall is caused by himself. In act 4 scene 1, we see Macbeth with the witches again. Macbeth orders the witches to answer his questions and thinks he is in control of them. The witches show him three apparitions, which Macbeth is too ignorant to look at what they are showing him. They tell him to be wary of Macduff, no man born a natural birth will ever harm him, and when the witches tell him that he will not be defeated until the Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane, Macbeth dismisses the idea. Macbeth thinks he is invincible and does not try to think of the woods moving. He has become so arrogant that he won’t consider there to be a way. Macbeth now seeks his revenge on Macduff’s family. He sends his soldiers to rape and kill his wife and children. In act 5 scene 5 Lady Macbeth dies and at this Macbeth shows no compassion, all he says is that ‘she had to die sometime’. Macbeth has lost all sense of who he once was and in the end dies at the hands of Macduff.
In conclusion, I think that Lady Macbeth and the witches are to blame for Macbeth becoming a tyrant. If the witches had not showed him the prophecies of becoming King then Lady Macbeth would not have forced him into killing King Duncan. In addition, if Lady Macbeth had not been so persuasive then he would not have done it. 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 that Macbeth could have been so great but it was the fatal mistake of giving into his ambition that contributed most to his tragedy.
