Lady Macbeth fights back by challenging her husband to prove his manhood by acting decisively “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promis’d. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way.” [Act 1, Scene 7 – Lines 46 & 47]
With this she changes Macbeth’s decision and almost as though she was in battle with Macbeth’s conscience (as if three parties are involved), with Macbeth coming across as such as weak person who is easily manipulated by his wife.
As Macbeth loses his moral beliefs and ignores his conscience he begins to lose everything, and once thought of as a man that was well respected.
Words such as,
“worthiest cousin”, “loyalty” “safe toward your love and honour” [Act 1, scene 4 lines 14- 27] are used by King Duncan. This gives us an impression as to what Macbeth was like.
Macbeth starts off the story being a completely different person to the one he is come the end of the story. At the beginning he is a strong brave person who is well respected by his fellow countrymen. He has a strong marriage and has many friends and therefore is loved by many. But this is later shadowed by the evil inside, which is released by the Witches. Macbeth is a good person but the Witches reflect the evil in Macbeth.
When Macbeth meets up with the Witches at the beginning Banquo dismisses what the Witches have to say whilst Macbeth does the opposite and he listens to the preaching of them. Macbeth takes into account everything the Witches have to say and acts on this. Anything they mention to him he acts on with violence, he becomes too alert with what could happen and he does not think he just acts on instincts.
They tell him to beware Macduff so Macbeth butchers “his wife, children, servants, all that could be found”. But the influence of the Witches becomes less and less as the story progresses.
From the start Macbeth is not as committed to the murder of Duncan as Lady Macbeth is. This is because Macbeth is too noble and loyal towards Duncan. But when he finally kills Duncan his wife is driven mad by the guilt. You can tell he was weak-minded at the start of the story as he hallucinates on his way to kill Duncan “Is this a dagger which I see before me?” Also when Banquo is killed he hallucinates Banquo’s ghost coming to haunt him and makes a mockery of himself in front of his guests.
After the death of King Duncan it only spurs Macbeth on to more evil deeds. He is corrupt and slaughters all that get in his way, he is told that Banquo’s sons will be kings so he kills his close friend Banquo. He then tells Lady Macbeth that he has arranged to kill Banquo and he comments that she “marvell’st at my words”. This shows that Lady Macbeth realises the sudden change in Macbeth’s ways. Hesitancy gives way to an enjoyment of violence. He becomes a tyrant who is obsessed with killing.
He instructs his soldiers to, “Hang those who talk of fear” and then when the servant brought the news of Birnam wood moving to Dunsinane hill Macbeth told his soldiers to hang the servant until he starved if he is telling the truth.
Macbeth is too ambitious to realise that he will die in the final battle. The Witches told him has given him a strong belief in his personal abilities.
But when he remembers what the Witches said about Birnam Wood and it actually comes true he nearly gives up hope especially when his wife kills herself. The one thing that keeps him going is that “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”, but when Macduff tells him he “was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped”, he realises he has no chance of defeating Macduff and he is therefore killed.
The Witches played a larger part in the downfall of Macbeth than Lady Macbeth did, but Macbeth’s belief in personal abilities puts the greater share of the blame on Macbeth himself. Macbeth’s ambition made him blind to the other side of what the Witches had to say. As he was ambitious when things went his way, after the prophecies of the Witches, he made himself believe that he was invincible and refused to think of the consequences of the things he did.