(Act five) Hecate rebukes the witches for speaking to Macbeth without involving her. She bids them to meet her at the pit of Acheron to tell Macbeth his destiny. She promises to use magic to ruin the overconfident Macbeth.
At the same time of the night when King Duncan was killed, the night itself was so strange. The rain was pouring hard, lightning and thunder had struck, the owls shrieked and many other strange things happened that night. This indicated that the witches had played part in the killing of King Duncan.
After everything else that happened, they lead Macbeth to even more danger. Macbeth comes to the witches for more future predictions. The witches show Macbeth the three Apparitions. The first apparition said, “Beware Mucduff.”
The second Apparition said, “No naturally born man can harm Macbeth.”
The third Apparition said, “Macbeth will not be defeated until Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane.”
Macbeth notes the three statements, and thinks about them with awareness. After all, he knows that the witches’ prophecies have come true before. After hearing the witches’ prophecies he was thinking and fearing what the next step would be. He has to kill Mucduff and his family to insure that everything is save. He does not worry about his life, because he knows that no naturally born man can harm him. The witches strongly push Macbeth to his own traps. Macbeths been completely brainwashed. Whatever the witches predict he will fulfil their predictions.
The witches’ major point in telling Macbeths future was to destroy his life. That is why they came to earth. They have nothing to lose or gain. Apart from taking someone’s life at risk. After they have performed their evil acts, they vanish in to the air. They leave the people to suffer behind in the natural world. This shows that they are “All Powerful.”
The second character I am going to look at is “Lady Macbeth.”
Lady Macbeth plays an essential part in King Duncan’s murder and Macbeth’s downfall. She’s clever and has great ideas and thoughts of solving a problem. She persuaded Macbeth to do the murderous act. When he disobeyed her, she will say horrible things to him and really pushed him to do the murder of King Duncan.
The way she starts the play is by reading a letter from Macbeth. She reads the letter aloud to herself understanding the facts and picking out the important bits. She reads that Macbeth has visited the witches. She reads that the witches predict Macbeth is going to be the Thane of Cawdor and the king of Scotland.
Lady Macbeth has a plan to kill Duncan so that Macbeth can be the next king of Scotland. At the first stage, Macbeth weighs the moral implications of the witches’ predictions. He is horrified at the thought of killing Duncan, but he resolves to accept whatever has to be.
Lady Macbeth comes in Macbeth’s way guiding him to the harmful actions. She persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan. She plans this out her self and leaves the rest to Macbeth. The only actions she takes are making the bodyguards drunk.
Macbeth says he has decided not to kill King Duncan. In reply, Lady Macbeth accuses him of cowardice and lack of manliness. She uses a strong phase that; she would kill her own child rather than break such a promise.
Macbeth pushes him self out of this, but Lady Macbeth has beaten him. She made Macbeth to do the unlawful act. When the moment came, Lady Macbeth’s conscience does not give the impression that she is troubled by her evil deeds, however Macbeth’s conscience is troubled from the moment he even thought of killing Duncan.
After putting Macbeth in a difficult position, she cannot take the pain in herself. She cannot help Macbeth towards the end, because she is feeling guilty in her self. In her sleep walk, she tries to take the blood off from her hand. She says that the smell of blood is still there, not all the perfumes of Arabia will sweeten this little hand. As of this result, Lady Macbeth commits suicide by jumping out of the window.
The third and final character I am going to talk about is “Macbeth”
Macbeth plays a crucial part in the killing of King Duncan and his own downfall. His character in the play changes as he goes towards the end of the story. First, he is greatly honoured and welcomed by King Duncan. They celebrate the fighting in the battle with the Norwegian troops. Personally Macbeth kills the rebel Macdonald himself. The first time when Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches on the hill. Macbeth and Banquo see the witches in a surprise and swiftly get their knives out. Macbeth goes towards the witches Saying, “Speak if you can, what are you?”
This is what the witches reply in Act one scene three, “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.”
The second witch said, “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor.”
The third witch said, “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, that shalt be king hereafter.”
After Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecies, he starts getting worried. Banquo asks him not to worry, because the witches’ prophecies cannot come true. Banquo wants to know his future.
The witches reply “you your self won’t be king but your descendants shall be the kings.
Macbeth wants to know more about him, but the witches vanish.
One of the witches’ prophecies comes true; Macbeth now is the Thane of Cawdor. At this stage Macbeth has thoughts that, how will he become the king of Scotland? He is horrified at the thought of killing King Duncan, but resolves to accept whatever has to be. The witches have influenced Macbeth kill Duncan.
Lady Macbeth after reading the letter has plans to also kill Duncan so that Macbeth can have the Throne. She analyses Macbeth’s nature, fearing that he is too decent and squeamish to murder Duncan for the crown.
Macbeth struggles with his conscience. Killing King Duncan will result in vengeance. Macbeth decides not to kill Duncan in spite of everything. Lady Macbeth influences Macbeth to kill Duncan. Also accuses him of cowardice and lack of manliness. Finally, Macbeth was convinced by his own wife to kill Duncan, he goes to Duncan’s room and kills him with the guard’s daggers.
In addition, the magic dagger was making Macbeth kill Duncan because they were moving towards Duncan’s room.
The thoughts of killing Banquo and Fleance were Macbeths own fault. He wanted to keep the throne to his family and not Banquo’s family. The plan did not work out properly as Banquo was killed but Fleance had escaped from the murderers.
Macbeth vows to visit the witches’ to know his future, swearing that from now on there is no turning back. He will accept to kill anyone standing in the way.
Macbeth’s second visit to the witches makes him responsible for the killing of Macduff’s family and plus his own Downfall. It was said from the witches that no naturally born man can harm Macbeth. Macbeth was confident with fighting Macduff. Macduff was fighting with Macbeth and was said that Macduff was not a naturally born man. Macbeth said to himself that he would carry on until the end of his life. Macduff defeated him by chopping his head. This marked the end of Macbeth’s downfall.
Conclusion
Now I am going sum this all up to answer the question of the title.
The play ended with Macbeth being killed by Macduff. Macbeth had to be killed in some way to end the story. Many people got to now that Macbeth was behind this brutal killing. In order to keep the crown to his generation, rather than passing it to someone else. What the people do not know is who is behind this killing. Macbeth could not do everything himself they said.
I have come up with a conclusion that the murder of King Duncan can be blamed on all three of the characters equally. For Macbeths downfall the witches can be mostly to be blamed for and partly lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself.
It is very interesting the way in which two of the characters contribute to Macbeth downfall and the way they contribute towards the murder of King Duncan.
The witches start the whole drama by foretelling Macbeth’s future, this was obvious the main cause of the two things which happened in the story. If Macbeth did not know what would happen in the in the future he probably would not have killed Duncan. If someone knows what’s going to happen in the future obviously they are going to be worried.
Lady Macbeth on the other hand does the rest of the damage to Macbeth by persuading him to kill Duncan. So that she can be part of the Royal Family. She had to do something, which would persuade Macbeth to kill. At the end she herself cannot control what is going around her and dies suffering.
Macbeth in the first place should not have gone to the witches, he new they are bad people and can trick people. After knowing these entire consequences he still takes his own way in listening to the witch’s. The overall action is done by Macbeth himself; he should have thought his own ideas instead of his wife’s. At the end of the day a person’s action are thought by themselves no other person can force you to kill someone. Committing a crime is very serious case and everyone is equal in the court of Law. Many Kings and Queens have died of the years because of the Throne.
