I believe overall that the Witch's prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s influence and his own deep desires led to his downfall.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is approached by the witch’s, who seem to taunt him with titles calling him “Thane of Glamis”, “Thane of Cawdor” and saying that he “shall be king hereafter”. These prophecies confuse Macbeth at first because he is already Thane of Glamis and the Thane of Cawdor still lives, although later Macbeth finds out that the Thane of Cawdor was killed, and so begins to think to himself that one day he could be king, he says aside “Glamis and Thane of Cawdor! The greatest is behind!”. The truth that seems to have emerged from this prophecy leads Macbeth to ill thoughts.
Macbeth writes a letter to Lady Macbeth telling her of the weird prophecies. This stirs up ill thoughts in her mind and she believes that Macbeth will be king,
“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / what thou art promised...Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way”
Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth is far too kind a person to carry out these dreadful actions. I believe that at this point Lady Macbeth is more eager for Macbeth to be king than he is himself. She then begins to plot Duncan’s murder. Later when Macbeth arrives home, he confronts his wife and explains that he could not possibly continue with his intentions as he considers himself a loyal kinsman, Lady Macbeth then turns things around and calls him a coward, and tries to persuade him to her way of thinking by insulting his military powers
“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 freely?... Art thou afeared to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire? Wouldst thou has that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem”
These criticisms have a deep impact on Macbeth, showing the power Lady Macbeth has over him, he decides at this point that he will do the deed.
Soliloquies play a major part in forming our opinion of the characters, often revealing that Macbeth has mixed feelings about murdering Duncan, he wishes to gain more power but is unsure of the actions that he must take. There is a lot of antithesis used, such as when he says that the prophecies of the witch’s “cannot be ill, cannot be good, if ill” which shows us that Macbeth is on a thin line of what is right and what is wrong. Antithesis add mystery to the play, showing the character’s inner thoughts and feelings.
I believe that the witch’s prophecies trigger off Macbeth’s vaulting ambition to be king. Lady Macbeth then makes his ambitions stronger by criticising him, so that in the end Macbeth murder’s Duncan and sacrifices any real future he had. I think that without Lady Macbeth pushing and criticising him, he may not have gone through with it and because of this I think Macbeth’s downfall is as much Lady Macbeth’s fault as it is his own. We can see that Macbeth knows what is morally right, but unfortunately his own greed and ambition overtake his conscience.
After Macbeth murders the king, his “Vaulting Ambition” is replaced with panic and regret, his conscience eats away at him, he is fearful, which ultimately destroys the brave Macbeth we saw at the beginning of the play. He fears the consequences and fears that he will no longer be able to be at peace, he is afraid that he will no longer be able to pronounce “Amen” and fears that he will no longer be able to sleep. I believe being unable to sleep shows he has a guilty conscience, and knows he has done wrong.
Macbeth’s decision to kill Banquo came about because he was paranoid about losing his crown. He remembers the witch’s prophecies, telling Banquo that he would father kings, which is a threat to Macbeth as he has taken every word of the witch’s as the truth. At the end of the banquet after Banquo has been killed, Macbeth says ”we are but young in deed”, I believe this to be a subtle remark, that two murders aren’t enough and there will be more to come. Banquos ghost haunts him but Macbeth has planned his next victim. When Macbeth murdered Duncan, this showed a dramatic change in him. Macbeth was a warrior not a murderer, so he begins to question himself , he asks himself if it is evil why would it give him so many good things. He is at a crisis point where he realises that he shouldn’t have killed Duncan, but is happy with the position it has brought him.
Macbeth’s paranoia grows and he feels that if he could murder someone, what would stop others murdering him. His main concerns are Banquo and Fleance, and the possibility of them murdering him. He has went from being fearful of evil, to being fearful of not doing evil, which shows how much Macbeth has transformed, from a loyal kinsman to a murderer.
Macbeth returns to the witches as he grows fearful of his future. The witches show him three apparitions that depict his possible future: the first vision is of an armoured head, warning him to be aware of Macduff; the second is of a bloody child, meaning that no one of women born can harm him which Macbeth takes as meaning he is invincible; the final apparition is of a child with a branch in his hand, meaning that he has nothing to fear until Birnam woods move to Dunsaine (Macbeths Castle).
When Macbeth murders Macduff’s family, this is the point where I believe Macbeth becomes our tragic hero, when he stops murdering for a reason and starts murdering for the sake of it. We can see that Macbeth’s paranoia is ruling and can sympathise with him, but not agree with his decisions. When we come to the end of the play, Macbeth is so used to killings he is no longer fearful as he once was: “I almost forgot the taste of fear”.
I think that the downfall of Macbeth means a lot to us, Macbeth wanted to become king, so he could achieve something memorable, “Brave King Macbeth” instead of “Brave Macbeth”. He wanted to win titles but his ambition led him down the wrong road and after his first murder he felt he had no choice but to continue murdering .
I feel sorry for Macbeth, even though he murdered because he wanted life satisfaction and the only way he saw to achieve this was to kill Duncan. Macbeth believed that when he had done the deed he would have a long and happy reign on the throne, but in the end fear caught up with him and he began to see people as threats and he felt trapped and fearful.
Macbeth was a tragic hero who in the end he became a wreck, but remained faithful to his beliefs. He went from Honourable Soldier to a Dishonourable King, but kept his strength which made him what he was.
Gary Loudon