Who Is Responsible For Macbeth's Downfall

In Shakespeare’s tragic play Macbeth, Shakespeare demonstrates the different factors that influenced Macbeth’s decisions as it led to the total decline in his reign. Whilst Macbeth was prophesied and manipulated into his path of destruction, his ambitious nature is responsible for the inevitability of his downfall. From the prophesied fate of the agents of chaos, the witches, the manipulative puissance of Lady Macbeth’s masculine persona and Macbeth’s innate ambition for King, it explicates the eventual destruction of Macbeth’s reign over Scotland.

Shakespeare highlights the scheming and supernatural nature of the witches and how they helped reinforce Macbeth’s ambition for King, and thus, is partly accountable for his actions and downfall.

The witches aroused the greed within Macbeth as they hailed him “king hereafter”, prophesying that Macbeth will be promoted to Thane of Cawdor and then King. This ignited Macbeth’s innate ambition to kill King Duncan as it caused him to see a “dagger which I see before me”, highlighting his inherent characteristics of bloodlust. Moreover, the witches state how the “battle’s lost and won”, foreshadowing Macbeth’s death as he lost the battle to Macduff. It also infers how the witches have destined Macbeth to lose against Macduff, reinforcing their partaking in his eventual downfall. Furthermore, Shakspeare utilises equivocation to demonstrate how the witches “win us with honest trifles” in order to betray Macbeth in “deepest consequence”, alluding to their destructive and malignant nature as they tyrannise Macbeth throughout

As a result of the inversion of stereotypical gender roles, Shakspeare highlights Lady Macbeth’s ambition for masculinity as it empowers her to employ her manipulative persona. By calling upon the evil spirits to “unsex me here”, it illustrates the ties between masculinity and manipulation as it gives Lady Macbeth the strength and “direst cruelty” to influence the downfall of Macbeth’s grotesque actions. As Lady Macbeth accumulates her masculine features, it allows her to “chastise [Macbeth] upon the valour of her tongue”, demonstrating how her masculine features now allow her to embody the theme of manipulation which grants her the ability to have dominion over Macbeth’s downfall. Lady Macbeth can be seen manipulating Macbeth’s downfall as she states that when he “durst do it, then you are a man”, calling him a coward and questioning the true honour and dignity of his manhood as he doesn’t have the “illness to attend it”. By implying that Macbeth doesn’t have enough “illness” in him to kill Duncan as he is too full of “th’ milk of human kindness”, Lady Macbeth attempts to “poison” him by stating that he must look like “the innocent flower” but to reveal themselves as the “serpent under’t”. This quote clarifies the sheer manipulation and ambition that Lady Macbeth wields as her innate desire for the status of