Characters: To Blame For The Downfall In Shakespeare's Macbeth

Although humans are influenced by the close people around us, we are ultimately judged by our individual actions. In other words, it was Macbeth’s own actions that are responsible for his downfall. In the short play Macbeth, Shakespeare exemplifies that Macbeth’s mental condition is to blame for his downfall. He delinates his argument through various examples such as his relationships with the three witches, Duncan, and Banquo. By employing different characters to emphasize Macbeth’s mental vulnerability, Shakespeare begins with an interaction of three witches and their prophecies, which begin to stir up the inner thoughts of the noble war hero, Macbeth. Despite his first instinct of finding it blasphemous to become the next king, after the

The night that Duncan is killed, a magnificent change in his mentality was evoked, making it easier for him to conduct ill actions. Macbeth grasps the sudden ulterior power to become the king, and his emotions overthrows his conscience. In Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 2, he begins to hallucinate, “is this dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” (14). Despite Duncan not being dead, he gets ahead of himself and begins to panic, elucidating the focal point of the play. Macbeth’s reaction alone depicts the inconsistent fear that Macbeth has inside him; however, due to his crave for power, he strives to pursue his goal in killing Duncan. In contrast, after killing Duncan, Macbeth is filled with guilt and remorse, and soon after he begins to lose his mind. In the second scene, he says, “methought I heard a voice cry ‘sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’” (16). This quote illustrates the image of Macbeth losing both his sanity and sleep, as he is now unable to find peace while sleeping. He realizes that it is his own problem because it only addresses himself, which reinforces the theme of Macbeth being the cause of his own downfall. His own mental weakness continues to break him apart, causing him to become