Reason Behind Macbeth's Downfall

To what extent does Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth as the reason behind Macbeth’s downfall?

How could the epitome of righteousness have such a tragic downfall? Throughout the play we can see a drastic change in Macbeth from an honorable war hero to a greedy killer. To some extent this is caused by Lady Macbeth’s influence. Lady Macbeth is shown as a cunning, atypical Elizabethan woman who, for some cases lead Macbeth to go aggro for the crown. Although Macbeth is also to blame, he allowed himself to be consumed and mesmerized by his own wife’s tricks.

Lady Macbeth influences Macbeth with her murderous ambition. We can see her chaotic intentions when she says “tis to love the babe that milks me - I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed its brains out had I sworn as you”. The use of baby as the subject to brutal murder gives an uneasy feeling because babies are seen as innocent to both modern and Elizabethan audiences which allows the audience to see that lady Macbeth is not afraid to kill anyone even a baby for what she promised. The use of the verbs “plucked” and “dashed” gives the effect of a careless and brutal action. Without being shown, the audience can only imagine the mutilated aftermath

We can see this in the play when Macbeth is drawn by his wife’s ambition and slowly starts to get drawn into the plan. Macbeth speaks to Lady Macbeth in a submissive tone in act 1 scene 7 and asks questions as if Lady Macbeth is in control. For example “Hath he asked for me?”, “If we should fail?” This shows that Macbeth that he is starting to fall into Lady Macbeth’s control. We can also see that Lady Macbeth has already taken the lead after Macbeth is manipulated when she says “leave all the rest to me”. This shows the reader that Lady Macbeth is already at a state where she is at full control and Macbeth is used like a point