Is Lady Macbeth To Blame

In many disastrous situations in life, people direct blame away from themselves, saying that their problems were caused by others. This happens in one of William Shakespeare’s plays, Macbeth; there is a great deal of debate over whether the witches, Lady Macbeth, or Macbeth was most to blame for the chaos that took place throughout the play. There are many things that influence Macbeth and his actions, but he himself is most to blame for the calamities that take place throughout the story because he willingly let himself become an overly ambitious, paranoid, corrupt, and murderous tyrant. At the beginning of the story, when Macbeth and Banquo are returning from battle, the witches prophesize that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. This causes Macbeth to imagine himself as king, and some might argue that this instigates Macbeth to murder Duncan. The thought flashes through his head, and even though he appears to forget about it
Although his decision was greatly influenced by Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have chosen not to kill Duncan had he been more humane; it also cannot be Lady Macbeth’s fault because he was the one who actually committed the murder. Before he had encountered the witches, Macbeth had a hidden desire to become king, and he had just not realized it. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth tried to reassure himself that he did the right thing by thinking that the witches foresaw him becoming king, and that Duncan would have died either way; based upon that, Macbeth thought that he might as well speed up the process of him becoming king. If he was a good-hearted, kind person who truly was forced to murder his own king, then Macbeth would have tried to make up for his crime somehow, or at least try to change his character and become a good person. However, the fact that he believed that his actions were justified shows that Macbeth was the most responsible for his