The Downfall of MacBeth

The Downfall of MacBeth MacBeth, Lady MacBeth, and the three witches are all to blame for the tragedy of “MacBeth”. Lady Macbeth is to blame through her convincing of Macbeth, MacBeth for following his ambition instead of his conscience, and the witches for putting the idea of being king into Macbeth’s head. “Let not light see my black & deep desires.” (I, i, 51) Lady MacBeth is to blame for the tragedy because she convinces & manipulates MacBeth into killing Duncan. She does this by insulting his manhood, to which MacBeth takes great offense to. She does this to feed her hunger for power, all the while she knows that she has the ability to control MacBeth through her words. Also, she knows he’d let her have some control and be queen. This illustrates Lay MacBeth’s motives to lead MacBeth to his eventual downfall. “Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.” (I, v, 16-18) MacBeth is also to blame in how the play turned out. This is because if he wasn’t so ambitions and narrow minded, things might have ended differently. MacBeth showed concern for the killing of Duncan, and at one point states that he would “Proceed no further in this business” (I, vii, 31). However, his ambition gets the better part of him, and makes him directly responsible for what happens after he murders Duncan. Without him seeing the ghost of Banquo, there would have been minimal suspicion in his involvement in the murder. Without the three witches intervention, the idea to murder King Duncan wouldn’t have crossed MacBeth’s mind. The witches tell MacBeth that he will be king, and that is how he ultimately comes up with the idea to murder Duncan. This thought, however, ultimately leads to MacBeth’s demise. The three witches accounted three prophecies of MacBeth: That he would be Thane of Cawdor (the last one was executed), the Thane of Glamis (Which he already was), and finally to be king of Scotland. “Fair is foul, and foul is