Three of the minor rolls in Macbeth cause the most chaos with the littlest effort. They are the witches. They use their power of suggestion to ruin all that they can. By simply suggesting things to Macbeth, they turn this proud and loyal man into a cold blooded killer. Some may say that Macbeth was unwillingly forced into his situation, but this is not true, he could have simply ignored the words of the weird sisters. His best friend, Banquo, was with him when the witches told their prophesies, but Banquo stayed true to himself and his King. Even after things began to fall apart around him, Macbeth voluntarily sought out the witches to learn more.
Macbeth, like all other humans on this planet, had a miraculous thing called free will. It means that he can make his own choices. It is true that the witches were very convincing, but in the end, he murdered his cousin, King Duncan, on a hunch. Even then, he's not sure if what he is doing is right. In Macbeth's monolog at the end of Act one, scene one, he goes on about this. He also hallucinates about seeing a bloody dagger. To any person in their right mind, a vision of a murder weapon would not be a good sign. Most people would make the wise choice of taking a nap or going to the doctor, not killing someone they love.
When the witches gave their prophesy, Macbeth's best friend, Banquo, also received a bit of information. "Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. /Not so happy, yet much happier. /Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.(I,iii,69-71)" This is great news to Banquo. His son Fleance will become a king! But he does not jump to the conclusion that he must kill everyone in line to assure his child's crown. He thinks rationally and decides to ignore the words of the weird sisters.
Though he did get some good out of the witches words, Macbeth was already seeing his world crumble. The only solution that he could find for his problem, was to seek out the witches again(Act 4, scene 1). It is still hard for me to understand how he could have possibly found himself to still be sane at this point. This once intelligent man has fallen to less then half the man he was before.
Macbeth was not the strong hero that we see as the play opens. He is a weak soul that can be manipulated with the greatest of ease. With as little as three lines, people he has never met before are able to destroy his whole life. We can see that they did not have any other power over him due to the actions of his companion, Banquo. To add to that, a strong man would have left "well enough" alone, as Macbeth did not. Macbeth was not strong, but horribly pathetic.
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