Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s literature works, a play involving the character Macbeth of Scottish origin and his wife Lady Macbeth. The play starts with the successful story involving the win by three Scotland generals over their foes from the nation of Ireland, Macbeth being among them. This shows the nobility and loyalty that Macbeth had towards his king and country because he was willing to die for his country in the battle field fighting his countries enemies (SparkNotes Editors). Despite all of Macbeth’s achievements he met his downfall which was mainly contributed by the interferences of his wife Lady Macbeth who wanted more from him than that he could deliver.
Macbeth should be blamed for his own downfall. This is because he goes against his principles and listens and believes the superstitious claims from witches about a prophecy that he would become king. His downfall can also be contributed to the fact that he listens to his wife Lady Macbeth who influences him to kill Duncan as it would be a way of showing his manhood. Would it not be for the fact that he is ambitious and naïve, he would have brushed away these insightful claims from his wife and the witches and he would see them for what they really were and that was selfishness on the part of his wife. He blindly takes his wives advice to murder Duncan believing that the transition would as smooth as he was promised by his wife, yet despite him being a general and having seen many power transitions in his life he would know that none is smooth may it be willingly or not. ”Lady Macbeth chides Macbeth and shares her plan with him on how to carry out the murder” (Hatch, 436). Despite all these faults from Macbeth, his failure is mostly due to the meddling of his life by Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth is brought in as a villain character that was very manipulative and greedy, constantly challenging her husband’s manhood. “She amazes even herself, and says that she would have killed Duncan herself if he had not reminded her of her father” (Macbeth, 436). Her Misogynistic character is shown as she is not okay with her husband’s position as the general despite them having everything they needed in life, so she goes ahead and influences him to overthrow the current king from his position and take it for himself. Her ambition was that she would become queen and since she could not do this by herself, she woos Macbeth into her plans. She goes to the extent of ridiculing his manhood telling him that ambition is masculinity is shown by the power lust and ambition in a person, she did this when she found out that he was not going for the plan and this was the only way to motivate him, by attacking his manhood (Jamieson).
After Macbeth ascends to the position of king, his downfall is inevitable due to the fact that his wife Lady Macbeth never stopped meddling in how he did his activities. With the fall of Macbeth as king, he would also bring his nation down with him and that is exactly what that happened to Scotland. In his time as Scotland’s king, he is not given the respect that he deserves by the people he lead, instead they call him a tyrant because he takes the kings position using force and it was never handed down to him willingly. “Macbeth’s reign would lead nowhere. Now that he is king, he fears that he will be targeted by Banquo’s family” (Macbeth, 437).
Therefore, all the misfortune that faces Macbeth before and after he was king are partly his fault but it should be mostly blamed on his wife Lady Macbeth who gives him intentions that he was never willing to execute.
Work cited
"Thread: Who Is to Blame for Macbeth's Downfall?" UsingEnglishcom ESL RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2013. <http://www.usingenglish.com/text-analysis- statistics/191761- who-blame-macbeths-downfall.html>.
Hacht, Anne Marie. Shakespeare for Students: Critical Interpretations of Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry. Detroit: Thomson / Gale, 2007. Print.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Macbeth.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
