who was the most responsible for the downfall of macbeth and the murder of king duncan
...throughout the play. We see him brave in the beginning, and ambitious and self doubt in the middle when it comes to killing king duncan so he could take his spot as king. This is shown by the soliloquy in act 1 scene 3 when he says “glamis and cawdor, the greatest is behind.” This shows him growing ambitious already and already thinking about plotting against the king. Shakespeare uses macbeth to show the efftects of guilt and ambition on a character who lacks strengh of caharacter. Macbeth can be called evil but is a weak character compared to other of shakespeare’s plays who can conquer the guilt and self doubt. Macbeth strong a warrior he may be, but he cannot overcome the psychological consequences of crime. Before he kills duncan macbeth was filled with worry doubt and it was lady macbeth who influenced him into killing king Duncan by raising the issue of gender ambiguity. she says things like “when u durst do it you are a man”. This means that if he does it he is a man and this made Macbeth kill the king solely because he wanted to prove he was man. another thing that influenced him was the witches prophecy which he trusted. These factors help contribute to him killing king duncan. He is the one responsible for his own fate simply because he is too ambitious to allow his conscience from stopping him murder his way to the top. He also is responsible because of the fact that he chose to trust the witches prophecy when banquo told him not to. His fate was sealed when he chose to believe the witches’ prophecy and by murdering Duncan. His fatal confidence in the witches’ prophecy was shown towards the end in act 5 scene 4 when he repeatedly says “ I will not be afraid of death and bane till Birnam woods come to Dunsinane”. This quote shows his trust in the witches’ prophecy which shows his downfall because of his foolishness of being misled by the witches. He was responsible for the murder of King Duncan simply because he was to ambitious to see the consequences of doing such an act. This was also shown by act 2 scene 1 38 when it goes” a dagger of the mind”. This represents whether or not he is brave enough to kill duncan if he can grasp it he can kill duncan and be king. He is responsible for the murder because he allowed himself to be manipulated by lady macbeth into doing so simply because his ambition took over his conscience and mind which allowed him to think right. The witches in the story were usually referred to as the weird sisters simply because of their attire as described by Banquo “ you should be women but your beirds forbid me to interpret you are so”. Their spells and rhymed chant such as double double toil trouble” which suggests they are of the supernatural. They may not have played a major role in Duncan’s murder so therfore they are not entirely responsible for macbeths downfall and the murder of king duncan. They did however contribute to macbeths downfall by misleading him with the three apparitions and making him feel as if he was invincible by making Macbeth misinterpreting the meaning of the Birnam woods apparition. The reason they told Macbeth the predictions in the first place was probably because they are sadistic and evil and probably want to see people die and to achieve that they tell Macbeth the prophecy so they...