Macbeth's Downfall

Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth delves through the downfall of Macbeth and the consequences involved when you don’t follow your own conscience. The protagonist, Macbeth, is at first, respected as a ‘brave and noble’ man. However, when Macbeth meets with the witches and hears his future prophecies, he becomes so obsessed with the idea of becoming king that he loses all touch with humanity. Macbeth, being extremely ambitious, is persuaded into being influenced by evil minds and ignores his own sense of right and wrong. Macbeth concludes the play being totally morally corrupt, consequently leading to his own demise.

After Macbeth discovers that he “shalt be king hereafter,” he knows that the only way for this prophecy to become true is to murder King Duncan. Macbeth realizes that murdering the king would be completely inhumane, since he was “his kinsman and his subject.” Macbeth did not want to “bear the knife himself” and the only idea motivating Macbeth to still continue with the murder was his “vaulting ambition.” Macbeth had plenty more reasons for not killing the King than carrying out the murder, but his raging, uncontrolled ambition dominated over all the reasons against the murder and this resulted in the death of King Duncan. This final decision was highly influenced by his wife’s goading and manipulative attitude, where she attacked his manhood, calling him weak and “cowardly”. She persuaded Macbeth into believing that he would be “so much more the man” if he agreed to the deed. Even though Macbeth’s decision was highly influenced by his wife, the final decision to Kill Duncan was ultimately Macbeth’s own decision, showing that his humanity was slowly deteriorating.

Immediately after the murder, Macbeth began to feel guilty, knowing that he would “sleep no more” and that “all Neptune’s oceans won’t wash the blood clean from his hands.” The murder had left Macbeth in a state of insanity, “lost so poorly in his thoughts” and although he had a burden of...