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Obed Salazar

Ms. Figueroa

Senior English

20 February 2019

Macbeth’s Downfall

In Macbeth being King of Scotland is what people strived for. In the Tragedy of Macbeth

written and directed by William Shakespeare, Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches,

predicting that he is going to be king of Scotland and believes the prophecy is true. His wife,

Lady Macbeth, finds out about the prophecy and she knows it is a true prophecy so she starts

about how Macbeth could become King of Scotland. She pressures Macbeth into killing Duncan,

which he ends up doing. Macbeth becomes king and he is starting to do things out of character

like killing his best friend Banquo which leads to his downfall. Lady Macbeth us responsible for

Macbeth’s downfall which is seen through her manipulation and hunger for power.

Lady Macbeth is trying to manipulate Macbeth to do something about Duncan so she can

become queen. Lady Macbeth allows the power to get to her head. She states, “Great Glamis,

Great Cawdor, Greater than both, by all-hail hereafter, thy letters have transported me beyond

this ignorant present, and I feel now the future in the instant” (Shakespeare 1.5. 51-54). Once

Lady Macbeth finds out about Macbeth’s prophecy, she wants to make Macbeth into this evil

personality, even though Macbeth is on good terms with Duncan he eventually backstabs Duncan

to become king leading to his downfall. Lady Macbeth guilt trips Macbeth into killing Duncan.

She tells Macbeth, “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in

desire? Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’s the ornament of life” (1.7. 39-42). She is

trying to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan because that is the only way he becomes king. She
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tells him if he really wants to be king then he would actually do what she is demanding him to

do. Ultimately, Lady Macbeth is evil, she lets the power get to her head and now she just wants

Macbeth to do something out of character.

Lady Macbeth has fully manipulated Macbeth to murder King Duncan. She frames the

servants when Macbeth had finished killing Duncan. She tells Macbeth, “If he does bleed, I’ll

gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt” (2.2. 53-55). Lady Macbeth gets

the servants drunk while Macbeth goes in and murders Duncan. A paranoid Macbeth is done

with Duncan and he begins to tell Lady Macbeth that he has done something out of character, she

calms him down and frames the guards by putting blood on their faces and leaving the daggers

on the servants making it look like the servants had murdered Duncan. Lady Macbeth is calming

down and just wants to move on with their lives. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth proceed to say,

“but wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen? “I had most need of blessing, and “Amen “Stuck

in my throat. These deeds must not be thought After these ways. So, it will make us mad” (2.2.

29-32). Macbeth at this point is crazy and feels bad for what he has done. Lady Macbeth is

telling him to not overthink it that the deed is done. Overall Lady Macbeth influences Macbeth

and makes him become crazy.

Lady Macbeth us responsible for Macbeth’s downfall which is seen through her

manipulation and hunger for power. In the beginning Macbeth was loyal kinsmen, when his wife

found out about his prophecy, she gave him the idea to murder Duncan the King of Scotland. At

first, he thought about and he had no plan for murdering Duncan because he believes that

Duncan is a good King and that is running things well. His wife’s manipulation changed his

thoughts and ended up murdering Duncan. Lady Macbeth made him a different character

because he went from being loyal to eventually being psychopath. It gets worse because he ends
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up murdering his best friend Banquo. Therefore, what the audience can learn is that family won’t

always be loyal and can eventually can be manipulative.

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Work Cited

SparkNotes, SparkNotes, www.sparknotes.com/nofear/shakespeare/macbeth/.