Who was to blame for Macbeth's downfall?

Essay by termnader May 2004

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Due to the nature of Macbeth's downfall it would be difficult to blame a single person for his downfall. The main characters that were at fault in Macbeth's downfall were The Witches, Lady Macbeth and of course Macbeth himself but who is to blame the most out of the three?

The Witches played a big part in Macbeth's downfall, as they were the first characters who influenced Macbeth as they met him at the start of the story. The Witches were determined from the start to influence Macbeth's way in life, they intended to meet with him from the start to begin the downfall of Macbeth, "There to meet with Macbeth". Before they started putting ideas into his head they had to make sure that he was willing to listen to them so they waited until he was sure of his abilities, so they only started influencing him after the battle against Norway where he shone.

As Macbeth would not normally listen to the telling of the Witches, they had to cleverly mix the truth and things that had not happened yet to gain his confidence. They influenced Macbeth's first thoughts of killing Duncan as they first told him that he would be Thane of Cawdor, and he already was but he did not know yet. They then said that he will be King, that would have triggered his thoughts later on when he found out he was Thane of Cawdor. "All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor, All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter".

Although they did not directly tell Macbeth to kill King Duncan it gave him the idea. After Macbeth received the news that he was Thane of Cawdor he built a trust with the...