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Kaitlyn Divine
Winter
British Literature, Period 2
16 December 2015
Macbeths Downfall
In Shakespeares tragedy, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth portrays an evil character who is
initially the one at fault for her husband, Macbeths downfall. Fate is inevitable and plays a major
role in this play. It is fate that Macbeth will become king and ultimately die. Lady Macbeth is the
person who initiates the start of Macbeths fate, which is ultimately his downfall. Lady Macbeth
is responsible for Macbeths demise because she talks him into his first kill, she does not talk him
down from the rest of his killings, and then she takes her own life out of guilt when she knows
she will not be able to deal with the consequences.
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth discovers that he is supposed to be king from
conversing with the witches. After Lady Macbeth hears this, she coaxes Macbeth into killing the
present king. In the article, Shakespeares Macbeth by Mitchell Kalpakgian, Kalpakgian says
that Lady Macbeth fixates on the idea of kingship and determines to seize the moment of
opportunity when king Duncan visits their castle (Kalpakgian). Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth
to murder the king while he is visiting their house. Kalpakgian also notices that Even if
Macbeth wavers about performing the bloody deed, [Lady Macbeth] will accuse his manhood
(Kalpakgian). Macbeth is hesitant at first, until Lady Macbeth insults his masculinity. Lady
Macbeth rhetorically asks Macbeth, Wouldst thou have that / Which thou esteemst the
ornament of life, / And live a coward in thine own esteem (Macbeth 1.7.41.43). Macbeth
ultimately decides he will go through will murdering the king after his his wife calls him a

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coward for wavering. Lady Macbeth has a very powerful influence on her husband because he is
only looking to please her, like every other husband tries to do for their wife. After Macbeth
murders king Duncan, he comes back to his wife with the bloody daggers. Lady Macbeth tells
Macbeth to put the daggers with the sleeping guards to frame them. Macbeth claims that he will
not go on with this bloody deed any further. Lady Macbeth becomes angry at this and says,
Infirm of purpose! Tis the eye of childhood / that fears a painted devil (Macbeth 2.2.5154). After yelling at Macbeth and basically calling him a child, Lady Macbeth plants the daggers
with the guards herself. Lady Macbeth is the reason Macbeth started murdering and soon after
she will be the reason he does not stop murdering. Lady Macbeth destroys the hesitant behavior
of Macbeth when it comes to wrongdoing.
Lady Macbeth is even more responsible for Macbeths demise because she never talks
Macbeth down from killing anyone else. When Macbeth plans to murder Banquo, he tells Lady
Macbeth, Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed
(Macbeth 3.2.45-46) because he wants to surprise Lady Macbeth and he wants her to be proud of
him. Macbeth murders to please his wife. Lady Macbeth has no idea what Macbeth has planned
to do and does not even care to know. Lady Macbeth does not ask Macbeth to tell her at all, she
does know it i something wrong though. Lady Macbeth does not try to stop Macbeths crazy
killing spree. Some people would say that it is the wife and the husbands duty to keep their
significant others in check and make sure they are doing alright. When Macbeth is going through
fits of hallucinations and is getting no sleep, people would expect that Lady Macbeth would
nurture him and try to talk him out of his craziness. Lady Macbeth does not do this, she only
ignores it and pretends it is not happening. At the coronation banquet they were having at their
house, Macbeth starts hallucinating Banquos ghost in front of all of their guests. Lady Macbeth

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brushes this off and tells her guests, [Macbeths] fit is momentary; upon a thought / He will
again be well (Macbeth 3.4.55-56). Lady Macbeth completely lies to her guests and ignores the
fact that her husband is hallucinating and going crazy; she is basically just waiting it out, letting
it become even worse. The crazy people can only get even more crazy without help; Lady
Macbeth should know this.
Macbeth is not the only one going crazy. Lady Macbeth feels so guilty that it drives her
crazy enough to kill herself at the end of the play. Lady Macbeth kills herself because she feels
guilty and responsible; she would not feel responsible unless she had something to feel
responsible about, most likely something along the lines of corrupting her husband. Lady
Macbeth did not murder anyone, she is only the voice and conscience behind the murder of
Duncan. Lady Macbeth having a voice and being the conscience of her husband can go a long
way, enough to have Macbeth kill people. Before Lady Macbeth kills herself, she becomes crazy.
Kalpakgian writes that Lady Macbeth [constantly sleepwalks] and [washes her] hands
(Kalpakgian). Lady Macbeth worries about her actions and thoughts so often it causes her to
sleepwalk and gives her a sense of restlessness. Lady Macbeth constantly washes her hands
because she is trying to clean herself of the dirty and bloody deeds she knows are ultimately her
fault. Lady Macbeth cannot handle being worried all of the time and she can not handle the
consequences that are to come if anyone finds out, so she takes her own life. In the play Seyton
tells Macbeth, The queen, my lord, is dead (Macbeth 5.5.16). After Macbeth hears about this,
he does not seem to care all that much. All Macbeth says is, She should have died hereafter
(Macbeth 5.5.17). A possible theory to why Macbeth might not care is that he subconsciously
hates his wife. Macbeth subconsciously knows that Lady Macbeth has corrupted him and turned
him into the evil that she secretly was. Macbeth knows that he would have been better off

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without Lady Macbeth so he is not sad that she is dead. Macbeth is happy she is gone, she will
not get in the way or into his head anymore.
At the end of the play, people can conclude that Lady Macbeth is the reason for
Macbeths demise because she talks Macbeth into killing for his first time, she does not talk him
down from any other killings, and she kills herself from the guilty she feels and from the fear of
the consequences. The importance of this is that it was not all Macbeths fault like many people
think; Lady Macbeth was a huge influence of his wrongdoings. Lady Macbeth is the initial
reason for Macbeths downfall.