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Giselle Arredondo

Ms. Figueroa

Senior English 1

22 February 2019

Guilty of Macbeth’s downfall Essay

Effort and ambition for power can seem to be realistic perfection, but people should be

cautious about their desires, since that power can cause their own ruin. Macbeth is a tragic play

written by Shakespeare that relates the story of a loyal, and brave hero of Scotland who destroys

himself by ambition, evil desires, and darkness. After knowing the witches' prophecy he

overcome by avarice and ambition. His paranoia, fear, and guilt conduct him to achieve more

crimes than he imagined to protect his power and kingdom. Obviously, Macbeth is responsible of

his own downfall, but Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches played an important role behind the

murders he committed.

In the play, the three witches were the main ones involved in the beginning of the evil

behavior, and sickly ambition of Macbeth. In Act 1 Scene 1, they realized the catastrophe that

was coming and how attractive could be their prophecy for Macbeth, "Fair is foul, and foul is

fair, hover to through the fog and filthy air"(Shakespeare 1.1 10-11) It means that what appears

to be ugly, will become beautiful and vice versa. Basically, this refers to the entire development

of the play. Furthermore, the Three Witches told Macbeth that he will become the Thane of

Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and thereafter king. In Act 1 scene 1, the three witches said, "All hail,

Macbeth, hail to the Thane of Glamis! - All hail, Macbeth, hail to the Thane of Cawdor! - All

hail Macbeth, thou shalt be king thereafter!"(Shakespeare 1.3 48-50) Macbeth unsighted believed
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in their prophecy without evidence, and that was part of his sad end, even though the witches did

not suggested the murder of the king.

In the other hand, the magnitude to which one goes with ambition can be confuse.

Unfortunately, Lady Macbeth is guilty of the murder because she gave the idea to her husband to

kill King Duncan. She also was planning how to kill him, so she is mostly responsible of the

deathly murder for encouraged her husband to commit the crime. In Act 1 Scene 6, Lady

Macbeth say, “Make thick my blood. Stop up th' access and passage to remorse, that no

compunctious visiting of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between th' effect and it"

(Shakespeare 1.6 40-45) She wanted no normal pains of conscience and compassion, to get in the

way of her murderous plan. In addition, in Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth humiliates Macbeth by

making him feel insignificant and coward by the way to secure his crown and kingdom saying,

“From this time such I account thy love. 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'st the ornament of life and

live a coward in thine own esteem letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would," like the poor cat i' th'

adage?"(Shakespeare 1.7 38-45) In this quote, she compared him to a cat in a proverb who

would not catch fish because it feared wet feet, and she was somehow trying to challenge him to

encourage him to commit the crime.

In conclusion, both Lady Macbeth and the Three Witches played an important role in

Macbeth's downfall. First of all, the prophecy of the witches aroused Macbeth's desire for

ambition and power, leading him to a dark and sickly madness. Otherwise, Lady Macbeth was

mostly guilty of the crimes that her husband committed, because she created the murderous plan,

she tells Macbeth to kill the king. She makes Macbeth feel coward telling him that he would not

be a man if he did not murder the king. Lady Macbeth involved him in a cruel catastrophe.
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Unfortunately, he did not only kill the king, he killed a lot of people after he killed the king to

erase evidence and continue innocent in the eyes of others. They did not care about nothing

unless they were safe to achieve their desires and secure their triumph.

What people can learn from this play is that the excess of ambition does not lead you to

anything good, it can bring you misfortunes or tragedy. It is good to have ambition to achieve

our goals in a positive way, but moderately.

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Works Cited Page

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." The language of Literature: British Literature. Ed. Arthur N.

Applebee, Evanston: McDougal Little, 2000. Pg. 342-390. Print