Lady Macbeth's Downfall

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Macbeth is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare. In Macbeth, the audience witnesses Macbeth’s character deteriorate. In the beginning of the play, we see Macbeth as the Thane of Glamis and as a hero. As they play goes on, Macbeth becomes less and less human to a point where he does not care when he finds the love of his life committed suicide. Macbeth was willing to purposefully or inadvertently murder four people, including his wife, and his best friend. Firstly, we see Macbeth’s downfall begin after the three witches tell him his future. “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis. / All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor. / All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, that shalt be king hereafter.” (Macbeth 1. 3. 46-48). This is…show more content…
“Art not without ambition, nut without / The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly, / That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, / And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’dst have great / Glamis.” (Macbeth, 1. 5. 18-22). Lady Macbeth is saying that Macbeth wants power, but he does not have the guts to peruse his ambition. “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, / Strong both against the deed; then, as his host. / Who should against his murderer shut the door, / Not bear the knife myself.” (Macbeth 1. 7. 13-16). Macbeth’s conscience is telling him that it is wrong that he has thought about killing his cousin and king Duncan. His wife is emotionally abusive and a coward and henceforth breaks his manhood. “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, / Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day.” (Macbeth 3. 2. 45-47). Macbeth is turning into a mass murderer at this point, his ambition leads him to kill everyone he sees as a threat. Macbeth wanted to prove his manhood to his wife. By now, you see the gender roles restore to normal. He only listened to Lady Macbeth’s abusive words because he loved her so strongly. His ambition combined with Lady Macbeth’s pressure made him deteriorate faster than he should…show more content…
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come let me clutch thee” / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. (Macbeth 2.1. 33-35) Macbeth start hallucinating more because of the fear of losing the crown. “Our fears in Banquo / Reigns that which would be fear’d. ‘Tis much he dares, / And to that dauntless temper of his mind, / He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour / To act in safety. There is none but he, / Whose being I do fear; and under him / My genius is rebuk’d, as it is said.” (Macbeth 3. 1. 50-57). We see Macbeth start to question Banquo and how he will get in the way of his kingship. We see greed and ambition because he wants to remain the king and will do whatever means necessary to keep it that way. “Ay and the bold one that dare look on that. / Which might appeal the devil.” (Macbeth 3.4. 59-60) “If charnel- houses, and our graves must send / Those that we bury back, or monuments / Shall be the maws of kites” (Macbeth 3.4. 71-73). He subconsciously starts seeing a reflection of Banquo after he had him murdered because if his guilty conscience. He turned murder into an unhealthy coping mechanism, he did not have any feelings left. You could see this by the way he responded to hearing about Lady Macbeth’s
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