Lady Macbeth's Downfall

941 Words4 Pages
In most tragic plays, the protagonist ends up having a horrendous downfall caused by themselves or someone around them. Shakespeare’s tragedies usually end the same way. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth ends up with his head being cut from his body. In this play, Macbeth's downfall is caused by himself and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth causes his own downfall with his own actions. Macbeth, when he sees the bloody dagger, thinks that it is a sign to kill Duncan, so he kills Duncan in his sleep. When Macbeth is speaking with his wife, he states “I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; look on’t again I dare not”(Shakespeare 58). When Macbeth says this, he means that he feels guilt for killing Duncan and does not wish to go back to the chamber to conceal the daggers on the servants.…show more content…
Before Macbeth kills Duncan, Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan in the first place. She plots Duncan’s death with him, and says “ He that’s coming must be provided for; and you shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch”(Shakespeare 34). She is telling him that she will make the plan for Duncan’s death and that he should act innocent so that they aren’t caught. She wants Macbeth to kill Duncan so that she can obtain a higher status in society. This allows her to feel like she has more power. When Macbeth returns with the daggers, Lady Macbeth scolds him for not hiding the daggers. She tells him to go back and smear the blood on the servants and stash the daggers on them. When he refuses, she takes the daggers from him and does it herself. Initially after Macbeth comes back from killing Duncan, she states “These deeds must not be thought after these ways. So, it will make us mad” (Shakespeare 56). When she says this, she is predicting that the death of Duncan will cause them to go insane. This is foreshadowing his downfall because of his
Open Document