FREE ESSAY ON MACBETH

MACBETH

MacBeth was a play about a power hungry guy that would do anything to have power,
including killing people. In the play, his moves and actions were heavily influenced by
others. If he had just done his own thing would he have ended up the way he did? Some of
the people that had an impact on him were his wife, Lady MacBeth, the witches, and
MacDuff. Without the "help" of those people would he have ended up dead?
First of and foremost I think the witches, including Hectate, play the biggest role in
MacBeths downfall. They almost led him up to killings but not quite. First off they great
him by saying, "Thane of Glamis (which he currently is), "Thane of Cawdor" (what he
should soon be), and "King hereafter." With that news he cannot hide it from Banquo whom
is there with him. They then tell Banquo that he will be "lesser than MacBeth, and
greater," "not as happy, but yet much happier," and "you shall get kings, but not be
one." Then later on in the story three apparitions' come when MacBeth goes to meet the
three witches and the first apparition, which is an "Armed Head" tells him, "to be aware
of MacDuff." The second apparition, a "Bloody Child," comes to tell him that "he can not
be defeated by anyone who was born from a woman." (We later find out that MacDuff was
actually "ripped" from his mothers womb. The image of this bloody head is very sickening,
but its is believed that it was a metaphor to MacDuff by his murdered children, and too
Banquo as his successors. Then the third apparition, a "Child Crowned" comes to tell him
that "nothing will happen to him until Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane Hill. All of those
seem like quite impossible tasks put prove themselves to be true.
Then in a very close second I think Lady MacBeth had a major role in MacBeths downfall.
After she received a letter from MacBeth tell her about the witches prophecies, she
decided it would be best to kill Duncan. After hearing about Duncan coming to visit she
tells MacBeth, "to catch interest near way," which mean kill Duncan. MacBeth is scared at
first for a couple reasons. One, the effect it will play on him in the afterlife, "This
bank and shoal of time," because murder is a mortal sin. Another fear of his was, the
belief back then was that if you disrupted the Elizabethan view of the universe then
there would be complete chaos. After all the thoughts run through his head he decides
that he has no reasons for killing Duncan except for "vaulting ambition," his lust for
power.