The Fall of Macbeth Essay

"He who makes a beast out of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man."

The above quotation is from Dr. Hanz Johnstone. It describes how once a person gets caught up in their flaws and ambitions, they're beyond human feelings and spiral out of control. This is a way we can describe the character of Macbeth. The play Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare and edited by many people into a simpler form. The two main characters of the play are Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. The play ends dramatically with Macbeth being slain by Macduff and having his head paraded around the town, but only after Macbeth went too far and slaughtered Macduff's wife and children. The question is, did Macbeth deserve his fate? Is he responsible for the play ending so tragically? Who started the ball of fate rolling? The questions will be answered in the following essay about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth bringing about their downfall in a devastating fashion.

The main reason the Macbeth's fell so harshly, was because they abused their simple human flaws to an unnatural extent. Everyone has a few flaws in their characters but it is up to the person to keep them under control. But these flaws can be over indulged and they can take over the personality, the flaw uncontrollable.

In the play, Macbeth's fatal flaw is his ambition to achieve and until the 'Weird Sisters' came to tell him of his destiny, he was a brave and loyal man, faithful to his king and country. Nevertheless, when the witches came they planted the seed of paranoia in his mind and his ambition blazed, eager to accomplish the goal of King that they foresaw. Without their prophecy, Macbeth would have carried on being a humble, loyal man, but the witches prediction appealed to his ambitious side and he made absolutely sure he would achieve his goal, his defect slowly becoming un-spun. This is his imperfection slowly reaching the stage of Hybris.

Hamatria, Hybris and Ate are the three expressions of Greek catastrophe. Hamatria is the flaw itself, hiding away in secret and controlled by it's possessor. Hybris is the flaw becoming over indulged, starting to wind out of control. It is the flaw taking over the individual's life completely and warping the things they say or do. Ate is when the flaw reaches fatal levels and almost always ends in death or the destruction of the individual's reputation.

Macbeth followed the path of Hamatria, Hybris and Ate when he foolishly made his goal to kill all of those who were dim-witted enough to stand in his way.

However, Macbeth's downfall wasn't entirely his own fault.

His wife, Lady Macbeth also had a hand in the disastrous ending of the play.

She played her part by contributing her flaw of greed and the well being of her husband.

These flaws developed into a hybris of her own, resulting in lady Macbeth working out ways to make her husband the King. Without her whispering words into Macbeth's ear, he wouldn't have had the guts to kill the King, he might not have even thought about it. Lady Macbeth confronted her husband and mocked him of not being man enough. Not having enough ambition and that he deserved so much more than the title of Thane of Cawdor. She called upon the evil spirits to 'unsex' her. She meant that she wanted to be rid of the stereotyped image of women. she didn't want to appear as humble, scared or devoted. She wanted to bear the black heart of a killer and to feel no regrets when the deed was done. Although Macbeth did the physical murder, Lady Macbeth was still active in the planning of killing King Duncan. She for one, planted all of the daggers around the chamber and drugged King Duncan's guards so the murder would go un-interrupted. Lady Macbeth played a major part in her own downfall and also in her husband's.

Lady Macbeth's Ate was much quicker to come around, though her downfall was caused by overbearing guilt. On the other hand, Macbeth's obsessive paranoia was running wildly out of control.

He was preparing to murder his own best friend, Banquo, simply because he was ever so slightly suspicious of Macbeth's actions.

Surprisingly, Lady Macbeth tries to talk him out of the idea of assassinating Banquo as she feels that the killings are pointless, that he already has what he wants. She says as Macbeth keeps fuelling his anger by thinking over his performance. Lady Macbeth called on the evil spirits for slaying Duncan, nothing more. Saying to Macbeth, that it is safer to be dead so they could not be harmed.

After Macbeth committed the heinous act of murdering Banquo, Lady Macbeth snaps on the inside. The Doctor and the Gentlewoman witnessed Lady Macbeth sleep-walking.