Connor Inglefield

Pd.2
6/3/14
Macbeth End of Book Essay (F.)

The play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare is a Tragedy.

Macbeth who starts out in the play as a war hero with Banquo meets these
three witches and learns about the three prophecies. As you read the play
Macbeth the main character goes through lots of changes in his personality;
as in the beginning of the play he is very loyal to the king, respectful/humble.
But as you go throughout the play he becomes controlled by greed,
disrespectful, and disloyal to the king. The devil himself could not
pronounce a title (5.7.10.) Macbeth is the most to blame for his downfall
in the play as he does reap what he sows.
Macbeth in the beginning was a humble, respectful, war hero; that was
known as a great man from all around the kingdom, My noble partner you
greet with present grace and great prediction of noble having and royal
hope. (1.3.57-59) However, during the meeting with the three witches that
begins to change once they prophesize: that shalt be king
hereafter!(1.3.53) So much so that even Banquo realized it when he stated
Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?
(1.3.60) The great tidings Banquo was referring to were the fact that this
humble hero would be Thane of Cawdor and then King. Banquo, however,
failed to realize that these tidings were brought about by the servants of evil,
something Macbeth did notice and realized that these tidings would only

come about through evil acts. It was at this point in the book that Macbeth, if
he truly was a respectable person, would have erased all thought of these
tidings. This was not the case.
Macbeths slow spiral into madness started once he allowed the
prophecies to take root within his mind and believed they could be a reality.
Once this occurred, Macbeth wrote to his wife of the situation so that he
would not have to face his black and deep desires. (1.4.3) To Macbeths
pleasure, his wife suggests what he dare not suggest himself: to murder the
king. Some may argue at this point it was his wife who pressured Macbeth
into the start of his downfall. This however, is not the case since that started
the moment Macbeth entertained the idea before even writing the letter to
his wife. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth is not inherently evil, she is just
ambitious to a fault. This is shown clearly when she calls upon the evil spirits
to guide her as she herself is not evil: Come you spirits that tend on mortal
thoughts, unsex me here. (1.5.44-45)
The respectful man at the beginning of the novel eventually becomes a
ruthless killer after he acquired a taste for it. While the murder of Duncan
can be considered controversial when questioning who was truly at fault,
Macbeth or his wife, it is beyond any doubt that Macbeth himself becomes a
serial killer afterward. Macbeth seems to have taken to heart his wife telling
him "A little water clears us of this deed" (2.2.4) and applied it to every
heinous act he could commit. From murdering Duncans guards on impulse
to planning and killing Lady Macduffs entire household, including her kids.

Macbeth committed many atrocities without the aid nor advice of his wife.
Whilst Macbeth had moved on from Duncans death, it was Lady Macbeth
who eventually succumbed to the guilt of that particular crime, claiming: "All
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (5.1.3) and shortly
thereafter taking her own life. At this point we truly see the monster Macbeth
had become as he shows no grief at the loss of his wife nor does he show
fear when he realizes it is soon his time to die.
So while some may argue Macbeths downfall was caused by Lady
Macbeth or the witches, it is important to remember the facts and to realize
Macbeth was the only one responsible for his own demise and fall from
honor. Macbeth fully realized what the prophecies meant the moment the
witches uttered them and what would be needed to bring them about. It was
Macbeth who allowed the thought to take root and to act upon it at first. If
Macbeth truly did not wish to murder someone, then no amount of name
calling or pressuring would have changed that. There was no knife to
Macbeths throat, this action was entirely his own. And it is shown that at his
core, Macbeth was nothing more than an oppressor and a killer, without the
need for any sort of pressuring by his wife. It is these character flaws that
cause Macbeth to end up alone and disrespectful by Act 5 and which ensure
that there is no one to mourn his loss after his life comes to an end.