Macbeth Essay

From the very beginning Macbeth has been a victim of the witches’ prophecy and Lady Macbeth’s ambition. With no support he soon succumbed to the pressures of each.

The Witches prophecy was that Macbeth would become Thane of Cawdor and then after become king. The witches’ didn’t elaborate as to how he would become king which causes Macbeth to develop a little obsession over it. After the little chat with the witches there is rarely a single page that Macbeth doesn’t think about what the witches say. But when Duncan names Malcolm as the next king Macbeth realizes the only way he can become king is to kill Duncan.

Lady Macbeth’s own ambition to become queen was the root of what drove Macbeth to insanity. Lady Macbeth began to dissolve Macbeth’s manhood, she even implied she would do it but it wasn’t her place to as a woman. In Act 1 sc. 7 line 56 Lady Macbeth said “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” Lady Macbeth broke him to a point where she could play him as a pawn in her own game. After Lady Macbeth devised the plan to kill Duncan, and with all the pressure on Macbeth he had no choice but to go along with her plan.

No matter what kind of man you were there is no way you could have withstood the pressure that Lady Macbeth applied. Anyone would have folded and killed the king. Lady Macbeth had such a hold that she could have gotten Macbeth to do anything she wanted. So clearly Macbeth was a victim of Lady Macbeth’s greed.

Word Count: 289