Macbeth Character Flaws

Within Shakespeare's collection of tragedy plays, several protagonist were presented with a character flaw that would lead them to their downfall. These would include Romeo, Hamlet and Macbeth who struggled to resolve the tension between his morals or conscience with his lust and ambitions for greatness. Several factors are to be considered when evaluating the force that ultimately lead to his demise, such as the Three Weird Sisters' prophesies, Lady Macbeth, or the flaw in his character. The one factor that predominates the other two is the character flaw because the ambition lead him to stray to the path of darkness, murder his own men to protect his throne, and the other two only influenced his decisions, but only he can decide on the

action to take based on his character.
It was clear to the audience that Macbeth abandoned his morals and strayed to the dark path in order to secure his sovereignty over the state.

In the play Macbeth states, "That is a step on which I must fall down or o'er leap. Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires. (Shakespeare1.4)" This is the first account on which Macbeth is considering to stray off the light path and go on the path to darkness. His desires or his ambition is leading him toward the path that will become the destructive force responsible of his own death and it will become the cloak that will hide his light forever. Another example in the play is, "Only for them; and mine eternal jewel. Given to the common enemy of man."(Shakespeare3.1) Macbeth admits himself that he turned his back from God and stained these hands for his own greed, but only to hand down to Banquo's sons. This would eventually lead him to kill his most trusted friend and many others in the process. This attributed to his downfall because he turned his back to justice and righteousness, and shed more blood along the way. This path would make him continue to do immoral things and cause his own kinsmen to take up arms against him at

Duncinane.
After successfully becoming king through wicked deeds, Macbeth try's to further secure the throne against others.

Through this process he caused several deaths and many weeping widows too. Many would began to see him as a tyrant would no longer be willing to fight for him with their heart. In the story Macbeth says, "It will have blood, they say, blood will have blood." (Shakespeare3.4) Macbeth realizes that since bloodshed begets more bloodshed, then he might as well give rise to more while knowing that his actions will lead to something horrible for himself. Macbeth also says in the story, "For mine own good all causes shall give way. I am in blood stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,Returning were as tedious as go o'er." (Shakespeare3.4) Macbeth states that all of these evil deeds are for his own good and since his hands are so stained, it seemed more reasonable to him to continue with his murder trend than to stop. Unfortunately for Macbeth his bloodshed caused his thanes to defect to support Malcom and that brought the end of Macbeth's legacy of

reign.
Others may argue that the two forces has more influence over Macbeth's downfall because without the two forces Macbeth would be less likely to carry out his plans. This argument is valid, however Macbeth is the one responsible of conducting his plan and choosing the path he takes. In the story it says, "Weary sev’nights nine times nine shall he dwindle, peak, and pine:though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." (Shakespeare1.3) This means that the evil witches cannot change his fate or get his "bark" loss in time, so Macbeth's actions can be influenced, but only he himself can determine his choice of action. The same can be said for Lady Macbeth. "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."(Shakespeare1.7) Lady Macbeth is only a mere factor that convinces him to go down the path of doom, but he decided to act according to his character which was to fuel his ambitions. Therefore, Macbeth's flaw in his character really is the main cause that resulted in his downfall even though several factors influenced him to act base on his ambitions. If he did not have the greed and ambitions in the first place, then the other factors would not have affected him to walk the path of darkness.
In conclusion, the factor that was responsible for his downfall is his character flaw. His ambitions lead him to walk the darkness path, to murder those that he trusted most, and it predominates other factors that influenced him. Macbeth states that, "…I have no spur to prick the sides of intent, but only vaulting ambition,…" (Shakespeare1.7) This means that Macbeth knows the weight of his actions, but just by his sheer ambition he is willing to conduct the immoral acts. It is hard to imagine that Macbeth who has such tremendous external strength, has a weak internal strength in comparison. Macbeth who showed bravery and virtue on the battle field would cower to his ambition by turning deaf to his self conscience.