The Murder of King Duncan and Macbeth's Downfall in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

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The Murder of King Duncan and Macbeth's Downfall in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth is a famous Shakespearian tragedy. In all of Shakespeare's

tragedies, a truly good character eventually experiences a horrific

event. These tragedies are caused by a fatal flaw in the character's

personality, which for Macbeth is ambition,

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting

ambition which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other"

Macbeth was written for King James, because a huge interest of his was

the supernatural. It was written at a time when the audience would

have mostly believed in things such as witches, witchcraft and magical

powers. Because of this the play probably had a much more realistic

and believable appeal, and would have had a much greater impact on the

audiences.

Throughout the play, various characters intertwine and bring about the

death of Duncan and Macbeths downfall. There are 3 primary characters

who I feel influence Macbeth committing regicide and therefore his

downfall. They are the 3 witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself.

The witches were very influential of Macbeth's downfall. This is

because they were the first people to meet Macbeth on his journey home

from winning his battle against Norway, and they began putting ideas

into his head:

"All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis. All hail Macbeth,

hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor. All hail Macbeth, thalt shall be king

hereafter".

Macbeth took the greeting from the witches very seriously, but his

curiosity and determination became even stronger when he received the

news that he was actually "Thane of Cawdor". This made Macbeth believe

that what the witches had said to him was slowly coming true and that

they were able to predict the future. The fact that the witches may

have predicted Macbeth's future would have been very believable to an

Elizabethan audience. Shakespeare paints the witches as being evil,

devilish and malevolent by using language such as, "fog", "filthy" and

"hover". He does this because back in the time when Macbeth was

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