Who Was Responsible For Macbeth's Downfall

Even though Macbeth was the one who used the knife, Lady Macbeth is responsible because she created the plan, and manipulated Macbeth into killing the king. After hearing that Macbeth was destined to be the king, Lady Macbeth looked to do whatever it took to help make her husband the king. She saw the opportunity of killing the king when he was staying at their castle and thought of a plan to do so. That night, while the king was asleep, “his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason a limbeck only,” (I.VII.73-77). Lady Macbeth is talking about getting the king’s guards so intoxicated that their memories of that night would not be remembered in

As the time to kill the king approaches, Macbeth starts to question if he should go through with the murder. He expresses his feeling to his wife but she turns on him and puts his manhood into question. “What beast was ’t, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? 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. Nor time nor place did then adhere, and yet you would make both. They have made themselves, and that their fitness now does unmake you,” (I.VII.53-62). Lady Macbeth asks her husband what got into him, that made him break his promise to her. She tells him that this promise is making him more of a man than ever before. This opportunity is only presented once, and now killing the king has never been more convenient. However, by him questioning this decision, and not going through with the murder is making him less than a man. This response shakes up Macbeth because he is a very respected man, and his wife is telling him that he needs to kill Duncan to stay respected. Macbeth is put into a position where his own wife is losing faith in him and he needs to do whatever it takes to make her