Macbeth Essay, Research Paper

The Downfall of Macbeth

Macbeth’s love for Lady Macbeth, in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, caused Macbeth to feel the need to prove his manhood, which eventually lead to his downfall. Macbeth was not secure in his manhood, so he felt the need to prove himself to Lady Macbeth. After he proved he was a man by killing Duncan, and he felt he had a lot of power to do whatever he wanted. Macbeth became desensitized between all the killing and the hype of being the King.

In the beginning of the play Macbeth showed his love for Lady Macbeth in many different ways. He told her his feelings toward her “My dearest love” (act I, scene v, l 58). Macbeth listens to what Lady Macbeth has to say, and takes her advice into consideration every time he makes a decision. He also has great love for her and tries his best to make her happy no matter what it takes.

Then Lady Macbeth convinced Macbeth that he wasn’t a man unless he went through with the murder of Duncan. She threatens his manhood by saying “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” (act I, scene vii, l 49-51). This made Macbeth begin to think, and slowly but surely Lady Macbeth had manipulated his mind to think the right thing to do was kill Duncan. Macbeth had decided in order to prove his manhood he must go through with this horrible act.

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After Macbeth had committed the crime he felt that his soul could never be cleansed no matter what he did. He said “They pluck out mine own eyes!/Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather/The

Multitudinous seas incarnadine, /Making the green one red” (act II, scene iii, l 58-62). This shows that he really didn’t want to kill Duncan, but he did it in order to prove himself to Lady Macbeth, and to become the king.

By the end he had no fear, and had killed not only Duncan but also many other people. He now had different views from which he had in the beginning of the play. Macbeth realizes that he is no longer afraid “no, nor more fearful. (Act V, scene vii, l 9). He is now considered a man, but he doesn’t like the fact that he has killed all these people. He is sort of scared of himself and cannot realize what a horrible monster he has become.

Macbeth proved his that he could be a man by killing, but in the end he couldn’t believe that he went through with all that. All that he had done eventually lead to the death of his love, Lady Macbeth, which was the original reason he felt the need to prove himself. Love is a strange thing and people will do some crazy things when they are truly in love. All this inevitably led to the downfall of Macbeth.