What Is Macbeth's Downfall

In tragic plays, the male characters are often complex; brave, courageous, noble, proud and ambitious but with major personality flaws. It is with these moral failings such as cowardice, weakness or greed the characters are forced to push harder to seek power and control and pursue a determination without keeping their behaviors in check. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the Scottish General Macbeth, also known as the Thane of Cawdor, is a valiant and courageous soldier who desires to become the King of Scotland. Despite the motivations and efforts of others to influence his behavior, Macbeth schemes to improve his position of power. He begins winding a web of decisions that drive him to commit the most atrocious deeds. As the play unfolds,
readers witness Macbeth’s excessive ambition that leads to dreadful consequences. This once honoured and gallant General collapses into a terrible tormenter as a result of his poor judgment, extreme ambition and violent acts.
Macbeth’s poor judgment stems from his blind ambition to succeed.
Instead of listening to his conscience, which urges him to consider other options while he is heading down the path of destruction prepared to kill King Duncan’s two guards, he continues towards the king’s room, after hallucinating about a dagger in his hand. Macbeth ignores his own feelings of remorse when he hears himself say, “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee./ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still” (2.1.40-42). Macbeth’s soliloquy demonstrates to his readers that his state of mind is irrational. The dagger is symbolic of the conflict he is feeling. He is torn between the guilt of killing Duncan and the opportunity that lies ahead of him when the king is dead. In his mind, Macbeth is obsessed with the witches’ premonitions that predict he will be crowned king. He heeds their prophecies without question when they say, “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.53) because he wants to believe they have supernatural powers that will give him the confidence to make the right choices. As General leading the king’s army, Macbeth was Duncan’s relative entrusted to make good decisions and was loyal to the royal throne. However, when the witches predict his future, his insecurities and ambition drive him to make choices that ultimately destroy
him.
Macbeth’s ambition drives him to be successful in his career, but, ultimately, leads him to make one bad decision after another to cover up the damage he causes. When Mcduff discovers the king has been killed and rings the alarm bell, Macbeth slays the king’s attendants who are awakened by the bell so he can report to Macduff he has executed King Duncan’s assassins. Macbeth knows that “Bloody instructions, which, being taught return/ To plague the inventor” (1.7.9-10) and he wants nothing to interfere with his desire to rule. He knows that if he is found out to have killed this leader who he was hosting in his own home, it may force others to murder Macbeth once he becomes a powerful leader. His extreme ambition for power is his tragic flaw which destroys his sense of duty towards relationships in his life. When Macbeth murders Duncan, he destroys the loyalty of someone who loved him dearly, helped to promote his career and rewarded him for being a decent human being. Macbeth becomes paranoid and keeps killing people in fear they will find out what he has done and remove him from the throne. The events are more powerful than he can handle and so he starts to spiral out of control and his unrestrained ambition in the end leads to his mental and physical breakdown. Macbeth sees murdering Duncan as the only option for gaining the throne in order to keep his ambition a secret.