William Shakespeare's Macbeth: A Review

In the tragic play, “Macbeth”, William Shakespeare adequately portrays to the readers that while Macbeth’s vaulting ambition played a helping hand in his demise, without the help of Lady Macbeth’s manipulation tactics, and the supernatural highlighting the appearance vs. reality theme, his downfall may have been avoided and he may have earned his kingship.

Macbeth’s downfall may have been avoided if it was not for his manipulative, controlling wife, Lady Macbeth. While trying to manipulate Macbeth, Lady Macbeths infers that “when you durst do it, you were a man”, illustrating how devious and controlling she truly is. Lady Macbeth is clearly unable to carry out the deed of killing Duncan without that help of her gullible husband. She emasculates and attacks Macbeth to ensure that he feels the need to stand up for himself. She is able to manipulate her way into Macbeth’s head, consequently controlling his thoughts and his actions. While Macbeth goes on to kill many more without the help of his devious wife, the reality is that Lady Macbeth sparked the killing spree and is subsequently partly to blame for the tragic demise of her husband, Macbeth.

Shakespeare evidently depicts to the audience that the supernatural merely place the thought of becoming King in Macbeths mind and are therefore partly to blame for his defeat. As the witches meet Macbeth, they greet him “Macbeth, thane of Cawdor” and “Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter”, highlighting the fact that Macbeth will soon become Thane of Cawdor, as well as King. The witches use appearance vs. reality to guide Macbeth into making decisions. To Macbeth, it appears as though the witches are merely predicting the future, when in reality, they are pricking Macbeth’s innocent mind and controlling his thoughts. The witches appear again when they are summoned my Macbeth for more knowledge. They give Macbeth three apparitions that again, appear to be ensuring his safety, but in reality are explaining what dangers he will face on the near future. Shakespeare cleverly uses the witches as a form of conveying a key them and portray to the audience that while Macbeth may have been the main cause of his demise, it may have been avoided if it was not for the witches.

The underlying factor in the demise of Macbeth was his vaulting ambition to become King, and then his sheer determination to ensure that all threats to his kingship were removed. After being told that Banquo “Shalt get kings, thought thou be none”, Macbeth immediately feels the need to remove the obstacle that stands in the way of him and his family staying royal. While Macbeth could have been happy that he would become king, and that Banquo, his best friend, will also have kings in his family, his vaulting ambition unfortunately clouds his judgment. Macbeths vaulting ambition plays a significant part in his demise. While not the only factor that contributed, it is the underlying one and it can then be seen that without Macbeth’s ambition, all tragedy may have been avoided.

Shakespeare shows thought the play that not one incident or character is completely to blame, but a collective of a numerous amount causes Macbeth’s downfall. It is also evident to the audience that while all three are to blame, some were more influential than others. It is clear to the audience that while the supernatural and Lady Macbeth are partly to blame for the disastrous demise, Macbeths vaulting ambition is the most prominent on his downfall.