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Justin Corn

Ms. Figueroa

English 2

19 February 2019

Macdeath the Fall of a Traitor

One of Shakespeare’s more well-known plays which follows the downfall of Macbeth.

The play starts with Macbeth receiving a prophecy that foretells his raise to duel thane to king.

They also foretell his friend’s sons will be king. This prophecy compels Macbeth to kill the

current king then his friend however his son escaped. The guilt gives him hallucinations and a

more murderous mindset. Macbeth is in the end reliable for his inevitable downfall from his

mental instability to his blind ambition.

The downfall of Macbeth was partly to blame of his mental instability. The mental state

of Macbeth is shown in the time right before he kills the king, while having doubts he

hallucinates a floating dagger in the quote. “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle

toward my hand” (Shakespeare II.I.XXXIII-XXXIV). Macbeth is hallucinating seeing a dagger

float in front of him pointing its handle at him seemingly telling him to follow through despite

his doubts. The guilt Macbeth feels for killing not only the king, but also his best friend causes

more vivid hallucinations such as Banquo’s ghost. “Thou canst not say I did it, never shake thy

glory locks at me” (III.IV.L-LI). In this quote we see the guilt and obvious schizophrenia make

him see Banquo’s ghost and start his self-destruction. Overall, Macbeths greatest weakness

might just be that he’s crazy.

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Macbeth’s ambitions become stronger than his will. To start the end of Macbeth’s raise to

the top he kills the king who he previously fallowed. “The prince of Cumberland. That is a step

on which I must fall down or else o’erleap.” (I.IV.XLVIII). Earlier in the act he would lay his

life on the line for the king, now he is willing to take the kings life just for more power. In his

pursuit of preserving his title of king, he attempts to get all those who might know he killed the

king murdered. “My lord, his throat is cut… most royal sir, Fleance is ‘scaped” (III.IV.XVI and

XX). In his blind ambition, Macbeth kills his best friend and was so hasty to insure all his

possible obstacles where taken care of. All in all, Macbeth’s murderous rampage turns everyone

against him in time.

Blind ambition and mental instability were the true downfall of Macbeth. Macbeth is

overly ambitious and mentally unstable which will ultimately lead to his downfall. Having

ambition is not bad but letting that ambition cloud your judgment is dangerous and can lead to

desaster.
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Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009.