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Christa Jackson
Mrs. Winter
British literature, P.2
december 16, 2015
Macbeths downfall by free will
When people get into trouble, often times they will blame another person for their
wrongdoing in order to save themselves, however, everybody is responsible for their own actions
and it is nobody's fault but the person who did the deed. The term free will is defined as the
power of acting without constraint of necessity or fate or the ability to act at ones own
discretion. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character, Macbeth, meets the Wyrd
sisters who prophesize that he will become thane and king. After becoming thane reigns true he
becomes power hungry and uses free will to kill the current king in order to gain the title for
himself. He finds himself using free will in many other situations that involve killing innocent
people in order to maintain his throne which will eventually lead to his tragic downfall. It can be
argued that Macbeths tragic downfall was a result of others influencing him, like Lady Macbeth
or the Wyrd sisters, but his downfall was brought on him only by himself because he is
responsible for his own actions. Macbeth is responsible for his demise because he started to kill
people without the influence of others, when killing was not needed, and because he thought of
the idea to kill Duncan on his own.
In the beginning of the play other characters were pushing him to murder king Duncan,
but later in the play he starts to kill without the help or influence of others where killing is not
needed in order for him to keep the throne. He hires murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance and
when his wife asks about what he is planning to do about them he says, Be innocent of the

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knowledge, dearest chuck/ Till thou applaud the deed(3.2.45-46). When Macbeth first started to
plan the killing of Duncan he consulted Lady Macbeth about it and they had planned the whole
thing together, now he is keeping the plans completely from her and making sure that she will
not know about it until the deed is done. Later in the play Macbeth goes to consult the Wyrd
sisters again to find out what his next steps should be. They tell him that he does not need to fear
anyone naturally born of a woman, so he thinks he is safe from Macduff, although he is not,
Macbeth then says Then live, Macduff: what need i fear thee?/But yet ill make assurance
double sure/ And take a bond of fate, thou shalt not live (4.1.82-84). In this quote he is saying
that even though he is supposed to be safe from Macduff he will kill him anyways. This killing is
not needed and shows that nobody else is influencing him to do the evil things that he is doing.
In the article titled Shakespeares Macbeth by Mitchell Kalpakgian, the author states Lady
Macbeths intelligence eventually acknowledges the duplicity of the witches...They ignore the
truth that mans nature is moral, not lawless (Kalpakgian). Lady Macbeth eventually realizes
that the prophecies do not make sense and therefore she stops her association with the killings.
This means that ,unlike the beginning of the play, she is not influencing Macbeth to do anything
and it is his free will. Another quote stated in that article says he is no longer confounded by the
duplicity of of evil but sees it in its horrific ugliness- a lying, flattering voice of temptation that
reduces an honorable soldiers noble life (Kalpakgian). This quote is saying that in the end he
realizes all the wrong that he has done and that he has done it by himself. The murders of
innocent lives are what sent Macbeth into a downward spiral leading to his tragic death and since
there was nobody else encouraging him to do most of the murders that means that it is solely his
fault.

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Another reason that Macbeth is responsible for his own demise is that he thought of
killing Duncan on his own, before anyone else had put the idea into his head. For example after
he finds out about the prophecy and the part about him being thane comes true he says Why do
I yield to that suggestion/ Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair...whose murder yet is but
fantastical (1.3.134-139). Before Macbeth talks to Lady Macbeth he already gets the idea of
killing Duncan to obtain the crown and fulfill the prophecy. Later on in the play when he is
unsure if he should kill Duncan or not he has a hallucination of a dagger and says 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/ Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible (2.1.33-36). He was unsure about
what he should do but after seeing the vision of the dagger he makes the choice to formulate a
plan to kill Duncan. He makes this decision on his own, but Lady Macbeth helps with the plot to
kill him and the actual killing. These quotes show that the evil idea of killing Duncan was there
before anyone could have planted the idea in his mind and that it was his decision alone to go
through with it.
After getting the idea to kill Duncan by himself and going through with it he decides to
keep killing people where it is not needed and without the influence of others. Although, there
were other influences in the beginning convincing him to kill, it is ultimately his fault because he
had the idea and he went through with it. There could have been other ways to obtain the title of
king and keep it, but he went straight to the idea of killing. These are the reasons that he is the
only one responsible for his own tragic downfall.