A greek philosopher, Heraclitus, once said “A man’s character is his fate.” Everyone has flaws. Some that may be more serious than others. For example, some people may have an addiction to gambling, while some people don’t remember to shut the lights off. People’s flaws come back to haunt them after a while. The tragedy of Macbeth is a prime example of this. William James, the author of The Principles of Psychology, wrote “We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone.” Therefore in Macbeth, whether they were good or evil, it didn’t matter because their flaws eventually led to their downfall. Many of the characters die because of their flaws. Not every character ...view middle of the document...
Even though he suspects that Macbeth murdered Duncan, he still stays loyal to him. Or, you may say that he is blinded by the prophecy that the witches gave him. He is too caught up in the idea that his children will be kings, so he thinks the best idea is to stay close to King Macbeth. Either way, he could have left earlier or told someone such as Macduff. There were many times that he could have told someone about what he thought about the murders and maybe he would not have been killed by Macbeth’s murderers. Banquo was killed because he suspected too much about the murder of Duncan and because of the prophecy that he would beget kings. Banquo didn’t deserve to die just because he didn’t tell someone that he thought Macbeth killed Duncan. He probably knew that if he had said anything, nobody would have believed him and that he too, would have been killed as a traitor. Either way, he would have died and it was because of his flaw that he finally did.
Duncan, the first King of England lead to his own demise through his flaw of being too trustful. For example, he thought that none of his friends could really be enemies. Look where that got him with the first Thane of Cawdor. He betrayed him just as the next Thane of Cawdor would. At first, he was going to crown his son, Malcolm, who had no military training, to be king. This caused rage to surface in Macbeth and was one of the reasons that Macbeth murdered Duncan. He was murdered in order to fulfill Macbeth’s plan to become king. Duncan would have to be out of the way and the only way that would happen is if he were dead. If Duncan had been more careful about his safety while staying at Inverness, then he may have had a chance to survive. Though Duncan was too trusting, that didn’t mean that he should die because of it. People should be more trusting but it is all of the people who lie and deceive that cause people not to trust. Just because one person, Duncan, did trust more than most, doesn’t mean he had to die.
Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife. She was filled with greed and was the one who convinced Macbeth that murdering Duncan was the only way he would become king. She is Macbeth’s coconspirator in the killing of Duncan. Although she was the one who convinced Macbeth and gave him the courage to commit the murder, she wasn’t willing to do it herself. She uses the excuse that Duncan looked too much like her father and she “couldn’t do it.” Unlike Macbeth though, it is harder for Lady Macbeth to live with the fact that she helped conspire the...
