The witches are the main contributers
to both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's
madness. If not for their prophecies,
the madness would have never taken over
They feed off of chaos and madness.
They strive towards it. Every move
that they make is inspired by madness
While madness contributes to the downfall
of the other characters, it's a defining
characters trait for the witches
She becomes obsessed with a spot no one
else can see, it’s all she thinks about.
All she can think about.
Lady Macbeth's madness is the most
prolific of the characters'. The guilt
absolutely consumes her and results
in her going mad
He begins to see ghosts. The physical manifestation of his intense guilt over killing the people he cared about. The guilt takes over him, and makes him hear and see things that aren’t there.
The guilt consumes him as well, if not more, than just as much as Lady Madbeth
With his madness, comes paranoia, resulting in the eventual murder of his best friend
Prophecy
Banquo
He wanted the best for his son, but the prophecies
felt unfair to him, as Macbeth got to be king, and
all he got as the promise of future family royalty
The prophecies also caused Banquo's suspicion
to raise about Macbeth, and lose his trust in him
Macbeth's paranoia about the prophecies causes
Macbeth to murder Banquo and attempt to murder his son
The leading factors to the events of the
play unfolding are the prophecies and
Lady Macbeth's reactions to them. She
pressures Macbeth into killing Duncan
because of the prophecies, setting the plot
into motions
After hearing the prophecies, the ambition
to fulfill them took over her every thought
and eventually lead to her ending her life
Lady macbeth's downfall could also be
contributed to the prophecies.
While the prophecies to lead him to being king,
they also lead to his eventual downfall. If not for
the prophecy telling him he could not be killed
by any man born of woman, he would not have
been so rash in battling in the last act, and he
may not have died
The prophecies ignite his abmition. He hadn't
considered being king before the prophecies.
Prophecy changed his goals and ambitions
and kickstarted them. They changed, essentially,
who he was as a person.
The Witches prophecies essentially rule
Macbeth's whole story. Every move he makes
after hearing the prophecies is dictated by what
he's heard.
Ambition
Lady Macbeth
Her ambition is so intense she turns to murder.
The ambition spreads to Macbeth, he wants
what she wants, so he'll do what she wants to
fuel her ambition
When she hears the prophecy, she is
filled with ambition. She wants to have the
ultimate power. She will do anything to get
what she wants.
Lady Macbeth's ambition is what really
sets the important plot points into motion.
Macbeth
This leads to him killing Banquo, and Macduff's
family, making him into anything but a friendly
king, and directly leading to his downfall.
As soon as he has power, he lets it get to
his head. He becomes determined to keep
that power, eliminating anyone and anything
that gets in his way.
After Duncan is killed and Macbeth becomes
king, that's when his true ambition kicks in.
