Role Of Responsibility In Macbeth

Many times in life, we as a society never truly accept or even acknowledge our responsibility for our actions. We find people to blame for what we have done ultimately eliminating the faults of our selves. We have to ask ourselves, “why does this happen”. This happens for various reasons like personal benefit, wants, or fear of punishment. In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Macbeth does just this, not accepting responsibility for his actions. He has not accepted or even acknowledged his responsibility for his action and proceeded to continue with his own wants and mindset anyway. Despite the fact that Lady Macbeth originally influenced Macbeth’s actions, it was ultimately Macbeth’s mindset responsible for their destruction because …show more content…
Macbeth of course would not have done any of his treacherous acts with out a little push and guidance from those around him. The main person to influence his mind set to become cold and selfish was Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were talking about the opportunity to kill duncan, more specifically about Macbeth’s own doubt about doing such thing, Macbeth states, We will proceed no further in this business./He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/Golden opinions from all sorts of people” (1.7.34-36). Lady Macbeth moment later states in response, “Prithee, peace:/ I dare do all that may become a man/ Who dares do more is none” “What beast was ’t, then,/ That made you break this enterprise to me?/ When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man” (1.7.55-58). Here, this passage was the turning point for Macbeth to give in and start his spree of killings only for his benefit. Lady Macbeth scolded Macbeth for thinking such a way, contradicting what she wanted at the time and contradicting how he would later act. This was so powerful to Macbeth that he changed his mindset to do the unthinkable, killing his leader for personal gain. This proves that without Lady Macbeth’s opinion about what Macbeth should do, he would not have started his actions. But this …show more content…
After Lady Macbeth’s later change to become a more kind hearted person, leading to her death, while Macbeth was about to get invaded from the English soldiers, he states to a servant, “Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all./ Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane/ I cannot taint with fear/ . . . The mind I sway by and the heart I bear/ Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear” (5.3.1-11). Macbeth felt her that what he was doing was right and he was destined his throne. He put too much hope in his prophecy from the witches pertaining to his kingship. The fact he would risk his life by putting hope in such a thing reflects his greater mindset after his change. This mindset is due to his greed for power and the rest of his self wishes. This ultimately proves that even without Lady Macbeth, Macbeth has responsibility because of this self mindset that drives him to do evil