Macbeth’s tragedy happened because he had that meeting with the
witches on the heath. That seems to be where it started. After that, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a burst of power released from them and this in turn led to his tragedy. However, the main culprits in initiating the turn of events were the witches in
Act I Scene III. They greeted him in the following manner:
All
hail, Macbeth! hail to thee,
Thane of Glamis!
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be King hereafter!
He was still convinced that the thane of Cawdor lived and when he was told that he was the new thane of Cawdor, he quickly saw that the first two greetings from the witches were correct and began to wonder if the third greeting would also prove correct. However, we as the readers know that the second greeting wasn’t a prediction because Duncan had given the order for Macbeth to be greeted as the thane of Cawdor in the Act prior. The witches were simply using the fact that these events were in fact happening to their advantage as they were limited in their powers.
The witches were helped somewhat by Lady Macbeth. She was also trying to convince Macbeth to carry out the
crimes. She covered herself and her tracks up quite well. This was shown when, for example, she fainted when being questioned by Macduff. She did a good job of dealing with Macbeth and his morals. This was shown in Act I Scene VII:
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.
This to me was a bit like a challenge / dare to Macbeth from her. To help her achieve her objective, Lady Macbeth called on the power of
evil and asked for cruelty to battle the good and kindness. However, even though she called on evil and asked for evil’s help, she was not entirely evil in herself. For example, she would not kill Duncan herself because he resembled her father and, after the crime, she was the one who was guilt ridden and refused to take part in any further crimes.
Macbeth on the other hand did continue despite her abandonment. She was the one who encouraged and coaxed him into carrying out these acts of evil but it was he who took the final plunge as it were and DID commit the crimes.
It seemed to me that Macbeth ultimately wanted the crown and through suggestive thought, verbal suggestions and his own ambitions, he did commit the crimes and let his ambition get the better of him. With the witches coaxing him, that only acted as fuel to the fires of his ambition. These thoughts ultimately drove him to wanting to achieve his position in society. However, all of this had a price and that is when he began to feel the loss of security and his conscience started to play havoc. This was best shown in Act II Scene II:
Methought, I heard a voice cry, “
Sleep no more!”
Macbeth does murther Sleep, “—the innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care,
The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course,
Chief nourisher in life’s feast.
He then slowly turned into some sort of mass murderer and went on to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family in his quest for power and status. He reached the point of no return by carrying out these murders in a quest for power and status but, this meant he had to pay the price of a heavy conscience as well as other things. Quite a high price to pay really…
In my opinion, the whole tragedy happened because Macbeth was coaxed by the witches and Lady Macbeth into committing these crimes. The whole thing was instigated by them and Macbeth was weak enough to follow in their prompts. He believed what he heard and then read some more into it all. He could not see that mere coincidence was all the events were and not fact - he let it all get the better of him. There was also an element of greed within his attitude and that was another of the causes for the whole turn of eevents.
This play is very dramatic and poetic. At times, the way it is all set out makes it a bit difficult to follow. Shakespeare has a very unique style and it may not be to everybody’s taste and not everyone can appreciate this style. As a play, it works very well and is full of action and activity. That is exactly as it should be read, as a play and not a book / novel for it would not be as effective as a piece if not treated as a play.
More summaries about the Macbeth - Why did his tragedy happen?