Who is to blame for Macbeth's downfall in Shakespeare's play Macbeth? Please give me at least three points.

Macbeth is a tragic hero, which means that his own fatal flaw brings about his downfall. Macbeth's fatal flaw is his desire for power, or ambition. Macbeth desires power so much that he will do anything to get it, including murder his friends, the king. The witches predict that Macbeth will become thane and then king. Their first prediction comes true almost immediately, so we can assume that if Macbeth would just be patient, their...

Macbeth is a tragic hero, which means that his own fatal flaw brings about his downfall. Macbeth's fatal flaw is his desire for power, or ambition. Macbeth desires power so much that he will do anything to get it, including murder his friends, the king. The witches predict that Macbeth will become thane and then king. Their first prediction comes true almost immediately, so we can assume that if Macbeth would just be patient, their second prediction would also eventually come true. But he is so excited about becoming king that he murders everyone who stands between himself and the crown. His murderous rampage eventually leads to his downfall.

Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, also has a hand in his downfall. She urges him to deceive and kill on his path to greatness. If Lady Macbeth urged him to be patient, or to follow a more legal path to power, perhaps he would not go on a murderous rampage. But his wife's support and pressure keeps him on this path of mayhem towards his downfall.

Sometimes in Shakespeare's tragedies, he involves fate in the characters' paths to their downfalls and deaths, meaning that sometimes Shakespeare's characters' downfalls are predestined. Macbeth is not only a tragedy, it also has supernatural elements. The three witches, including Hecate, the embodiment of Chaos, play a part in Macbeth's downfall. Unlike fate, the witches are actual characters with speaking roles. The witches not only predict Macbeth's rise to power, they also later predict his downfall. Some critics feel that the witches directly control Macbeth's actions, and others say that they only prophesize. Either way you look at it, having the three supernatural witches tell him first that he will be king and then that he will fall must influence Macbeth's state of mind and decision making. They place the thoughts in his mind that cause him to decide to kill Duncan and then to go crazy with fear and guilt.