Two characters that have flaws that are the causes of their downfall is Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s flaw is that she makes her husband kill king Duncan; she feels guilty after she does this, so she commits suicide. Macbeth’s flaw is what leads him to kill; his ambition and selfishness leads to his death. Lady Macbeth’s flaw is that she convinces Macbeth that he isn’t a man unless he goes through with the murder of Duncan. She threatens his manhood by saying ‘when you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more that what you were, you would be so much more the man’ (act 1, scene VII, l 49-51).
After Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan, she feels guilty and says ‘here’s the smell of the blood still.
All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’ (act 5, scene 1, l 35-36).
Lady Macbeth becomes mentally ill; she kills herself because she feels so guilt. Macbeth’s flaw is that he feels the need to prove his manhood, which eventually leads to his downfall. Macbeth was not secure in his manhood. So he feels the need to prove himself to Lady Macbeth. After he proves he is a man by killing Duncan, he thinks he has a lot of power to do whatever he wants.
After Macbeth commits the crime, he feels that his soul can never be cleansed, no matter what he does. He said ‘They pluck out mine own eyes, will all great neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red’ (act II, scene III, l 58-62).
This shows that he really doesn’t want to kill Duncan, but he does it in order to prove himself to Lady Macbeth, and to become the king. By the end he has ne fear, and has not only killed Duncan but also many other people such as Siward, Banquo and Macduff’s family. Macbeth proves that he can be a man by killing, but in the end he can not believe that he went through with all that. All that he did eventually leads to the death of his love, Lady Macbeth, which is the original reason he feels the need to prove himself.
Therefore, these are two characters, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, that have flaws that lead to a greater or lesser degree, to their downfall. Lady Macbeth makes he husband kill king Duncan, but in the end she feels guilty and kills herself. Macbeth kills Duncan because he want the throne. he also kills Banquo, Siward and Macduff’s family.
In the end he loses his wife, he gets beheaded, and Malcolm becomes the king of Scotland. They deserved there deaths because Macbeth was being selfish and wanted the throne.