King Duncan's murder marks the beginning of Macbeth's downfall. Who can be held mostly responsible for this?.
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare centres on the character of Macbeth and his downfall from noble thane and courageous soldier to evil and barbarian king. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is visited by three witches; they are the ones who plant ideas or possibilities of becoming king into his head. His ambition grows and the prospect of becoming king becomes ever more attractive. With the help of the highly persuasive and manipulative Lady Macbeth, he achieves his goal. Becoming king was Macbeth's ruin. After he claimed the throne Macduff, along with others began to become suspicious of him and his dreadful deed. Macbeth's reputation began to slowly decay, as his opponents gathered more followers. At the end, he had made enough enemies that his opposition was able to build an army which was led against him. In this battle Macbeth is slain.
Plays such as Macbeth, are made for an audience. This play was written in 1606 for King James" I entertainment and therefore, would not contain anything which displease the king. In addition we can say that it is for the fact that the play, Macbeth, was written for a king that certain things happen during the course of the story.
Considering that King James was a descendant from Banquo and Fleance Shakespeare altered history and instead of making Banquo a murderer who helps Macbeth, in Shakespeare's version he is murdered because he fights against the traitor, and is therefore innocent. This is of course because it would have been highly offensive to the king if you suggested that he had descended from a ruthless murderer of a king. In addition, Shakespeare also knew that James I was extremely interested in witchcraft. Subsequently, he made the witches as primary pivots in Macbeth's story, knowing this would interest and please the king.
The tragedy of Macbeth comes about because of a single event in his life.