The blame lies with Lady Macbeth and the tragic flaw"...Go and pronounce her present death,/ And with her old title bid farewell to Macbeth. " (Act 1, scene 2, 64-65) Although the word "death" in this sentence refers to the former death lord of Cawdor, Shakespeare uses the clever trick of foreshadowing Macbeth's downfall by pairing the word "death" with the word "Macbeth" so early in the tragedy. The quote has another importance as it introduces the ideas of betrayal and personal gain through less than legitimate means, two characteristics that Macbeth captures as the story progresses. We are introduced to Macbeth as a hero, a slayer of Norsemen, even "Bellona's groom, voiced in trial" (Act 1, scene 2, 54), but by the end of the play Macbeth is a ruthless murderer of his own people. and perhaps cannibal*. The cause of Macbeth's downfall is both the unhealthy influence Lady Macbeth has on him and his tragic flaw. In Act I Scene 7, we see a hesitant and nervous Macbeth with a calm and bloodthirsty Lady Macbeth. Macbeth's doubts about killing the king lie in the fact that Duncan is a good king, an honest man, and Macbeth's relative. When Macbeth expresses his doubts to the Lady, she reproaches him for breaking a vow: "...I have nursed, and know how tender it is to love the child that milks me; I wish, as he smiled in my face, I would have torn my nipple from his boneless gums and would have torn his brains out, if I had sworn as you did that I had done this." (Act 1, scene 7, 54-59) We see what power and conviction Lady Macbeth has in her persuasion of Macbeth. But it's not all talk; while Macbeth forgets and fears bringing the daggers back to the middle of the paper......from forces he could barely control: his Lady and her tragic flaw. Works cited and consulted: Knights, LC "Macbeth." Shakespeare: the tragedies. A collection of critical essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Macbeth. http://chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin.Note:* Lines 39-45 say "...Cure them of it./ Thou canst not cure a diseased mind,/ Take it from the memory it is a deep-rooted pain,/ Erase away the written torments of the brain/ And with some sweet unaware antidote/ Purify the breast stuffed with that dangerous stuff/ That weighs on the heart?” In this passage after Lady Macbeth's death, Macbeth appears to give instructions to clean Lady Macbeth's body in preparation for eating it.**Or in some spellings, Banquio