Speculation about the cause of Bill Clinton's current predicament is comparable to speculation about the cause of Macbeth's downfall.  In the former instance, people debate whether it was a flaw in Clinton's character, the actions of Monica Lewinsky, or a conservative conspiracy led by Ken Starr that has taken him to the brink of removal from office.

    Although there are no witches in his story (Linda Tripp notwithstanding) and no sense of an overriding fate, his situation could be seen as a modern parallel to Macbeth's downfall.  In Macbeth, readers, critics, and playgoers consider whether Macbeth's fall was caused by a flaw in his character, Lady Macbeth, or an outside force of evil.  Although the witches set a certain mood and Lady Macbeth exerts a certain influence on him, Macbeth's downfall is caused by his own character.

    Macbeth's tragic flaw in character was the paradoxical pairing of his ambition with his passivity.  Throughout the play we see many examples of Macbeth's conflict between his ambition to attain the crown and his passive attitude towards the actions that are required to obtain it.  Macbeth's ambition is first illustrated in his susceptibility to the idea of becoming king, introduced by the witch's prophecies. When the witches greet Macbeth by saying, "All hail, Macbeth!  That shall be king hereafter" ( I, iii, 50)

    Banquo observes that Macbeth seems "rapt" (I, iii, 58) and Macbeth says, "Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more?say from whence you owe this strange intelligence??.Speak, I charge you" (71-79). As scholar A. C Bradley observes, "The words of the witches are fatal to [Macbeth] only because there is in him something which leaps into light at the sound of them" ( 289).  However, this ambitious attitude soon changes to passivity when he realizes the grave actions that are required of him.  The contrast between Macbeth's ambition and his passivity-caused by reluctance to do evil-is depicted clearly by his actions and thoughts that occur before he murders Duncan.  Macbeth focuses on "the deterrent, not the incentives";  he is plagued by the "spectral bloody dagger" rather than the thought of
the "glittering crown" (Stoll 285). Macbeth murders Duncan, not in satisfaction, but in horror, "with the conscience of a good man, not of a man that can do such wickedness" (Stoll 285).  This inner conflict between ambition and passivity, or unwillingness, is later illustrated during his second encounter with the three witches.  The witches' apparitions cause Macbeth to be filled with a new sense of ambition and urgency:

                                From this moment
The very firstlings of my heart shall be
The firstlings of my hand.  And even now,
To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done;
The castle of Macduff I will surprise; (IV, i,46-50)

Only after learning that Macduff has fulfilled the last of the witches' prophecies does Macbeth's ambition again change to passivity and unwillingness.  Macduff's taunt ("Then yield thee, coward" (V, viii, 23) is the only thing that arouses the last of Macbeth's ambition before he agrees to fight to the death:  "I will not yield,/To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,/And to be baited with the rabble's curse" (27-29).

    Macbeth's internal combination of ambition and passivity create his susceptibility to the witch's prophecies and allow him to commit murderous deeds, but his unwillingness to take action-and to do evil-create his internal conflict that ultimately leads to his downfall. Although Lady Macbeth tries to goad Macbeth into action, it is Macbeth's character flaw that causes him to take action.  At first Macbeth is unwilling to murder Duncan, citing his loyalty to Duncan and wanting fate, as he thought the witches had prophesized, to drop the crown on his head.  Only after Lady Macbeth insults his cowardliness ("Wouldst thou have that/Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,/ And live a coward in thine own esteem??" (I, vii, 41-43), does Macbeth agree to take action, thereby illustrating the susceptibility of Macbeth to be persuaded.  Lady Macbeth is not a cause of Macbeth's downfall but simply a powerful contributor to it.

    The three witches set the mood for the play and allow for further display of Macbeth's character.  The witches provide the play with a sense of evil, which matches the evil acts Macbeth eventually chooses to commit.  Although the witches prophesy Macbeth's future, their prophecies, according to Bradley,  include no course of action that Macbeth will take:  "That Macbeth will be harmed by none of woman born, and will never be vanquished till Birnam Wood shall come against him, involves?no action of his" (287).  The witch's prophecies "influence Macbeth a great deal" but they are "nothing more" (Bradley 285).  His quickness to give credibility to the witches' prophecies illustrates his ambition to become king and first introduces his fatal character flaw.  When the witches say, in Act Four, "Something wicked this way comes," (I 45), referring to Macbeth, they point to the unfolding of his evil.  He was ambitious enough to want to be king but not shrewd enough to have thought through the eventual consequences of his conniving.

    Although there were many contributing factors to Macbeth's downfall, the primary cause was his own character flaw.  His internal contradiction between ambition and passivity allowed him to become susceptible to the witches' prophecies and Lady Macbeth's wickedness and eventually led to his downfall and death.  Macbeth's character flaw was played out on the Elizabeth stage; Bill Clinton's character flaw is currently being played out in the United States Senate.
 

Works Cited

Bradley, A.C.   Shakespearean Tragedy. Fawcett Publications: Greenwich, Conn., 1965.

Shakespeare, William.  The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.  Oxford University Press:  London, 1964.

Stoll, Elmer Edgar.  "Source and Motive in Macbeth and Othello."  Ed.  Leonard F. Dean.  Oxford University Press:  New York, 1961, 282-93.