Macbeth: Fear and Cowardice Great tragedy by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is a play based more on character than on action. The play is a journey through Macbeth's life, beginning at the peak of his career and following it until his demise. The cause of this sudden deterioration has been debated for centuries. Some attribute Macbeth's rapid degeneration to ambition. If Macbeth does not lack ambition, this is not the essential element which causes his disappearance. It is fear that permeates Macbeth: utter cowardice drives his will to sinful acts resulting in regression. Cowardice, not ambition, is the primary and underlying factor that drives Macbeth to kill Duncan, murder Banquo, and seek help from the witches. Duncan's murder is provoked more by fearful confusion than by Macbeth's "voluminous ambition" (I. vii.27). After hearing the witches' prophetic greeting, Macbeth is plunged into a “fantastic” state of mind (I.iii.139). He reflects on regicide, which “[shakes] [his] only functioning state of man / is stifled by suppositions” (I.iii.140-41). During the events leading up to Duncan's murder, Macbeth undergoes five changes of mind before deciding that "[they] will not continue in [this] matter" (I.vii.31). The hesitation to kill Duncan is the first symptom of Macbeth's terrible confusion. What causes Macbeth to suddenly change his mind and kill Duncan? Macbeth is a weak man whose “dearest partner in greatness” is his wife (IV10). He values ​​his opinion above all else. After rejecting the murder plan, Macbeth is subjected to a storm of insults from Lady Macbeth: Are you afraid/of being the same in your own deed and worth/as you are in the desire ? the ornament of life,/And live cowardly in your own esteem. (I.vii.39-43) His fear of her contempt increases the confusion within his "heat-oppressed brain", causing him hesitantly to accept the plot (II.i.39). (Review MLA format and citations.) Macbeth, too consumed by his own fear to maintain rational reasoning, becomes a pawn of his fear-born confusion, leaving his mind with no choice but to kill Duncan. If the murder had been caused by ambition, Macbeth would not have been so hesitant in his actions. He would have had a clear aim and could have seen a crown instead of the “air-drawn dagger” which was “the very painting of [his] fear” (III.iv.62-63). Therefore, Macbeth's regression is motivated by fearful frenzy and not by the overambitious plot of a rational man..