Author(s)

ZhiHao Zhu

Affiliation(s)

Kings' School Al Barsha, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Corresponding Author

ZhiHao Zhu

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the attribution of blame for the tragic outcome in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. While Macbeth's unchecked ambition plays a central role, the responsibility is shared among several other figures and forces, including supernatural agents, Lady Macbeth, and King Duncan. Drawing on close textual analysis, literary devices, historical context, and intertextual references, the study argues that Shakespeare deliberately constructs a multilayered view of culpability, reflecting the political and metaphysical anxieties of the Jacobean era. The complexity of blame in Macbeth mirrors the early 17th-century tensions between free will and fate, individual agency and cosmic order.

KEYWORDS

Tragedy; Ambition; Supernatural; Responsibility; Jacobean context; Moral conflict

CITE THIS PAPER

ZhiHao Zhu. Who is to blame for the outcome of Macbeth. History and Culture Journal. 2025, 2(1): 33-35. DOI: https://doi.org/10.61784/hcj3009.

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