While Macbeth himself calls his own flaw "...vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself..." (I, vi), a closer scrutiny shows that his belief in prophecy provided by witches to be the real driving force behind Macbeth.
The witches open the play, announcing they will see Macbeth. When they do, they tell him amazing prophecies of his rise to the crown, along with more vague and ambiguous prophecies for Banquo, another nobleman. When Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor soon after the prophecy, he is hooked. Banquo, however, tries to warn his friend by noting that often times the "instruments of darkness tell us truths...to betray in deepest consequence..." (I, iii).
However, Macbeth, and his wife, can only focus on the third prophecy, to kill the king. They do just that, hurrying along the third prophecy's fulfillment.
Ironically, it is Banquo who suspects Macbeth's crime and suffers death for it as well. When the ghost reappears to haunt Macbeth, he returns to the witches for further truth. These prophecies also appear iron-clad, until oddly the woods do move, Macduff threatens, and a person not-borne of woman kills Macbeth.
Macbeth's belief in the prophecies gave ambition at first, but the overconfidence he gains from the second set causes his formerly loyal thanes to flee and, ultimately, he loses his life.
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