Macbeth
In Macbeth, the titular character experiences a rise in both power and responsibility. At the beginning of the story, he does not have very much power. He was a thane, but his wife, who is pictured above, had a firm grip on him.
"What beast wasn't, then, that made you break this enterprise to me?" (Shakespeare 43).
This is one of her tactics of persuading Macbeth to do what she wants him to do: making him feel bad. By successfully doing this, it shows that she does have power over Macbeth. She made the decisions and could have influenced Macbeth to do what she wanted. However, once he kills Duncan and becomes king, he becomes more independent. He starts making decisions for himself and stops doing what Lady Macbeth says. Because he is now making his own decisions, his responsibility has increased, along with his power.
Before, it was debatable who was the most responsible for Duncan's death: Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. I find that Lady Macbeth is the most responsible because she had power over Macbeth and the plan. But as Macbeth continued to gain power, he gained responsibility for his actions as well. It is much easier to blame Macbeth over the death of Banquo rather than the death of Duncan. This is due to the amount of power that he had. Because he had more power in the making of his decisions, he had to be more responsible for the outcome of those decisions.
"Who wear our health but sickly in his life, which in his death were perfect" (Shakespeare 89).
Here, Macbeth shows his desire to kill Banquo. He is king and takes Lady Macbeth out of the equation by doing this without her, making him fully responsible.