Innocent and Naive Macbeth Innocence is a quality that few people take to their graves, although everyone is born with it. At some point in life, an event or circumstance removes that shield from both moral and legal guilt, whether in one's own eyes or in the eyes of another. If so, innocence is discarded or innocence can be stolen. Both are true of Macbeth in William Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth. The hero's innocence and naivety make him vulnerable prey for those who feel completely at home in a subhuman realm of mischief and disintegration: the witches and Lady Macbeth. Inevitably, Macbeth is eventually worn down enough to be pushed into this dark and evil abyss by his wife, Lady Macbeth, who frantically leaps after him to join the witches where they are most comfortable. Macbeth's robbery of innocence begins by allowing the witches to brainwash him with their predictions, forcing him ever closer to the edge of their grim abyss. They take advantage of the surplus of ambition that had served him so well in his desire for victory over Macdonwald and use it to instill in him the need to be king. However, desire is not enough for Macbeth and he is therefore driven "to seek certainty as his only goal. He wants certainty from the witches...at any cost" (Campbell 228). Macbeth, however, is not yet completely lost; honor and justice remain in him, and although it takes him some time to fully consider the consequences of the witches' words upon him, he rejects his horrible thoughts of murder and postpones all action: "If chance shall have me king, that, chance may crown me, / Without my stir" (I. iii.143-144). For the moment, Macbeth's true essence is in control, that of loyalty and honor. However, Macbeth again undergoes a change of heart in scene four, at the announcement of Malcolm as Prince of Cumberland and successor to the throne of Scotland, the same throne that Macbeth had set his sights on. The effect of the King's proclamation on him can be seen through his reaction: The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step, on which I must fall, or jump, because it is in my way. Stars, hide your fires! Don't let the light see my deep black desires; The eye blinks at the hand; however let it be what the eye fears to see, once finished .