Macbeth is More Responsible In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” Macbeth is seen to be as the one responsible for King Duncan’s murder, as Macbeth’s hands were the ones that actually killed King Duncan. However, while Macbeth may be thought of as ultimately responsible for his actions, but there are other influences that actually show on a closer inspection of the text, the three main influences to his decision are Lady Macbeth, himself, and the witches. This is (in my opinion) convincing evidence that Macbeth is completely responsible for the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth shows that he is willing to kill King Duncan because he is interested in the witches prophecy, after they tell him that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then the King. …show more content…
This “future queen” sees the life she could have flash before her eyes and obviously Macbeth was hesitant because King Duncan was a honest man and Macbeth was a “servant” to him and he was family to Macbeth so he really didn’t want to go through with it. This fueled Lady Macbeth to conjure the death of King Duncan as well as covering it up. Lady Macbeth in Act 1, asked the spirits if they could “unsex” her so that she could ultimately be capable to go through with the killing. She felt like her husband (Macbeth) could not do her dirty work that she could wish that she could do herself. Lady Macbeth tried and attempted to fasten onto Macbeth’s inner feelings and attacked his level of masculinity. He is a easy person to manipulate once the future queen questioned his manliness. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he cannot go through with killing King Duncan, she proceeds to tell him that he is a coward. To further convince her husband to kill Duncan is the utmost importance she said that she “would, while (her unborn child) was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out.” (Act 1, Scene 7, Lines
In As I Lay Dying and Macbeth, certain characters naturally readjust the extent to which they reveal their true selves to the outside world following the demise of their leader. This culminates in a shift of power and leads the characters on a distinct and troubling journey. The death of a matriarch or patriarch in both As I Lay Dying and Macbeth shifts the power by revealing individual agendas and the justification of unsavory actions. In As I Lay Dying, Addie’s death as the matriarch of the Bundren family shifts the power by uncovering the true intentions of Anse, her husband.
As a mother, Lady Macbeth would pluck her “nipple from his boneless gums / And dashed the brains out” of her baby revealing how she will do anything to get power because, although she loves her child, her greed allows her to be able to kill them if it benefited her. She chooses to ignore the devastation and grief she would have if she murdered her child because of how much she wants Duncan to die so that she gains power. While Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to continue with the murder of Duncan, Macbeth asks what if the plan fails and Lady Macbeth responds with “We fail? / But screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail” (1.7.59-61).
After hearing and believing what the witches had to say, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill king Duncan. However at first, Lady Macbeth tries to make Macbeth the king by handling the situation herself. She says to her husband,”This night’s great business into my dispatch, Which shall to all our nights and days to come Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom” (1.5.. What Lady Macbeth is saying to her husband is that she will take of the plans regarding Duncan, and then says that after that night, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will be as happy as
Macbeth argumentative essay In Shakespeare's Macbeth the main character Macbeth goes to battle against his country's enemy, three witches appear who tell him that he will soon become Thane of Cawdor and then one day king of Scotland. His best friend Banquo is told from the witches as well that his sons will be king one day after Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth gets word of this she becomes manipulative and greedy, she can’t wait to be in power, she comes up with a plan to kill king Duncan. Macbeth doesn’t agree with this plan so Lady Macbeth manipulates him into killing King Duncan.
So although Macbeth was killed by rebels, Lady Macbeth has ultimate responsibility for his death. Lady Macbeth is responsible for killing her husband because she pressured him into the killing of others, which ended up getting him killed. As soon as Lady Macbeth found out she was becoming wife to the Thane of Cawdor, all she wanted was more power. Lady Macbeth applied pressure on Macbeth In Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 38-41 by saying, “. .
Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor but he wanted to be king more than anything. The witches had told him that he would one day be king but he did not know how long that would take so when King Duncan had been invited to stay the night at his house he exclaimed that “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/ shakes so my single state of man/ that function is smother 'd in surmise,/ and nothing is but what is not”(1.3.52-55). He felt that if he were to kill King Duncan that he would have a better chance of becoming king. Though the witches had never told him that someone would need to get murdered for him to become king, his ambition tempted him to quicken this process the only way he felt he could. This was the beginning of the murderer that the witches had created with the fortune telling.
The Thane of King Duncan, Macbeth hears a prophecy that he himself will become king later on in the future after King Duncan. This then leads to Macbeth being overcome by greed. Since Macbeth greeds to be king so bad, he murders King Duncan and takes his place of the throne. Macbeth starts to live with so much guilt and fear that he commits even more murders to have his power safe. Macbeth is so confident in the prophecies that his life comes to a downfall and he gets killed by the people he did wrong.
From honored soldier to murderous tyrant, Macbeth killed his way into power. He was informed of his “destiny” and stopped at nothing to achieve it. He had multiple chances to rethink his actions. He didn 't however, he kept on his march to power leaving only himself to blame. Macbeth is the only one to blame for his actions and ultimately, his death.
Macbeth states to Lady Macbeth, “we will proceed no further in this business” (I, VII) since he almost finally decides to refuse to kill Duncan. However, Lady Macbeth uses different manipulative methodologies towards Macbeth and persuades him to consult the killing of Duncan. “So green and pale” (I, VII), Lady Macbeth even called him a coward. From the same scene, she mentions, “From this time, such I account thy love”, implying that if Macbeth cant stay steady concerning the murder of the king, then she will consider his love for her to be as similarly conflicting. Later in scene, Lady Macbeth states that if she had made such a promise as Macbeth did to her, she would “dash the brains out” of her own child as “it was smiling in her fail”.
Lady Macbeth believes in order to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan she has to lose her feminine qualities and become more masculine. This happens when she finds out that Macbeth can gain the throne if Duncan dies. She wants to murder Duncan so that Macbeth can gain the throne. Lady Macbeth does not think women are capable of committing such a deed so she says, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direct cruelty” (1.5.47-50).
In play Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals that an individual’s great desire for power will lead him/her to perform consequential deeds that will scar his/her conscience and change the outcome of his/her life eternally. Macbeth is informed by three witches that he is going to become king and this initiates Macbeth’s thought of becoming powerful. Macbeth doesn’t act on his thoughts until he tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, that he could become king. Lady Macbeth is extremely power hungry and does all she can to convince Macbeth to be just as desirable as her. Together, they come up with a plan to murder King Duncan, so that Macbeth can become king like the witches foretold.
Ambition and self-fulfilling prophecies two seemingly unrelated things that are actually intertwined with one another. Ambition is the thing that drives many people to do the things they love. Self-fulfilling prophecies are a direct result of ambition by the person subconsciously doing things to get their foreseen future. These things help the advancement of people’s lives. It is part of life to want to succeed and have dreams be fulfilled.
Macbeth is hesitant to murder but Lady Macbeth questions his manhood and tells him how much more of a man he will be if he would kill
She wanted the title of being queen and King Duncan was in her way of that, so she got into Macbeth’s head. Macbeth was reluctant at first, which also shows that he is not wholly evil. A true wholly evil person wouldn’t be reluctant about killing someone. Throughout the play, it is evidence that Macbeth is not wholly
This perversion of one of the most sacred acts of motherhood enhances the horror of the length she would cross to achieve her goal. However, it also implies that considering Lady Macbeth as merely a brutal, malicious woman stirring her husband to slaughter a poor old king- is a misevaluation and understatement of this character. In Defense of Lady Macbeth An attempt to investigate who actually planned the murder of Duncan, can be referred to the findings of A. C. Bradley in the essay, “When Was the Murder of Duncan First Plotted”, in his Shakespearean Tragedy: A good many readers probably think that, when Macbeth first met the Witches, he was perfectly innocent; but a much larger number would say that he had already harboured a vaguely guilty ambition, though he had not faced the idea of murder.