My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man/ That function Is smothered in surmise, / and nothing is but what is not” (Act I. Scene iii. Lines 147-155). Macbeth is wondering why if the prophecy is good then why is it giving him a bad feeling. The thought of killing King Duncan makes his head hurt and his heart pound with nerves. Macbeth knows he needs to kill King Duncan to get to the throne, but he does not know if he can do it.
There comes a point in life where some people are faced with an opportunity to do an illegal act. Macbeth is faced with a chance to end King Duncan’s life and to become King himself, as Lady Macbeth had just come to him and made him aware of her plans to murder Duncan. In Macbeth’s soliloquy during Act I scene VII, he uses an apprehensively foreboding tone to convey how conflicted he is to the readers. The purpose of this speech is for Macbeth to explain why killing Duncan is a horrible idea. Also, Macbeth’s faith in the three witches is a big reason he decides to do and they are why Lady Macbeth created the idea to kill the King.
I think that Macbeth should not kill the King because he knows that it is against his own morals. If Macbeth were to kill the King, the one pro would be that Macbeth would be the new King. This is something that Macbeth has dreamed about for a long time and he will not let anyone get in the way of it. There are many cons of killing the King in which Macbeth ruminates. One of these cons is the guilt that will haunt Macbeth for the rest of his life: “Let not light see my black and deep desires”(Macbeth Act 1 Sc 4 li. 59).
This desire forces Macbeth to make decisions that lead him to his own downfall. After meeting the witches Banquo starts to become suspicious and asks if Macbeth has been thinking of them and Macbeth quickly responds "I think not of them." In this statement there is dramatic irony as the audience knows he has been contemplating murder. This demonstrates another situation where his downfall could have been avoided. Another example of a situation where Macbeth could have avoided the situation is when Macbeth saw the dagger floating right before he killed Duncan.
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
It is hard to realize that one’s idea might be dreadful. Letting pride spirals out of control makes someone an unstoppable person. For example, in the tragedy Macbeth, after hearing the witches’ prophecies, he was in great confusion. Lady Macbeth’s desire for Macbeth to be King of Scotland drives him to murder the current King in order to receive the throne unjustly. She did not realize that her idea was downright horrific, and that she had no idea how it would turn out for Macbeth’s future.
He feels that because the witches said it that it must be true no matter what the consequences in the future are. This is a leading factor that causes Macbeth to decide to murder King Duncan. Macbeth consciously makes the decision to commit treason and knows that it will have consequences. He even ponders the fact that although he will have a prosperous life on
Macbeth began to turn evil when he decides to commit regicide on King Duncan, and all he could think about was finishing him off for good, when he said, “If it were done, when ’tis done, then ’twere well / it were done quickly” (Shakespeare 1.7.1-2). Macbeth’s mind was full of ambition to make his last prophecy of becoming King of Scotland come true, that instead of celebrating himself as Thane of Cawdor, he consumes himself with the witches and his ambitions that he became one of the nature of evil itself. Furthermore, Macbeth’s act of evil continues and became darker after he became King of Scotland. After becoming King, he went on a murdering rampage for those who got in his way of trying to strip him of his leadership, and that even meant killing his best friend Banquo and Banquo’s son Fleance. Before Banquo died, he spoke, “O, treachery!
This is what sets Macbeth apart from Hamlet - while Hamlet delays killing his uncle because of philosophical concerns mainly due to the fact that Claudius is “fit and seasoned for his passage” (3.3.88) when he is praying, Macbeth loses all honor once he decides that power is more important than relationships and sacrifices his conscience when he murders Banquo. Before the witches have gotten into Macbeth’s head, he is a very close friend to Banquo, just like Horatio is to Hamlet. However, once the witches give Macbeth the prophecy that he will become king, and after he has murdered Duncan, Macbeth starts to turn on Banquo, remarking that, “our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared” (3.1.52-54).
The prophecies also affect other characters into persuading him into committing acts that he normally would not do if it weren’t for the false hope that the witches had given him. In Act one the King hears of Macbeth 's noble deed in battle and awards him by making him the Thane of Cawdor. In the very next scene Macbeth and Banquo are visited by the witches who great Macbeth with “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to the Thane of Cawdor!”
For example, when the witches notify Macbeth that he will gain a new title, they are simply telling him of the fact and are not prompting him to act upon it (Rahman and Tajuddin 138). In spite of that, he instantly conjures up an image in his head of himself killing King Duncan in order to get the position of the King, and subtly questions if his thoughts are against his own morals (Mac I.iii.130-137). This thought is not the witches’ fault, but if they never told Macbeth of his imminent future, he would not think this way. Macbeth’s murderous thought of Duncan lets readers see that Macbeth has a lust for power, which ultimately leads to the tragedy (Kesur 5561). In addition, the witches’ apparitions also play a slight part in Macbeth’s decision making.