How Did Shakespeare Decide To Kill Duncan In Macbeth

Macbeth chose to kill King Duncan on his own accord. His wife Lady Macbeth may have helped him come up with the plan and urged him on, it was his own hand that held the knife. Although without the witches there to inform Macbeth that one day he would be king, he may have gone down a completely different path. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare shows how giving people a glimpse into their future can change their fate.

Though it still remains to be seen if the witches placed the idea of killing Duncan in Macbeth’s head, or if upon hearing his future it renewed his longtime hope to one day be king. William Shakespeare states “All hail Macbeth that shall be king hereafter!” (I.iii.50) none of the witches hint that he must kill King Duncan to become king. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

Banquo did not express any interest in making his prophecy come true, though it came true anyway.In the text Banquo states “And oftentimes to win us to our harm,/ The instruments of darkness tell us half truths,/ Win us with honest trifles to betray’s/ In deepest consequence” (I.iii.123-126) Banquo from the very beginning mistrusted the witches but what they had told Macbeth intrigued him though he still did not believe them. When Shakespeare had Banquo say “To me you speak not./ If you can look into the seeds of time/ And say which grain will grow and which will not,/ Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear,/ Your favors nor your hate” (I.iii.57-61) Banquo only wonders what the witches would say about him. When Macbeth and Banquo find out that Macbeth has received the titles the witches had told him about he is uneasy in his feelings. Fate may govern people's lives to an extent, but the choices people make,and the paths they cross along the way determine how they get there. No one knows quite what Macbeth would have done if the witches had never appeared. One thing is for certain, Macbeth chose his own fate, and it led him down a slippery