Essay on Macbeth's Murder of Duncan in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Lady Macbeth understands Macbeth’s lust for the throne, and lusts for it herself. She also understands his ambition, but feels that her husband might regret and decide against killing Duncan to steal his throne, as she regards to Macbeth as “full o’ the milk of human kindness” (1.5.4). Since Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth would turn against her and not go through with the plan, she decides that it must be up to her to get it done correctly. She asks that only the “direst cruelty” (1.5.33) fill her, as she gathers everything that is evil to her in order to murder Duncan. Even though Macbeth was hesitant over the idea of murdering Duncan, his wife convinces him that acting on his impulse of killing Duncan is the right thing to do. This shown when Macbeth starts to second guess the thought of murdering his king, and that it should not be done. However, his wife verbally harasses him into agreeing. Lady Macbeth questions his love for her, questions his masculinity, and criticizes his desire to be king by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man” (1.5.49-51). As his successfully offends him, he decides that he needs to prove his manhood, his love of his wife, and his ambition to be king, he agrees to murder Duncan.

Macbeth’s ambition for power interests his wife, Lady Macbeth, who also desires power and corrupts Macbeth’s ambition. When Macbeth is having second thoughts as to whether or not he should murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth, coaxing him into killing King Duncan despite his loyal service to him;”When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man”(I.7.56-58). Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s manliness as a way to get Macbeth to go through with the murder. Macbeth, offended and hesitant, struggles with moral conflict. He fears being caught and does not wish to murder Duncan because he has been fair to him. Lady Macbeth however knows that Macbeth strives for power, and finds a way to use this as a way of manipulating him. Earlier on in the play, Lady Macbeth is reading her husband’s letter and learns of the prophecies. Her first instinct is to kill Duncan. She reads the letter and reflects on Macbeth’s nature,“Glamis thou art, and cawdor,and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”(I.5.15-17). Lady Macbeth knows that her husband does not have enough ambition to kill Duncan, and realizes she must push him into murdering King Duncan. [This is the moment in the play where Lady starts planning to murder King Duncan and gets the play moving in the direction it ends]. Macbeth’s thirst for power never leaves him satisfied.

Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill king Duncan, so she can live her dream life. “And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man”(Macbeth 1.7.50-51). This quote explains how Lady Macbeth is trying to persuade her husband in doing the death of king Duncan. One characteristic that sticks out about lady Macbeth, Is that she is a smooth talker to whom she knows she can convince in doing what she won’t do. She tells Macbeth what he wants to hear for her own fame. “And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep”(Macbeth 1.7.61). While Macbeth is shocked and frightened about Lady Macbeth’s thoughts. She explains to him that king Duncan’s death will not be known of them, As why they do it while he is sleeping. Lady Macbeth tells him the future they will have if he does her plan. Now Scotland gets turned upside down. Macbeth kills king Duncan against his will. Lady Macbeth talked Macbeth into killing king Duncan so she would not have to live with the quilt of doing the murder. Lady Macbeth’s plan starts to unravel, As they hear a voice from another room. Macbeth is so out of sorts, that he has left the bloody dagger he use to kill king Duncan at the scene of

Lady Macbeth is one of the only women in the story, besides the witches who are really expanded upon. Throughout the story you really find out how manipulative she is. She is all but the only reason that Macbeth killed the king. She was the spark that lit the fire but she was also the wood that kept the fire burning. But its all started when she was told by Macbeth that Malcolm was to become the next king instead of him or his children. This drove her to manipulate Macbeth and to force his hand to kill the king. Lady Macbeth was so ambitious that if she had not been a woman or the fact that duncan looked like her father she would have killed him with her own hand and not Macbeth. She manipulated him by twisting his emotions and calling him less of a

However, this would soon change due to the influence of Macbeth's wife. Lady Macbeth's character at the beginning reveals that she is very ambitious. Her character also shows that she loves power and wealth. Lady Macbeth soon realizes the witches’ predictions, and decides to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth was ready to kill King Duncan herself, but she backed out because he reminded her of her father. Lady Macbeth plays an important role in this play, because she provided the scheme, which caused Macbeth to assassinate King Duncan. When Duncan arrived at Inverness, Macbeth controlled his ambition for the time being and did not kill Duncan. The failing of his decision was soon reflected by Lady Macbeth who called him a coward. However, Shakespeare provokes a sense of pity by making Macbeth regret his wrong doing shortly after the murder. It is after this scene of the play, that the audience can note the change in Macbeth's character. Macbeth's first murder was a trying experience for him; however, after the first murder killing seemed to be the only solution to maintain his reign of the people of Scotland. Therefore, Lady Macbeth

Throughout William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth develop profoundly differently over the course of the play. Macbeth’s character transforms from a noble hero to an ambitious, blood-thirsty murderer. When Macbeth is on the battlefield, he is heroic and brave by defeating the traitors of King Duncan and the Norwegian Army, and he is crowned as Thane of Cawdor. Later in the play, Macbeth cold-heartedly murders his King, a woman and her children, and his own beloved friend. This illustrates Macbeth’s drastic transformation from a hero to a murderer. On the contrary, Lady Macbeth changes from a manipulative, ruthless wife, and an accomplice to murder, into a guilt-ridden, and a paranoid madwoman who commits suicide. When Lady Macbeth and her husband are quarrelling, she insults her husband’s manliness to make him commit the murder of Duncan. Later in the play, Lady Macbeth deeply suffers from her guilt, that she becomes mad. Lady Macbeth constantly sleepwalks and washes her hands of the imaginary blood of her husband’s victims and of her ambition. It is evident that over the course of Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth develop profoundly differently throughout the play.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, one of the major themes is that power leads to bad decisions and ultimately corruption.. The hero starts of as a brave and trustworthy man then he slowly morphs into a dark and twisted tyrant. During the course of the book the characters take risks and continually take actions that they would normally not do, especially if the chance of power was not in the picture. Darkness follows follows macbeth while his power gets greater and it makes him create worse situation. Every action taken to get power only leads to bad consequences.

In some instances, men tend to fall under the rule of strong woman.  Lady Macbeth rejects her womanly, submissive traits in order to the stronger character and Macbeth's backbone. Macbeth is a great example on how women influence men because he is insecure and a coward. I will show how without Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have lived and prospered. Lady Macbeth is very good at manipulating her husband, as the play movesalongg she become more bloodthirsty than Macbeth and she encourages him to use his power for violence. In this play author, William Shakespeare, is trying to show how easy it is for evil to penetrate your head and make you act out. The play Macbeth is centered in Scottland with characters fighting over the power of the land with Macbeth ending up as king of Scottland. In the end however Macbeth's guilt over comitting murder makes him go delusional, showing how weak his mind really is.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have changed drastically throughout the play. One goes from evil to scared and the other goes from scared to evil. You can see the change between these characters obviously by their actions. Lady Macbeth turned murderous after hearing the prophecy that Macbeth would be king from the witches. Lady Macbeth was a strong force leading to Macbeth’s killing of Duncan.

Lady MacBeth is the second person responsible for MacBeth’s death because she took advantage of the seed planted in MacBeth’s head by the three witches. To her advantage, she manipulated MacBeth into murdering King Duncan by calling his manliness and bravery into question. She said, “What about your hopes for the future? Have they been sleeping? And do they awake now, looking pale and weak?... (17)”, “… Do you wish to live as a coward in your own eyes, Not daring to reach for what you want? (17).” Lady MacBeth is a very ambitious woman, perhaps even more than her husband, MacBeth. She appears to be the dominant one in her marriage. She is a manipulative woman who took advantage of her husband’s vulnerability, like the witches. She urged him to kill King Duncan. MacBeth was hesitant and said on multiple occasions that he respected King Duncan too much to kill him. Lady MacBeth eventually convinced MacBeth to commit the horrible act of slaughtering King Duncan. Lady MacBeth’s advice to MacBeth before the murder is, “Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it (15).” Also, she says, “Show only calm, Give no one reasons to be suspicious (15).” Lady MacBeth’s advice to MacBeth shows that she is capable of committing the act of murder herself. She tells MacBeth that she cannot physically murder King Duncan because he resembles her father. Her making her husband the one physically

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is infamous for her commandeering nature and unapologetic attitude. She serves as the driving force behind her husband, Macbeth’s murdering of King Duncan so that they may obtain the Scottish throne. On the surface, Lady Macbeth holds herself in high regard, and appears to society as a dutiful and subordinate wife to Macbeth. However, behind closed doors she is capable of manipulating him. After King Duncan has been murdered, Lady Macbeth maintains her composure as peers begin to suspect Macbeth of the crime, and impending consequences threaten the well being of the couple.

Lady Macbeth pushed killing Duncan onto Macbeth, he had his own thoughts in Act I Scene iii, “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature?”(135-137). As soon as he hears the prophecies he is thinking about killing Duncan to become King of Scotland, but it is clear that the guilt is already residing with him and that he has a heart and is not ready to kill someone for power. Lady Macbeth, however is willing to do anything to have her and her husband to be successful and become King and Queen. It is clearly shown in Act I Scene V, Lady Macbeth says “ Yet do i fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend to it”(17-21). Lady Macbeth does not believe her husband has the ambition nor capability to kill Duncan without a little push from her. She is the mastermind behind the first killing of Duncan, and if Duncan had not looked like her late father, she would have

Lady Macbeth, by nature, is a very ambitious person (maybe even more ambitious than Macbeth), and could even be described as ‘lacking humanity’. Due to Lady Macbeth having these cruel traits, and a burning desire to be queen, she forcefully pushes Macbeth into the murder of King Duncan. After hearing the witches’ prophesies, Macbeth knew that to fulfil them and become king, he would have to murder Duncan. However, Macbeth was still a loyal man, and had a great moral conflict as to whether or not he should kill the king. Even on the night when he and Lady Macbeth had agreed they would murder him, he was still not prepared to kill Duncan, as is shown when he said to Lady Macbeth, ‘We will proceed no more in this business. He hath honoured me of late’. However, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth in to committing the murder, often by attacking his manliness and self-esteem. By making Macbeth feel like less of a man for not committing the murder, Macbeth was almost shamed by his wife into killing Duncan. The murder of Duncan is arguably the most significant event in the downfall of Macbeth, and it is unlikely that without Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have followed through with the witches’

The impact of Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth additionally contributed to his degeneration of character. Woman Macbeth's character in the starting uncovers that she is an adorable individual. At the point when Lady Macbeth was prepared to slaughter King Duncan herself, it demonstrated that Lady Macbeth could not murder King Duncan on the grounds that he helped her to remember her dad. This demonstrates that Lady Macbeth shows at least a bit of kindness profound inside her. Woman Macbeth assumes an essential part in this play in light of the fact that she gave a plan which brought on Macbeth to kill King Duncan. After Macbeth had murdered King Duncan, he later laments on his wrong doing. At the point of this play the gathering of people can take note of the adjustment in Macbeth's character. Macbeth's first murder was an attempting knowledge for him, however after the principal homicide, slaughtering appeared to be the main answer for keep up his rule of the populace of Scotland. Along these lines, it was Lady Macbeth who acquainted the idea of homicide with Macbeth. Macbeth's desire likewise affected his declining

The three witches had previously told Macbeth and Banquo that Macbeth would receive the titles Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland. He already had the title Thane of Glamis by birthright. Duncan had given the title Thane of Cawdor to Macbeth right after the witches’ prophecy. Since Macbeth earned the title Thane of Cawdor, he assumed that the title King of Scotland would true too soon after. Macbeth wanted to hurry the process. He did not want to wait to become King. Macbeth became power-hungry, and he wanted the title now. King Duncan was planning a trip to visit Macbeth’s castle to congratulate him on the new title. When he arrived, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth had a plan to kill Duncan that night, so they can have full power.