Who do you feel can be held mostly responsible for the death of King Duncan?
Who do you feel can be held mostly responsible
for the death of King Duncan?
The play Macbeth is about a man changing from good to evil, greatness to eventually being killed. Macbeth at the beginning of the play is Thane of Glamis and has just beaten the Norwegians. On the way back to the camp they meet some witches that make prophecies that he is going to become Thane of Cawdor and King which change Macbeth completely. He becomes Thane of Cawdor and his wife pours evil thoughts into him. He murders the King Duncan and anyone who stands in his way, but Macduff knows what Macbeth is doing and builds up an army and eventually kills Macbeth. When this play was written, James 1 was king. This play would have pleased King James 1 because he hated regicides and to see Macbeth get his head cut off and put on a spike would scare people to even think of killing the king. Also most people believed in witches in those days which would make the play seem more realistic. The three main people to be blamed are Macbeth himself, Lady Macbeth, his cunning wife and the 3 witches that made the prophecies in the first place.
Lady Macbeth could be mostly to blame because she told Macbeth what to do when he was in doubt. Lady Macbeth did not represent a stereotypical woman in the Shakespearian time because she was the more dominant person in the relationship and the man usually looked after the money and was head of the family. The first time Lady Macbeth speaks is when she is reading out Macbeth's letter to her, telling her about the witches. After she reads out the letter to herself (soliloquy) she tells the audience what she thinks straight after:
"What thou art promis'd: yet do I fear thy nature."
This shows to the reader that she is afraid what Macbeth maybe like and then this follows a few lines later:
"Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it."
This implies that Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to do something bad, so she is planning how she will persuade him to do this. She also says in her soliloquy:
"Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round."
This tells the reader that she wants to put evil into him.
In scene 6 Lady Macbeth is speaking to King Duncan and is taking complements from him about their home and how good a hostess she is. After the complements she says:
"In every point twice done, and then done double."
This is showing that she is deceitful and should not be trusted but as ...
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"Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round."
This tells the reader that she wants to put evil into him.
In scene 6 Lady Macbeth is speaking to King Duncan and is taking complements from him about their home and how good a hostess she is. After the complements she says:
"In every point twice done, and then done double."
This is showing that she is deceitful and should not be trusted but as the audience only know this, it is dramatic irony. Lady Macbeth is nice to King Duncan by calling him good things, like:
"Highness, most pleasure."
In scene 7 Lady Macbeth shows signs of doubt in their plan, by asking many questions:
"Wherein you dress's yourself? Hath it slept since? At what it did so freely?"
This shows the reader signs of panic. After the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth does not play much of a part, until Macbeth is told that Lady Macbeth committed suicide.
The witches are blamed for putting evil into Macbeth with their prophecies which drive Macbeth to do all kind of deeds.
The witches in Macbeth play an evil role and change the character Macbeth from good to bad because of their prophecies and in the Elizabethan times people would have been scared of supernatural beings.
The witches are the first characters to speak in the play during thunder and lightning. They plan to meet Macbeth and use their supernatural powers to find out when and where to meet him:
"When the battle is lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Where the place?
Upon the heath
There to meet with Macbeth."
This establishes a link with Macbeth early on in the play. It also shows that the witches are plotting and are possibly planning something evil. In this scene the witches speak after each other as a sequence from first, second, third, first, second and third, this creates a sense of mystery and chanting.
In Act 1 Scene 3 the witches are talking to each other and the first witch talks about a woman that didn't give her any chestnuts and is revenging her:
"A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap......
Her husband's to Aleppo gone, Master o' th' Tiger.
But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
And like a rat without a tail,"
This implies that the witches are very evil and harsh because the first witch is going to sink the man's ship just because his wife did not give her any chestnuts. Also in this scene the witches know when Macbeth is coming and meet Macbeth and Banquo after their battle against the Norwegians.
The witches told Macbeth about him becoming Thane of Cawdor and King and this made him curious:
"Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more."
This is what the witches tell Macbeth and tell Banquo that his son will one day become King. This is when Macbeth had first thoughts of evil and how the witches change him. After the witches speak they disappear which shows their powers and show the audience of their how important they are. Lady Macbeth explains her plan to Macbeth. He is impressed and carries on with the murder. He asks her:
"If we should fail."
She says:
"We fail?"
This implies that Lady Macbeth feels that it is inevitable that they should succeed. She has control over Macbeth in this part of the play.
In Act 1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth's letter out as a soliloquy. He speaks about the witches as the 'weird sisters' and the witches have now infected Lady Macbeth and poured evil into her like a poison.
Between Act 2 Scene 1 and Scene 2, the murder has taken place which is the witches fault because if ideas of Macbeth being King had not been given to him this would not have happened.
In Act 2 Scene 5 Macbeth has been chosen to been King:
"The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth."
This tells the reader that Macbeth will be king which is the last prophecy of the witches and now show the real importance of the 'weird sisters'. The queen witch Hecat is angry with the three witches in Act 3 Scene 5, she is angry with them because they have been meddling with Macbeth and his affairs of being king:
"Saucy, and overbold, how did you dare to trade, and traffic with Macbeth, in riddles, and affairs of death."
This shows that Hecat is angry because they might have been the main cause of him making the killings, and that they might be to blame for Duncan's death. After that in Act 4 Scene 1, Macbeth meets the witches this time. The witches their show Macbeth the 2nd lot of prophecies:
"Beware Macduff."
"The power of man: for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth."
"Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until Great Birnam Wood, to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him."
This shows that the witches are telling him not to be scared of anyone, which makes Macbeth feel more powerful.
Macbeth did all of the murders apart from Banquo's son but he hired people to do that. But apart from that, he made a big impression at the very beginning.
In the first two scenes of Act 1 in the play 'Macbeth' an image of Macbeth has already been formed even though he doesn't speak in it or is in the scene, but he is mentioned and this can form an idea for the reader.
In the first scene it is the witches speaking in thunder and lightning.
In this scene, the witches are having a meeting to decide when and where to meet Macbeth for the first time - a meeting planned to plant seeds of evil in his mind, which will prompt him into performing deeds that ultimately, lead to his demise. The first time you hear the name Macbeth they say that they are going to meet him after a battle:
"When the battle is lost and won.
That will be ere the set of sun.
Where the place?
Upon the Heath.
There to meet with Macbeth."
This implies that with the witches supernatural powers they know that Macbeth will win the battle and this tells the reader that he is a great warrior and might be rewarded.
In the next scene Macbeth is spoken about by the Captain:
"For brave Macbeth (well he deservers that name)
Disdaining Fortune with his brandish'd steel,"
This shows that Macbeth is a brave fighter with his sword and will become an even greater one later on in his life.
So far the first impressions of Macbeth are impressive and a worthy Thane of Glamis and Cawdor. The king also talks about Macbeth in an honouring way:
"O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman."
This must mean that Macbeth is a very well thought of as a person if the king himself calls Macbeth a gentleman.
After he killed Duncan, Macbeth became very doubtful and troubled, Lady Macbeth helps him through this:
"Glamis hath murther'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more."
Then Lady Macbeth replies:
"Who was it, that thus cried? Why worthy Thane."
This shows Macbeth's doubt and that he is troubled, then Lady Macbeth boosts his confidence.
After he has visited the witches he know feels stronger and much more powerful, because the witches have told him no-one born of woman can hurt him.
When his wife committed suicide he did not show much remorse because he was already in trouble and was too confused to think straight:
"The Queen, my lord, is dead."
After this he was going to die and he felt as though he was invincible because the witches had said:
"for no woman born shall harm Macbeth."
This had made Macbeth very full of himself.
In Shakespeare times people believe that before you were born you would have a pre-destination fate. So when the witches told Macbeth he would be king, he could have become king with out killing anyone. The king may have become ill and died, and his son would have been too young to be king, but we will never find this out! So Macbeth was trying to become king and therefore following his fate.
Overall I think that Macbeth is to blame for the death of King Duncan because however much someone tries to make someone commit a murder, it is always the murderers fault, as he did not have to listen to his wife or the 3 witches. When the witches told Macbeth about him becoming King, they may have meant that Duncan might have died naturally. But instead he made an immediate reaction and started thinking in an evil way with tragic consequences.
