Moreover, one of the most important features of the play and one of the greatest reasons as to why Macbeth had killed Duncan was the witches. The witches were able to plant the initial seeds into Macbeth’s mind that he was to become King and prophesized about Macbeth having substantial involvement concerning the throne, “All hail who shalt be King hereafter” thus igniting his ambition to greater things: consequently he begins to conspire for the throne. The sentence puts curiosity into his mind from the outset; after this Macbeth had started to contemplate that he would in fact become King, thus, the idea in his mind becoming stronger. In addition it is also important to acknowledge how the witches had “hailed” Macbeth when he came; as though he were fitting for a King. “All hail thane of Glamis, All hail Thane of Cawdor, All hail who shalt be King hereafter”, the repetition of the words “All hail” when speaking to Macbeth would prove to be of great importance as these would then echo in his mind. He was being greeted as though a king were being greeted; setting up the thoughts in his mind that he should become the King. It is also crucial to the assassination that the witches spoke to Banquo while Macbeth was standing there. They told him that he was not as great as Macbeth; however, his children will be greater than him. When the witches say “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater”, Macbeth will have heard that Banquo’s children will be greater than him, making him anxious. Having heard that his children will be greater than him, he would want to react and prevent this; the evil within him is slowly being released. Henceforth, this too is a factor resulting in the assassination of Duncan.
Even with all of these other factors, it is important to realise that the murder of Duncan still was strongly a consequence of Lady Macbeth’s actions she proved to be an evil and venomous character, it is said one of the most sinister characters in all Shakespeare plays, this is clearly demonstrated in her actions to persuade Macbeth in killing Duncan. She reveals how sinister she really is when talking to herself preparing for when Duncan “That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan”; these thoughts are translated into Macbeth’s mind which makes him murder Duncan. When she says that it is a “fatal entrance” she has already planned that she is going to kill Duncan, demonstrating her purposes and plans for him. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth’s ability to remove all forms or guilt, remorse and purity from her body and mind is a key factor. She says “stop up th’access and passage to remorse” this allowing her no reason why she would not be able to assassinate Duncan. She shows the audience how she is able to remove emotions and does not have to worry about her conscience working on her. This is instrumental as Macbeth says “Without my stir” giving a clear idea he will not be able to kill or perform any acts of crime in order to get where he was prophesized. It is his conscience which is stopping him; Lady Macbeth is able to completely remove this conscience state of mind, she feels no remorse, this is important as it is this fact which does not allow Macbeth get past Duncan. As Lady Macbeth is able to bypass this feeling, she will be able to do what is necessary to commit the murder.
In addition, her ability to manipulate Macbeth and control him through knowing his thought of mind so well proved important. Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth is a kind person; and his real weakness is his ambition. However, he does not have the vicious inside him for him to fulfil this ambition “I fear thy nature is too full o’ th’ milk of human nature”. It is evident that Lady Macbeth has a clear idea of what Macbeth is and is not able to do; making it a lot easier to manipulate him “you shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch. The Lady knows that Macbeth has strong enough ambition that if somebody were to do the dirty acts for him, he will gladly accept the Throne: “What thou wouldst holily; wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win” she knows he is not prepared to kill to become King, yet his ambition will drive him towards the throne eventually. This is paramount that Lady Macbeth knows this as then she is able to persuade Macbeth accordingly. Moreover, Macbeth only had thoughts of becoming king, but he did not wish of ever killing Duncan, he had too many good values and had too good of a nature: “But without the illness that should attend it”; Macbeth never had the ability to carry out the murder. It was Lady Macbeth that made him commit the murder; she persuaded him to do it and pushed him to do it. It is clear that it is the fault of Lady Macbeth that Macbeth had killed Duncan, as she is the one who embedded the thoughts of murder into his mind.
Additionally, one further element of the play, which can reinforce Lady Macbeth’s claim to responsibility in the assassination of Duncan, was her ability to persuade and conduct. Lady Macbeth used this incredibly effectively as shown when persuading Macbeth to murder Duncan, she had continuously undermined Macbeth and mocked him: “art thou afear”, “As thou art in desire”. Both questions pronounced by the Lady were directed at Macbeth. When she says “afear” and “art in desire” she mocks Macbeth wherein she says to him that he is scared and that he wants to do it but cannot do it. Being told this Macbeth will want to prove that he is not scared and can do it, resultantly, through Lady Macbeth taunting him, he is persuaded into committing the murder. This is reinforced by the way that Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth through questioning his manly hood, “when you durrst do it, then you were a man”, with this Lady Macbeth had evidently targeted Macbeth’s manly hood. She knows that Macbeth has a lot of pride and is not willing to be called a coward. This is effective as she knows that this will force Macbeth to prove he is not a coward: “I dare do all that become a man; who dares do more is none”. As a consequence Macbeth retaliates and eventually goes on to try and prove himself. Accompanying the fact that Lady Macbeth attacked Macbeth’s manly hood, when persuading she also repeatedly twisted Macbeth’s words back upon him to make it feel as if he is in the wrong: “you break enterprise to me”, this indicates to the reader that Macbeth is the one has broken the promise, where in real fact he had never laid the promise in the first place. She uses this technique especially effectively as she turns the guilt back onto Macbeth “had I so sworn as you have done to this”. When Macbeth feels as though it was his plan, and he is not putting the commitment in, he eventually succumbs to the pressure from Lady Macbeth “I am settled”, hence, indicating how Lady Macbeth is again responsible for the assassination of Duncan.
Nevertheless, Lady Macbeth’s influence alone would not have persuaded Macbeth to commit the murder. Another factor that led to Duncan’s murder was his own foolishness. His foolishness played a major factor in Macbeth murdering him; Duncan has a poor skill as a King where he far too easily places his trust in the wrong people: “Give thee from our royal master thanks”. He trusts that everybody who serves him well once will serve him well forever. Duncan’s previous Thane of Cawdor had set up war against him in order to become King and he had replicated the same mistake when naming the new Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth: “My worthy Cawdor”, he was too rash to name a successor to the previous Thane of Cawdor. Without substantial thought or deliberation he was too quick to give away such a great position of power. Furthermore he had led Macbeth to believe that he could achieve anything he wanted to. He had just defeated the previous Thane of Cawdor, and immediately he should claim right to power: “What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”. Macbeth has been awarded a high power of position with no expectations “But how Cawdor?” clearly proving that Macbeth had no intentions to power at this point. From this he could aim for greater positions of power, notably King. Furthermore, it is also evident that Duncan had laid great trust with Macbeth “Noble Macbeth”. This meant that Macbeth could be tempted to betray Duncan to become the King by murdering him as he would never expect it and it would never be suspicious.
There have been several reasons as to why Duncan was assassinated and as to why Macbeth had become King. However stating that it was Lady Macbeth’s fault alone would be the wrong conclusion to reach. If Macbeth did not have the compassion for power and ambition to become great, then he could never have been persuaded from the first instance .His good nature and good values meant he became blinded of how the outcome was achieved; it proved a much simpler task for Lady Macbeth to manipulate and persuade him. Furthermore the witches also played a major role in the assassination. They planted the first seeds of thought to claiming the throne into Macbeth’s mind, and inevitably started to believe that he would become the King. Moreover, the role of Lady must not be forgotten. Without Lady Macbeth tempting and persuading Macbeth into killing Duncan for the throne, he probably would not have committed the murder. Furthermore, Duncan himself would have led to his own downfall with his foolishness. It was a combination of all of these factors that led Macbeth to murdering Duncan. Thus, it is clear to come to a conclusion that Lady Macbeth played a large contributing factor that resulted in the assassination of Duncan, however, her actions alone would not have resulted in Macbeth killing Duncan; it was a result of a culmination of all these factors. Therefore it is clear to say the Lady Macbeth was not solely responsible in the assassination.
