“Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair,
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings”
Macbeth is feeling agitated because he says his hairs on the back of his hand are standing on end and that unnaturally his hearts beats furiously from thinking about the “horrid image” the witches have placed in his mind e.g. murdering Duncan. Also Macbeth says quite sarcastically:-
“If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.”
The above statement means that if Macbeth is going to be king then so be it which tells Macbeth now believes the witches prophecy and that he will be king, I think he just said this to try to make it look as if to the other people he did not care much about what the witches said and that he’s leaving it all to fate. To me Macbeth seems like he is already planning the murder.
Act 1, Scene 5 is where we first meet Lady Macbeth explaining about the witches and the prophecies. Straight after reading the letter we find the first indication of how determined she is that her husband is to become king:-
“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised”
She is going to make sure he becomes king. She thinks that Macbeth may not be able to carry out what she has in mind saying:-
“It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness”
She doubts her husband, she thinks he is too kind. She also says “to catch the nearest way” she wants Macbeth to become king as soon as possible. Lady Macbeth then thinks about how she is going to persuade her husband to murder Duncan, on line 26, soon after she already decides that Duncan is going to be murdered after hearing from the attendant the king was staying that night:-
“That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan”.
I think the reason why Macbeth sent the letter to lady Macbeth was almost definitely so that she would think of a murder plan as I am not sure Macbeth would be capable on his own. I think Lady Macbeth had mentioned the murdering of Duncan to Macbeth before, but just one of those little conversations that you have late at night in bed (pillow talk) not expecting anything to amount to much. That’s why I think they both seem to have the murder planned out in advance. I don’t think Lady Macbeth wants to be queen more than Macbeth wants be king because she even said earlier:-
“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promised
There is no real evidence of her wanting to be queen, she serves Macbeth and Macbeth only without him she is pretty much nothing and she wants to serve him well.
Lady Macbeth, before this next movement she has the “remorse” which has held her back from any mention f her doing the murder, but now she says a speech which makes her abandon her humanity and plunges into the darkness:-
“Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top – full
Of direst cruelty!”
She is saying she wants to renounce her femininity and from head to toe be filled of murderous intent. She is saying she will do it herself and she s thirsty for murder. One of the reasons why she may feel like this is because she thinks Macbeth is not courageous enough to do it and she wants to overpower him and do it herself. This is an indication to me that Lady Macbeth wants power over Macbeth. She is naturally more evil than Macbeth but if she’s alone she isn’t because to me she can’t survive without Macbeth.
In line 67 Lady Macbeth says:-
“Your hand, your tongue: look like
th’ innocent flower
But be the serpent under ‘t”
She is telling Macbeth to act innocent on the outside but to stay evil on the inside. Lady Macbeth thinks the murder is definitely going ahead but Macbeth has second thoughts and ends the conversation by saying:-
“We will speak further”
It seems as if Macbeth doesn’t want to carry out the murder much at all, he conceals his real feelings he doesn’t say, “I don’t want to this anymore, lets forget it” he covers up his feelings. Lady Macbeth replies by saying:-
“To alter favour ever is to fear
Leave all the rest to me.”
This is a clear indication that Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind the murder plot by other powering him and being ver vindictive. Lady Macbeth doesn’t seem to listen to Macbeth’s attempt to put her off the whole murder idea because he thinks it is not such a good idea after all, Macbeth has no real say in the matter whereas in normal circumstances it is the wife who has no say. It’s a far cry from idea I got of a happy relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth early on in the play.
In act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth:-
“We will proceed no further in this business”
He says this because he doesn’t want to go on with the murder, he says he would receive a bad name and that there is every chance he may be found out. I don’t think this is the real reason he doesn’t want to murder Duncan (because he’ll receive a bad name) I think it’s just an excuse, he doesn’t say the real reason to his wife because he doesn’t want to seem less of a man to his wife. Her reaction to her husbands words is anger, she uses emotive language, she belittles him by saying “Art thou afeard?” she plays on his manliness and then brands him a coward, all the time overpowering him. By now Lady Macbeth is hell bent on making the murder go ahead, personally I thin she is doing it all for her husband, not at all for herself. She still doesn’t doubt the murder will go according to plan and is past over confidence. Macbeth seems quite scared of Lady Macbeth and reluctantly agrees for the murder to go ahead, although after listening to his wife he’s confident he will not be caught he feels the murder is inhuman “to this terrible feat”.
In Act 2 Scene 2 after the deed has been committed, Macbeth returns shaken and tormented by his conscience. This shows Macbeth obviously did not like murdering the king and did not want to in the first place. Lady Macbeth did not murder the king because she was not courageous enough, it tells us that she may call her husband a coward but the fact is I don’t think she could ever murder anyone because she says:-
“….Had he not resembled
My father as he slept. I had done’t.”
The above soliloquay reveals a different side of Lady Macbeth where she takes pity on the king. After the murder of Duncan the long conversations between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth disintegrate into very short, sharp sentences which tells me they are both a bit confused and scared and do not have time to think out sentences, they also don’t have anything to say to each other. Soon after the murder, Macbeth is tormented by the voices of the night and his conscience.
“Still it cried ‘sleep no more!”
Macbeth definitely regrets assassinating the king “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself.” But Lady Macbeth says “A little water clears of this deed” meaning that you just have to wash the blood away with water and your not guilty, so Lady Macbeth still has no remorse.
In Act 3 Scene 5 we see how the relationship between Macbeth and his wife deteriorate further. Macbeth does not tell his wife about his plan to kill Banquo. Also at the banquet, Macbeth hallucinates and thinks he sees the ghost of his murdered friend Banquo.
So, was Lady Macbeth the main driving force behind the murder of King Duncan? Yes, quite simply I’m quite sure she was, Macbeth only wanted to murder Duncan in the beginning of play, the murder was a spur of the moment decision and he had not thought it through, he just rushed in and sent the letter to Lady Macbeth. As time went on Macbeth realised that the murder was not such a good idea after all, here are a number of reasons why Macbeth did not want to kill the king.
- It’s an act against God.
- The murder could go wrong and Macbeth could be found out.
- He’s a good king and Macbeth has nothing against him.
- I’m happy in the situation I’m in.
- The witches predicted I’d be king-why not let fate run it’s coarse.
But Macbeth goes along with the murder almost not at all for his personal benefit but largely because of Lady Macbeth using persuasive reasons as to why her husband MUST go along with the murder, here are a number of reasons why Macbeth must proceed with the murder largely down to Lady Macbeth.
- Macbeth will be king and so be rich and powerful.
- Lady Macbeth has threatened to leave him if he doesn’t commit the murder.
- Macbeth will be branded a coward by his wife.
I think you’ll find that the reasons not to go along with the murder far outweigh the reasons too kill him. By belittling him and persuading him Macbeth reluctantly goes along with the murder. But if Lady Macbeth wanted Duncan dead so badly why didn’t she kill him herself? Also Lady Macbeth goes crazy about the murder and she didn’t even kill him this tells me that she felt as if it was all her fault, Macbeth doesn’t go as crazy Lady Macbeth – he goes on a killing rampage. In the end if you ask me, although it doesn’t say this Lady Macbeth commits suicide, I think because she knows she was the real reason Duncan was killed and this proves it.
Sion Brooks 10N
LADY MACBETH HAS THREATENED TO LEAVE BUT WE ALL KNOW SHE WONT