Filled to the Brim with the Milk of Human Kindness

        However, despite the fact that he was not going to murder King Duncan, cries of murder are heard throughout Act II.   Does Macbeth actually commit treason because he is evil?  This question is not only misleading, it is deceptive.  The truth was that gentle Macbeth was tempted, even in a way forced by his wife, Lady Macbeth, to kill the king.  Lady Macbeth wanted her husband to steal the crown so that she could see glory and fame too.  In fact, she knew that her husband was too kind to commit the murder.  In a soliloquy, she even said, “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/ To catch the nearest way…” (Act I, scene v, lines 15-18).  Lady Macbeth knew that her husband would not do such a treasonous thing without a bigger driving force.  So once again, she tapped into his weakness and exploited it. She tempted his vaulting ambition and ridiculed his manhood by saying, “What beast was ‘t then/ That made you break this enterprise to me?/ 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…” (Act I, scene vii, lines 47-51).  After being stripped of his manhood and insulted because he was a coward, after having his vaulting ambition tempted, and after seeing how much his wife wanted to become queen, Macbeth finally decided to murder the king.

        After Macbeth had killed Duncan, he showed his true soft side by telling his wife that he would never be able to let go of his guilty conscience.  Macbeth regretted his actions and wished that he could take it back.  “To my deed, ‘twere best not know myself./ Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!” (Act II, scene ii, lines 72-73).  As shown by Macbeth’s statement, he wished that time could be reversed and that Duncan could come back to life.  Covered with guilt and shame, Macbeth even said that all the seas could not wash his hands clean of King Duncan’s blood.  On the other hand, Lady Macbeth felt no guilt in her misdeed and said, “…A little water clears us of this deed” (Act II, scene ii, line 66).  This big contrast between the way Lady Macbeth responded to the murder and the way Macbeth responded to the murder shows just how big a difference there is between these two characters.  This difference portrays how much Macbeth wished he had never committed treason.  He wished that his influential wife had not coerced him.

        As shown through the events that took place before, during, and after the assassination of King Duncan, it is seen that Macbeth truly was a good man who was manipulated and pushed into evil deeds.  He did not intend to commit murder, but he was driven by his wife, and eventually did something that he greatly regretted.  Macbeth, unlike most other men, was not pushed into his actions by lifeless objects such as money and materialistic gain.   Macbeth, unlike most other men, was manipulated by something far worse than fame and glory.  Macbeth, unlike most other men, was trapped and coerced into murder by his ruthless wife, Lady Macbeth.