When Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are together, Macbeth always looks as if he is the good and innocent one because of the contrast of both their characters. If Macbeth hadn’t had Lady Macbeth as a wife, I don’t think that he would have gone through with the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth admits that her husband is too soft and kind for him to carry out the murder as she says ‘Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way…’ Here the audience are reminded of Macbeth’s good nature and shows he’s too much of a good person to commit the murder. Lady Macbeth has the murder all planned out and she thinks that she’s the right person to persuade him to do something like this ‘Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear.’ Lady Macbeth is evil because she is willing to do and think evil. She obviously thinks that she has a lot of influence over Macbeth and thinks that she can instigate the murder. She is very determined about him being king and she’s very ambitious herself. Her determination is seen in the shocking speech that she invokes ‘That croaks the fatal…. Hold, hold!’ it shows how desperately she wants Macbeth to become king; this is shown to show the difference between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are ambitious as it’s human nature to be ambitious but by Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the news and Macbeth’s reaction there is a huge contrast because Macbeth’s reaction innocence whereas Lady Macbeth’s conveys violence and evil. Here also sympathy is created upon Macbeth as it shows that there are two ways to react to the news but Macbeth has reacted in the good way and his wife in the bad.
When Macbeth comes back from battle to see Lady Macbeth he calls her ‘My dearest love’ and asks her to get everything sorted for the King. This shows that he has a lot of affection for his wife which is probably a reason to why he listened and trusted her for the murder of Duncan. However, when he comes in, she reminds him about being thane ‘my thane.’ She provokes him as she reminds him about the ‘ambition.’ She asks him to be the hospitable host to the king ‘Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under‘t.’ This shows that she’s given a lot of thought to it all and has it all sorted out but Macbeth tries to put her off the idea ‘We will speak further’ This shows Macbeth’s hesitation and that he’s not as desperate as she is. If Lady Macbeth had not brought the issue up and let Macbeth to deal with the situation none of this would have happened.
Macbeth’s soliloquy in scene 7 is also again helpful for the audience to realise what Macbeth is really thinking at that specific point of the play. It also shows the good nature of Macbeth because instead of thinking of reasons to kill Duncan, he thinks of reasons of why he should not kill the king. The seven reasons that he thinks of are really thoughtful as he thinks about the people and that they will be distressed to loose such a good king ‘that tears shall drown the wind’ and he also realises that killing the king is not going to do any good and it’s just for his vaulting ambition ‘The prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition.’ The fact that he’s giving it so much thought also shows that he’s not sure and he’s disturbed and I think that this creates a lot of sympathy over Macbeth because he’s not used to doing something like this and is so confused. Macbeth says ‘He hath honour’d me of late; and I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people’ and he uses this as an excuse against Lady Macbeth for why not to kill Macbeth; here again showing his good nature because surely if he has a good name within the public, the wont believe that he has committed the murder but because of his loyalty to Duncan, he is unable to do the murder.
While Macbeth thinks of reasons for not killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth criticises him showing the contrast of character. Here it is seen how she manipulates him into killing Duncan and this creates a lot of sympathy for Macbeth again because she makes him feel very bad when he says ‘We will proceed no further in this business.’ She shouts at him calling him a wimp ‘when you durst do it, then you were a man,’ questions him ‘Was the hope drunk, wherein you dress’d yourself’ and blackmails him emotionally ‘From this time such I account thy love.’ A change in response is seen from Macbeth after Lady Macbeth’s manipulative words, ‘If we should fail -’ showing that he’s considering the idea now. This shows that he only changed because of Lady Macbeth’s manoeuvring. Sympathy is created here again because it wasn’t out of his own choice but because of his cold-blooded partner. For the audience its easier to understand Macbeth as a person and his change in decision as he was persuaded to carry out the murder against his conscience but its very hard to understand what is wrong with Lady Macbeth, especially by some of the outrageous things that she says ‘Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out.’ This probably tells the audience that there maybe something wrong with lady Macbeth mentally justifying her behaviour but Macbeth does not seem to be aware that something maybe wrong with her and that’s probably because of the fondness he has towards her creating sympathy for Macbeth.
Audience sympathy is maintained for Macbeth by the character of Banquo. Banquo, although a noble thane, also has evil thoughts ‘What! Can the devil speak true?’ This question suggests that Banquo even wants to believe that the witches told the truth and he’s probably thinking about the prophecies that the witches told him. He is equally a good man as Macbeth and also here’s the prophecies and is also tempted by them but Banquo wants to stay loyal to the king ‘but still keep my bosom franchis’d and allegiance clear.’ Macbeth also wants to be loyal to the king as he tells his wife ‘we will speak further,’ but Lady Macbeth provokes him. The difference between Macbeth and Banquo here is that Banquo doesn’t have a ruthless, manipulative, cold-blooded wife whereas Macbeth does. This creates sympathy for Macbeth because if it wasn’t for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth wouldn’t have committed the murder.
Macbeth’s second soliloquy suggests that he is mentally disturbed ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me.’ It suggests that he is in an unstable state of mind because of the murder that he is going to commit. The difference in character also creates sympathy as he has changed from a brave hero to a disturbed, unstable man who is unsure of what to and what not to do. The words used in his soliloquy tell us that he is unsettled in his brain because the whole soliloquy is basically associated with evil visions and thoughts. I think this created sympathy because he has not yet committed a murder, yet he is still very disturbed because he is confused.
One way that Shakespeare ensures a bad impression of Macbeth is kept from the audience is by not actually showing the murder of Duncan. Macbeth’s disturbed character is visible after the murder of Duncan. Macbeth being a brave soldier should not be scared of blood but he was very scared this time after killing Duncan. He was so scared ‘I could not say ‘Amen’’ showing the contrast from what he used to be. It creates sympathy because such a good man has changed so dramatically in a wrong way because he was forced to do things against his conscience. Macbeth says what will happen to him in the future but is unaware at the time ‘Me thought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.’ Macbeth is obsessed with the blood on his hand ‘No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red.’ This shows how guilty he feels because his exaggerated imagery shows how bad he thinks the deed was. Macbeth wishes that Duncan would wake up but he can’t ‘Wake Duncan with thy knocking!’ this also creates sympathy because it’s basically a plea from Macbeth to Duncan to wake up but he knows he can’t.
The whole process of killing Duncan has been very painful for Macbeth and he’s agitated and disturbed but it hasn’t been easy for him and this creates sympathy for him because he does have some goodness still left in him.
