“The Prince of Cumberland-that is a step, on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap For in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires, Let no light see my black and deep desires,” says Macbeth. This is very much a contrast to the decision he had made of doing nothing against Duncan in the previous scene. His loyalty to his King looses out to his ambition.
Lady Macbeth is then introduced into the play when Macbeth sends a letter to her, telling her about the strange events that happened that day, perhaps because he knew that his wife would be there to give him the strength he needed to do anything against the King.
Lady Macbeth’s first reaction after reading the letter is that Macbeth is too kind and noble to do anything bad to become King. She knows that Macbeth has the ambition, but she also knows that he would be hesitant to do the evil things to achieve his ambitions. “Art not without ambition, but without the illness that should attend it,” she says.
From the first meeting between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, I can conclude that Lady Macbeth wants to be Queen more than Macbeth wants to be King. Such was her desperation to be Queen that Lady Macbeth was even prepared to call on the evil spirits to make her strong, and she wants to assume masculine qualities “unsex me here” so that she will not have any womanly weaknesses. She had spoken of pouring her “valour” into “Macbeth’s ear, and valour (according to Shakespearean audiences’) is a masculine quality. This would have shocked the audience in the Elizabethan era, because at that time they believed that the universe, the natural world and human society were ordered in one great chain or hierarchy. According to the great chain, women should be weak, and their husbands should rule all wives. However, in this scene, Lady Macbeth is shown to have a lot of mettle, and has a power over her husband. She tells him that people can see right through him. “Your face, my Thane, is a book where men May read strange matters”. She then tells him to disguise his real thoughts and deceive people into believing something. “Look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.”
Macbeth’s will to murder Duncan wavers because he starts to list the reasons for why he should not stray onto the path of evil. He fears judgment from God and his conscience will haunt him for his entire life. “Bloody instructions, which being taught return To plague th’ inventor”. He then says that he is Duncan’s “kinsman and his subject” and should protect Duncan since he is his host, and not “bear the knife myself.” He says that Duncan is a good, kind and virtuous King and the only thing driving him towards Duncan’s murder is his “vaulting ambition.” (Macbeth is shown here as being a tragic hero, an otherwise noble and virtuous character who falls due to one particular flaw, ambition. There are many other Shakespearean plays with tragic heroes, such as Othello, which tells a story of a man destroyed by jealousy.)
When his wife arrives Macbeth tells her that he will not murder Duncan. (“We will proceed no further in this business”)
This depicts Macbeth’s confused state of mind and his vacillation whether or not to assassinate Duncan.
Here, Lady Macbeth shows her deep resolve and when she persuades and manipulates Macbeth into killing Duncan. She accuses him of cowardice and lack of love for her. “And live a coward in thine own esteem.” She claims that he was drunk when he promised her he would kill Duncan (although nowhere has the audience actually seen Macbeth promise this). She even says that she would dash the brains of her very own child if she had promised to, and so Macbeth should also be loyal to his promise.
“Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you Have done this”
These words from Lady Macbeth suggest that she is less moral than Macbeth and even evil. While she sees nothing wrong in Duncan’s murder, Macbeth, despite his deep ambition, fears the consequences of his immoral deeds.
Another reason for not killing Duncan was because he was afraid of getting caught, and not because he wished to remain loyal. Getting caught would jeopardize his chances of becoming King forever. “If we should fail?” is what he asks Lady Macbeth.
After Lady Macbeth formulates a plan, which impresses Macbeth and he says “Bring forth men-children only.” Macbeth is convinced that this plan was foolproof, and he succumbs to his ambition and proceeds to murder Duncan. This reveals that he wanted to kill Duncan all along, and was just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. The moment Lady Macbeth came up with a plan, he readily agreed. Lady Macbeth believed that this was the time to murder Duncan without getting caught, and this is what she made Macbeth believe. If Lady Macbeth had not been there Macbeth would has probably stuck to his decision of not killing Duncan at that time but he would have killed Duncan later.
He says this in the end of the scene- “I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat.” He even starts making plans of what to do with the daggers after he murders Duncan- “When we mark with blood those sleepy two.”
Fate was also playing its hand at making Macbeth feel that it was his destiny to kill Duncan when Macbeth starts hallucinating and sees a dagger, leading him to Duncan’s room. (“Is this dagger which I see before me?”) It shows that fate also played its role in trying to push Macbeth into murdering his King.
Later, Act Two Scene Two we see Lady Macbeth waiting for Macbeth, who has left to murder Duncan. It is then when she says that she would have killed Duncan herself if he hadn’t looked like her father sleeping. Lady Macbeth did not have the courage to kill someone who looked like her father. “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t,” says Lady Macbeth. This tells us that she is not as brave and courageous as she made herself sound before, and still had some womanly weaknesses. This would have made Elizabethan audiences feel that although Lady Macbeth is evil and is stronger than her husband in some aspects, she is still the dutiful daughter she should be. This father-daughter relationship was considered very important at that time, and they were also very important in Shakespearean plays. There are many other examples of father daughter relationships in other plays written by Shakespeare, such as Othello and King Lear.
When Macbeth arrives after killing Duncan he starts wavering again, he was worried about the consequences of him murdering murder. He was afraid of being judged by God for the evil he had done. Macbeth deeply regrets killing Duncan, and this was his immediate reaction, so he probably never wanted to. This is shown when Macbeth hears the Thanes knocking on Duncan’s bedroom door- “Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.”
There is also a marked contrast between the reaction of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth once they both have Duncan’s blood on their hands. Macbeth starts going mad with guilt from the sight of the blood, while Lady Macbeth just tells him to wash it off, as if nothing happened. She said that “My hands are of your colour; but I shame To wear a heart so white.”
From the murder onwards all the devious plots and plans were made by Macbeth and not Lady Macbeth. He is the one who kills Banquo, because he knows that Banquo suspects him of foul play. (“To be thus is nothing, But to be safely thus.”). This shows that Macbeth is also quite evil and black hearted and will do anything to be King. From the murder onwards Macbeth is the real driving force and not Lady Macbeth.
In conclusion the final responsibility for his actions rests with Macbeth himself. The witches’ predictions did stroke his ambition and Lady Macbeth egged him on to commit acts of perfidy. However Macbeth always had a choice. Witches had predicted that Banquo’s sons would be Kings. Banquo chose to do nothing- leaving matters to fate. Macbeth became Thane of Cawdor by being a loyal subject and he could have chosen to remain so until his destiny ordained him King. He could have easily said that since he was destined to be King it would somehow happen anyway. Instead he chose to murder his King and arranged to kill his best friend. His ambition drives him to rule as a tyrant, and he chose to abandon his former path of duty and honour – which ultimately leads to his downfall and tragic end.