Picturing the blood on Macbeth’s hands and his look of disbelief and disgust and Macbeth frantically scrubbing his hands, but still the blood remains, and also picturing Macbeth washing his hands in the sea but still no blood remains and the effect changes the colour of the sea from green to red. This is almost poetic making him passionately sorry for killing Duncan, but he does kill again.
To me the play is like addiction and ambition all in one, Macbeth kills to make his own life easier, but once this happens he gets more paranoid and begins to feel unsafe, so he gets others to do his ‘bad deeds’ for him. So he is therefore now addicted to killing because he is continuing his rampage to make himself more secure.
Macbeth’s loss of sleep caused him to have hallucinations (loss of sleep is Insomnia). In Scene 3, Act 4, Macbeth is having throwing a party, to celebrate his coronation, where he sees an image of Banquo, who appears to sit in Macbeth’s seat. Macbeth had ordered people to kill Banquo and his son Fleance, because the witches said they were a threat to him.
Lennox: ‘May’t please your highness sit’
Macbeth: ‘…were the graced person of our Banquo present…’
Lennox: ‘… please’t your highness to grace us with your royal company?’
Macbeth: ‘The table’s full’
Then Macbeth goes mad, demanding that someone would own up to this mockery, but then Lady Macbeth assures him that no one is there and tell him to calm down, or else they could get caught out for the murder of Duncan. She says that these pictures that he is beginning to see, had already led him to kill King Duncan, so they do not want another tragic thing to happen as a result of the hallucination, ‘This is the very painting of your fear: this is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts…Why do you make such faces, when all’s done, you look but on a stool.’
Lady Macbeth’s reassurance could have saved Macbeth from being caught out and therefore, I feel she is a very strong persuasive character at the start and also very cunning!
In Macbeth we can argue that there are three possible choices, for who is most responsible for the murder of King Duncan. The first choice is the witches. In the whole of the play they seem to embody evil and make a morally corrupt atmosphere. In Elizabethan times they were regarded as evil, so these prophecies would be thought to be evil.
Macbeth first meets them after the battle against the Norwegians and they first predict that he will be Thane of Cawdor and then later on the King. At first he cannot believe this, but when he finds out he is Thane of Cawdor, which is out of pure coincidence, Himself and Banquo are surprised. Banquo says, ‘Can the devil say the true?’ in disbelief.
This shows us that they did not expect the witches to be telling the truth. After this Macbeth seems to be astonished and Banquo points out, ‘Look how our partner’s rapt,’ which shows us Macbeth is deep in thought about the third Prophecy. Therefore, we could argue that the witches make him feel, that he will be King and it is also his destiny. He is always thinking about the prophecies after this and drops hints to Banquo, e.g. ‘Let us speak our free hearts to each other.’
He is trying to see whether Banquo is on the same wavelength as him and also whether he is interested in helping. It also shows his great interest and desire for the throne.
However, we could argue that the witches put real ideas to him that were already in his head. He has great ambition and may already want to be king, so the witches therefore could not be totally responsible and just act as a catalyst. We can it is quite easy to resist the witches as demonstrated by Banquo. He knows the witches could just be trying to plant ideas into his head as he says, ‘And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truth, win us with honest trifles, to betrays in deepest consequence.’
This is saying that often, to bring about our damnation, the agents of evil tell us simple truths, so that we trust them. Then they deceive us in important matters. This shows us Banquo can control his thoughts and that most people can. Macbeth, however, has a weak point and cannot control his ambition.
The second choice is Lady Macbeth. Macbeth writes a letter to her, telling her of the witches’ prophecies. He writes this letter because he wants the crown and knows she will have to push him to get it. She drives him to murder and acts more like a physical catalyst not like the witches who are more psychological. She bullies him, using emotional blackmail and she already knows he is morally sensitive, so he must be pushed. She mocks his bravery and knows he is a warrior and therefore will be insulted.
When Macbeth is having doubts about killing Duncan she says, ‘When you durst do it, then you were a man; and, to be more than what you are, you would be so much more the man,’ this basically says that he will become more of a man if he does this.
She answers every objection he comes up with. Before the murder Macbeth says, ‘If we should fail,’ she replies, ‘We fail?’ She is surprised by him thinking this because she believes; there is no way they will fail.
Macbeth also doubts their ability to cover up the truth. Lady Macbeth says, ‘Who dares receive it other as we shall make our griefs and clamour roar upon his death.’
This suggests that no one will dare believe anything else (this is referring to the daggers planted on the soldiers) because, Macbeth and her will mourn so much, that they will be convinced Macbeth is genuinely upset.
She also organises the fine details of the murder. The main part is when she goes to the daggers back. Macbeth has returned from the murder scene and had brought the daggers with him. She is annoyed with him because, he is being careless and is too scared to go back after the murder. She goes and puts them back herself.
Lady Macbeth plays a key role, as she removes her feminine caring feelings, so she can push Macbeth to carry out the murder.
The third choice is obviously Macbeth himself. The main argument is that he had committed the murders. He is driven to cover up the murder because of the thought of being King. He even says, ‘We’d jump the life to come,’ which means he was prepared to sacrifice whatever life was to come, such as going to hell, to be King. It is an ambition in his mind that is crucial.
He knows that Duncan is a good man and has never done any wrong to him. He owes him gratitude for the honours he had given him. He says Duncan is, ‘Here in double trust; first, as I am his kinsman and subject, strong both against deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.’
This stresses that he should not kill Duncan, as he relying upon Macbeth. Macbeth is his kinsman, one of the elite and one of his generals. He is his subject, and should not murder his ruler if he has doing nothing wrong.
He is also the host and should prevent someone murdering him and not do it himself. He also says,’ He hath honour’d me of late,’ which is saying he has received the title of Thane of Cawdor. He says that he should enjoy all the praise he receives and should not throw it all away. All this shows us that Macbeth is simply too intelligent to be a puppet, being used, he is aware of all the consequences and wants to be king.
Also, he could have backed out at any point. There are many opportunities when he allows Lady Macbeth, to push around like a domineering mistress. When he first meets her, he could have said to her that he was not prepared to take extreme measures or right until the end he could have backed out.
So I feel Macbeth is mostly responsible for killing Macbeth. Yes, there were many factors, which helped, but he was a weak man who let people and ambition take over his mind. I think the two other factors, the withes and Lady Macbeth, acted a catalyst towards the murders and he needed to take responsibility for his own actions. He had enough he was a respected man, a main hero in Scotland, but this wasn’t enough he wanted power too and wanted to be able to control Scotland. It’s a bit ironic as others controlled him more, rather then him controlling his own actions.
