At the beginning of the play, when the witches are first introduced, the weather appears stormy; there is thunder and lightning. This creates a gloomy atmosphere; something unnatural is about to commence.
‘fair is foul and foul is fair’
In act two scene 1, we have the dagger episode, in which Macbeth imagines a dagger before himself.
‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’
This dagger shows that Macbeth is thinking about the murder, and consequently hallucinating the dagger. It can be argued that the witches planted this. Macbeth is wrestling with his conscience.
Lady Macbeth must shoulder much of the blame for Duncan’s murder. She is shown early in the play as a determined woman with a single intention – to support her husband and goad him into action. She can manipulate Macbeth easily. This is shown in the line "That I may pour my spirits in thine ear". She is self-sacrificing, and wants what is best for her husband. She calls upon the evil spirits to ‘unsex’ her and thus remove all aspects of femininity contained within her and replace them with masculinity. Before the speech that Lady Macbeth gives in act one scene five, Macbeth is resolved not to go through with the killing of the king.
However, Lady Macbeth attacks at Macbeth's self-esteem by questioning on his masculinity and his bravery. This then convinces Macbeth to commit regicide. He is like a child who is easily directed, Lady Macbeth knows this and acts upon it consequently.
Although Macbeth has the final say in whether or not to go through with the initial killing, he loves Lady Macbeth and wants to make her happy. Lady Macbeth is the dominating individual in the relationship, which is shown, in her soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 5,it seems that she can induce him to do anything as long as she ‘pushes the right buttons’.
Ambition is the driving force behind the murder. Lady Macbeth's ambition drives her to manipulate Macbeth into committing regicide. Macbeth committed the actual murder, and therefore must be considered as the most blameworthy. Even before he heard the witches’ prophecies there is evidence of his ambition.
However, he would never have thought seriously about killing Duncan without the witches. Yet the combination of both his ambitious nature and the initial prophesies leads him to kill the king. It is Lady Macbeth who states "Thou wouldst be great/ Art not without ambition.
" Macbeth states that it is "his besetting sin: I have no spur/ to prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition."
Macbeth's continued ambition is present in his desire to have a succession of kings after him. Macbeth's ambition is deep within him and because of this, both the witches and Lady Macbeth are able to lead him to evil. It is this aspiration that gets him into so much difficulty initially.
At the beginning of the play, we learn how ‘valiant’, trustworthy and loyal Macbeth is towards Duncan and his country. After the witches confront him with their three prophecies, he does not at first ponder on them with great detail. However, as soon as the second prophecy is proven then Macbeth relies on fate to assure him of his third and final prediction, in the same way as he did for the first two.
When Macbeth learns, that Malcolm is to be the ‘prince of Cumberland’, he quickly realises that the only possible way of his third prediction coming true would be to resort to violence.
Although the thought of murder dawns very quickly on his mind, so do the consequences of failure. Macbeth calls on the stars to hide his ‘black and deep desires’. From this we can tell that he is planning something unnatural and does not want his ambitions to show up. He is ashamed of such thoughts.
Macbeth is in a state of mental torment for many reasons.
‘First I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed and then as his host who should against his murder shut the door, not bear the knife myself.’
‘This Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office that his virtues will plead like angers’
From the above quotes we can see that firstly Duncan is Macbeth’s Kinsman, King and guest, and therefore the murder would be triple treachery. Also, the fact that Duncan was a good king would make his death very unpopular. Another reason for his moral doubts is that if he utilises violence to gain the crown then others may use similar methods to take the same action against him. Although he is prepared to risk judgement in the after life, he realises he may get what he deserves whilst still alive. From the summary we learn that Macbetn is fully aware of the consequences and failures, and in fact is a moral coward when it comes to action. Moreover he is desperately worried that maybe the plan could go wrong.
His wife also goads Macbeth into action. She is extremely cold blooded and convinces him very easily to commit the murder.
Everyone is responsible for his own destiny. This is an essential theme in this tragedy. Macbeth chooses to gamble with his soul and when he does this, it is only him who chooses to lose it. He is responsible for anything he does and must take total responsibility for his actions. Macbeth is the one who made the final decision to carry out his actions. He made these final pronouncements and continued with the killings to cover his actual first murder.
The killing of Duncan starts an unstoppable chain of events in the play that ends with the murder of Macbeth and the suicide of Lady Macbeth. Macbeth chooses to murder Duncan. In the beginning he had all of the qualities of a honourable gentleman who could become anything. This can be proven through Duncan’s quote
“O valiant cousin, worthy gentleman”
Using this statement made by the king himself we can see how Macbeth’s character has changed so drastically in such a short period of time. This is all shattered when his objective overrides his sense of morality. Although Macbeth is warned as to the validity of the witches prophesies, he is tempted and refuses to listen to reason from Banquo.
Together they commit the most dreadful murder by killing the King; Duncan. This is why it is difficult to determine which one of these two is guiltier, because they each do their own part in committing the crime. Lady Macbeth would prepare the plan and then encourage Macbeth to go through with it. Macbeth committed the actual murder; he was also the first person who thought about killing Duncan. Furthermore he did some killing on his own. Lady Macbeth did not have any involvement in these cases. These include, the assassination of Banquo and the guards.
Based on these facts, Macbeth would be found guiltier than Lady Macbeth. She had a plan of her own. It was her initial instant choice of such a terrible and dreaded action. When the king and his men arrived, it was she who put up the ‘façade’ of being the gracious hostess.
‘The doors are open and the surfeited grooms do mock their charge with snores.’
From this we learn that she was also the one who was responsible for the drugging of the guards and she also places the daggers, ready for murder.
‘Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures. This the eye of childhood’
We learn another crucial factor of Lady Macbeth’s contribution. We now also know that she was accountable for the placing of the daggers back into the palms of the guards. She suggests to Macbeth that they change into their nightclothes to avoid suspicion. We can see how organized and how important her role is in the build up and the aftermath to the murder of the king.
‘Help me hence ho!’
She faints, to avert suspicion from her husband. From the above quotations and proofs, we can see how important her status was and how many things she did to commence the death of Duncan.
Macbeth knew this and was a bit guiltier in these murders then lady Macbeth was when she urged him. The idea of killing Duncan first came from Macbeth. He listened to the witch’s prophecies that said he would become King. Macbeth did not want to wait any longer and he thought the only way to become King was to kill King Duncan of Scotland.
Macbeth later tells Lady Macbeth about this and she just wants to help him and do whatever she could for him, so that he would be happy and be King. She was also excited about becoming a Queen so she pushed Macbeth forward and did not let him back down from doing what he said he'd do. Macbeth had a good chance of becoming King if Duncan was out of the picture, so Lady Macbeth helped stage a plan so that Macbeth could kill him without being caught. Lady Macbeth wanted to do this for herself as well but she was mostly doing this for Macbeth because she loved him so much.
Throughout the course of the story it is tough to decide who is a more guilty person, but if you look at it through the eyes of today's law you will see that Macbeth is guiltier of murder. This is because he had killed a lot people before he killed the King, and when he did kill the King by himself Lady Macbeth had nothing to do with it. She only made a plan and told him to do it and that isn't as bad as actually committing the crime unless Macbeth was mentally ill. Macbeth was not considered mentally ill though because he went on to become King where he made decisions on his own and ordered even more people to be murdered, and Lady Macbeth had nothing to do with those murders at all.
