In this essay I will discuss the effects that the witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have on the " Rise and Fall of Macbeth "

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In this essay I will discuss the effects that the witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have on the " Rise and Fall of Macbeth ". Macbeth is at the beginning a succesful general of the Scottish army and when he wins a battle for Scotland and king Duncan hears of it he holds Macbeth in the highest respect calling him a ;
         " Valiant cousin, Worthy gentlemen "
Macbeth is awarded the title 'thane of Cawdor' for his bravery. Macbeth hears he has gained this title when told by some witches before the kings servants have a chance to tell him. The witches also predict that he will be "king hereafter". Macbeth consults his wife and she uses psychology to push Macbeth in to killing King Duncan. Macbeth does kill the King and this is when his downfall begins .
His good friend Banquo starts to be suspicious and Macbeth kills him without a second thought.
         Later he sees Banquo's ghost and he begins to go mad as so does Lady Macbeth and she commits suicide. Macbeth runs Scotland very badly and Duncan's son Malcolm comes to claim his throne. With the help of the English army Macbeth's castle is taken and Macbeth is killed by Macduff.
        As you will see in my outline of the play Macbeth committed a number of crimes killing King Duncan, Killing Banquo and attempting to kill Fleance I will examine these crimes in more detail and try and come to a conclusion of why Macbeth committed these crimes.
          The witches predict two things:- that Macbeth will become the thane of Cawdor, and that he will be king hereafter. They also predict two things for Banquo that he will be lesser than Macbeth, and greater also he shall get kings, though be none meaning that he will not become king but his children will. When Macbeth hears of the witches predictions that he will become thane of Cawdor, he is scared we know this by what Banquo says to Macbeth; " Good Sir, why do you start, and seem to fear "
But after they have spoken more, he wishes them to stay and tell him how this can be true as he does not see how this is possible. They vanish in to the air and Macbeth says he “Would they had stay,d ? " which means he wished they had stayed to find out what they meant .
        When the kings servants arrive to tell Macbeth he has the title of Thane of Cawdor , Macbeth does not believe them when they explain though that the thane of Cawdor has been executed he is very happy he says;
        " As happy prologues to the swelling act "
He then starts to discuss whether he will become King or not with Banquo.
        When we first meet Lady Macbeth she has just read the letter from Macbeth which tells us of " what greatness is promised ", that the witches have proclaimed him "King hereafter" Lady Macbeth tells us that she thinks Macbeth would be a bad King as his nature she said is " too full o' the milk of human kindness "
and that he has "ambition" but not the "illness" that makes a king. She puts him down in her soliloquy. Lady Macbeth decides that she will have to help Macbeth find the necessary determination. When a messenger tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan intends on staying at their castle she gets excited and sees this as an opportunity to kill Duncan. She calls up the spirits of darkness and asks them to "unsex" her to take away all that makes her a woman. She asks to be made insensitive so that she may carry out her scheme, she wishes to be filled with "direst cruelty". This shows that her character is strong she is sure that she can get Macbeth the crown she seems to welcome evil whereas Macbeth seems wary and even fears it. We have seen his reaction to the witches and their predictions.
        In Macbeth's soliloquy he tells us about his doubts and fears. He starts to question good and evil he seems to think if the witches are so bad hoe come they bring such good news. Macbeth cannot make up his mind whether to kill Duncan or not. He says that if the murder could be done quickly without the inevitable consequences then he should do it quickly. He lists the reasons why he should not kill the King. He is his 'kinsman', his 'host' and as he is Duncan's subject Macbeth should therefore protect him. He tells himself that Duncan is good and kind and that killing him will provoke a tremendous out cry. Duncan's goodness will "plead like angels, trumpeted-tongued ". If Macbeth murders him he will be condemned to 'deep damnation'.
        Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he will not murder Duncan he says that Duncan has given him "new honours" lately and that he wants to enjoy the "golden" opinion of everyone. He sees himself "dressed" in the good opinions of other people. He does not give her the reasons that he has just said in his soliloquy as he may think they make him look weak. This shows that he is afraid of his wife and knows if she knew the real reasons she would be able to persuade him otherwise.
        Lady Macbeth calls him a coward and tells him how far she would go to get what she wants. She tells him that if like him she had sworn to do something, she would not go back on her word she would "pluck" her own baby from her nipple and "dash'd the brains out"
        Lady Macbeth seems to have joined forces with evil. She has had a chance to make her husband king and is determined not to let it get away. She is forceful in her language and conjures up images of horror. She seems to have been granted her earlier wish to the evil spirits to " fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.
                Before the murder Macbeth sees a vision of a dagger covered in blood with the handle pointing towards him. Macbeth speaks another soliloquy. He wonders whether the dagger is inviting him to do the murder. His mind is now full of dark thoughts. When Macbeth sees the dagger this shows us that he is going slightly mad even before the murder. He talks of things inviting him to do the murder. This shows us that he thinks everything is right about the murder and he should do it.
          Their characters change after the murder although until now we have seen Lady Macbeth to be a very strong and determined woman, here she is very much on edge. Earlier she seemed able to do the most terrible of things now she explains that she could not murder Duncan as when he was asleep he reminded her of her father;

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        " Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done't."

         This is the first time that we see she has a conscience and has some feelings of guilt about the murder.
         When Macbeth comes back we see that he too has strong feelings of guilt he said he could not say "Amen" when someone said " God bless us". Lady Macbeth takes him in hand saying;
        " Consider it no so deeply."
This shows that she understands that if they think about it too much they will slip up and either be killed when being caught or kill themselves from ...

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