Just before Macbeth and Banquo reach the witches Macbeth utters a line that is in the riddle just how the witches speak. ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’ this makes you think that Macbeth is evil or the witches have worked there evil on Macbeth. When Macbeth and Banquo see the witches they hail Macbeth ‘All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Glamis!’ the second witch also hails Macbeth but says something different ‘All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!’ and the third witches says something that really Macbeth thinking’ All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!’ Macbeth is taken aback because he has ambition to become but has kept it secret. Well Macbeth commands the witches to stay and give him more information the witches vanish ‘Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more’. Macbeth thinks about murdering the kill but it alarms him ‘ If good, why do I yield to that suggestion, Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair, and make my seated heart knock at my ribs’ Banquo notices how Macbeth is wrapped in his thoughts. At this stage Macbeth decides to leave things to fate ‘I chance will have me King, why chance may crown me.’
Macbeth sends the letter to her wife to tell her what the witches have said and how that Duncan has come to stay at their castle to night. Lady Macbeth gives us an insight into her husbands character by saying he is ‘It is too full o’ th’milk of human kindness’. Macbeth has made a mistake at this point in the play by telling his wife because she is already plotting of a way to kill the king so her husband Macbeth can become king. In her speech to herself she is giving herself to the dark side ‘And fill me from the crown to toe top-full the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty;' and aligning her self with the devil ‘Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell’, which in those days when the play was written there was a lot of witch trails because people were scared of witches. So this would extremely evil. When Macbeth comes to the castle Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to leave things up to her. Macbeth is unsure at this stage but his wife is.
Macbeth still remains unsure about whether to commit the murder or not. Macbeth is clever and thinks of the implications of the murder of Duncan and him becoming king. Macbeth is saying that he should protect the king from murders not kill him himself ‘Who should against his murderer shut the door’ and the king as honoured Macbeth and macbeth likes that he has a good reputation ‘He hath honoured me at late’. He concludes that he doesn’t want to kill the king he just has ambition ‘ Vaulting ambition, which o’ereleaps itself, and falls on th’ other’
When he tells his wife that it’s an awful and wrong idea she assaults his manliness. She says that he’s was drunk went he told her of his enterprise ‘was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?’ She says she would kill her own child by bashing its brains out that’s how committed she is to the plan. Lady Macbeth also says she will not love him if he does not kill Duncan ‘Such I account thy love.’ Macbeth is brave warrior but when it comes to saying no to his wife he is emotional weak. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to commit the murder and Macbeth begins speaking the in the manor of his wife does ‘False face must hide what the false heart doth know.’
Macbeth suffers from a supernatural hallucination he sees a vision of a dagger ‘is this a dagger, which I see before me, The handle towards my hand’. This petrifies Macbeth and the dagger leads him to the room where Duncan is sleeping ‘Thou marshall’st me the way I was going’. Is this the witch leading him on because at the start of the play they set out to trick Macbeth. Or it could it be Macbeth has gone mad or that he is consumed by evil. Another peculiar thing about Macbeth’s hallucination is that there is blood on the dagger ‘ I see thee still and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood’. Macbeth allies himself with evil, witchcraft and murder.’
Lady Macbeth arranges the murder and gives Macbeth the signal to do the murder. Immediately after Macbeth has killed Duncan he is a wreck. He is mournful and full of remorse he wished he never killed Duncan. He has gone to pieces and he is extremely nervous and any sound alarms him he listens to what the guards they were saying a prayer and at the end he could not say amen ‘Listening their fear, I could not say ‘Amen’’. This really sticks in Macbeth’s mind he wishes he could undo the deed, which he has done. But the completely opposite is Lady Macbeth who is calm and collected and tell Macbeth to pull himself together and put the daggers back with the guards ‘Why did you bring these daggers from the place?’ Lady Macbeth ends having to put the daggers back because Macbeth can not. When they are washing their hands Macbeth says there is not enough water to wash away the blood and Lady Macbeth is still thinking clearly ‘ My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white.’
The witches right from the start they knew he had ambition and they played on it tricked Macbeth. Macbeth made a mistake by telling his wife about killing the king and she forced him to kill the king. Macbeth is portrayed as a murderer but actually he was tricked by the witches and led into the murdering Duncan by over ambitious Lady Macbeth. But after the body of Duncan is found when they all gather round and Macbeth’s says how he killed the guards because he loved Duncan, so much which is over, top by the Macbeth is enjoying murder and becoming a cereal killer. But the witches led on Macbeth because they knew he had ambitions to become king and Lady Macbeth pushed him into but he was extremely remorseful when he killed Duncan. Macbeth is not totally responsible for the murder of Duncan only partly responsible.
