When the Captain says ‘For brave Macbeth,’ it shows us his testament to Macbeths honour to Scotland and his valor. And, later on in the scene ‘As cannons overcharged… Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.’ This tells the audience that although dismayed, outnumbered and overpowered; they put in more effort to win. Imagery that describes Macbeth is ‘Disdaining fortune…Carved out his passage’. This creates the picture of an amazing fighter, drawn sword, covered in blood, the blood steaming from all the heat and killing.
At first Macbeth and Banquo seem shocked by the witches as they speak in riddles, and talk about Macbeth becoming King and Banquo’s descendants becoming Kings. This is shown when Banquo says ‘Good sir…do sound so fair?’ Towards the end of the scene, where the witches vanish, Macbeth is eager to hear more about what the witches have said and what they might have to say in the future. But at this point it seems Macbeth, who from what we have heard about him beforehand, is a good man, but is now beginning to believe he was going to become King. But he had not considered that it would automatically happen when Duncan died, but because the witches were putting ideas into Macbeth’s head.
In Shakespearean times nearly everyone believed in witches, as they were considered to be evil and were blamed for bad things happening. In the play they are portrayed as evil and straight away we are convinced that we should not to trust them although Macbeth does.
Banquo warns Macbeth of the witches as he is curious as to why they have told them of their prophecies. He warns Macbeth to beware of the Witches as he says that the truth is not the whole truth, not all is told which can be misleading and can cause harm. Banquo refers to the witches as evil creatures, as he says ‘Can the devil speak true?’ He calls them this, as the audience would link the witches to the Devil and reinforce our impression they were evil. Macbeth wished that, even after Banquo’s warning, the witches had stayed, as he is interested and absorbed by what they had said. I think this makes Macbeth appear guilty of Duncans eventual murder.
When Macbeth sends a letter home telling his wife, Lady Macbeth, of his meeting with the witches and their prophecies that he would be king, she is afraid that he is too kind to act without pity. Macbeth seems like the good guy as there isn’t enough ‘evil’ in him to do the deed. We cannot really blame Macbeth for being interested in the prophecies whereas Lady Macbeth has a stronger reason, as she wants him to become King, even if Duncan has to be done away with in the process.
When Lady Macbeth calls upon dark spirits to ‘unsex’ her, to take away her womanly values, and to give her more manly ones so she has the guts to plan, and maybe even commit the murder and help Macbeth to do it if he were to. The audience would see Lady Macbeth paint her husband as a weak, cowardly man. At this point in the play, I would argue and agree that she is the driving force behind the murder to be committed, because she is really up for Macbeth to become King but Macbeth is quite wary about it.
In Macbeth’s speech, Act 1: Scene 7, it shows that he finds more reasons against the murder of Duncan rather than for it. These include; ‘Duncan hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office’ and ‘his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongu’d against the deep damnation of his taking off.’ In the first point, it shows that Macbeth thinks of Duncan as a good King with good qualities as he has given him two titles of Thane and plenty of praises for winning battles. The second is very important, as they believed a lot in God and spirits so he would have thought that if he murdered Duncan he would be damned in Hell forever. I think the speech was included at this point as it shows Macbeth is still relatively sane and isn’t really into the murder, so placing the blame even more upon Lady Macbeth. When he uses other words to get around saying ‘kill’ or ‘murder’ we get the impression that he is to scared even to talk about it, let alone find the courage to ‘assassinate’ Duncan. I feel he is thinking that this is not the right way to go about becoming King, as he would be going completely against what they believed in and the moral values they would have carried.
There are a few, very clever, ways in which Lady Macbeth encourages her husband into committing the murder. These include; accusing Macbeth of cowardice. For example ‘We fail?…And we’ll not fail’ and ‘What cannot you…Of our great quell?’. She says here, that if he dropped the fear of being found out and what have you, he could not fail. Then, she asks him what they can do whilst the guards are drugged and Duncan is asleep. And; emphasizing her own determination. Shown where it says ‘I have given suck and know how tender tis to…the brains out, I had so sworn as you have done to this.’ Here she is saying that if she was as determined to do something, she would, as the example put it, “smash her own baby’s head in, whilst feeding it”. It is very effective as she is suggesting that she is more determined to see Macbeth King, rather than he is. I am undecided on whether you can blame Macbeth for being convinced too easily. Mainly because he was in a state off shock from actually planning the murder and would be easily influenced by his wife into committing the murder. This is shown when she calls he husband a coward. The natural reaction to being called a coward would be to show them that your were not and be up for doing what was asked, but, I do think also, that he was vulnerable and left himself open to being convinced.
Lady macbeths actions play a big part in this scene, like when she drugged the grooms, ‘I have drugg’d their possets’. This shows that she got the guards outside Duncan’s room drugged which means she was untrusting of her husband and felt he needed all the help and motivation he could handle so Macbeth was clear to do the murder. She also ‘laid the daggers ready’, which also shows she thought he needed help, the daggers laid out already in Duncan’s room so all he had to do was use them.
When Macbeth enters on stage from the assassination, he is very unnerved and asks a lot of questions, as he feels that they may have been found out. They both speak in very short, jerky sentences which shows great discomfort on Macbeths part and Lady Macbeth is getting paranoid and edgy, but then has to calm him down. He is also very disturbed by the blood that was left on his hands and I feel he feels very upset and wronged by what he had done. But, Macbeth messes up the cleverly put together plan by bringing the blood smeared daggers back with him, forgetting to drop them by the guard to make them look guilty. Lady Macbeth is very frustrated and annoyed by what Macbeth has done, and gets even more annoyed when she asks ‘Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there:’ But he is too distraught still to go return to the scene of the crime, so Lady Macbeth takes them off him and does this herself, which here shows she wants to be part of the murder. I think at this point again, all the blame is upon Lady Macbeth, as I sincerely doubt that carrying the murder weapons from the scene of the crime are the actions of a cold heartless killer.
When Lady Macbeth tries to reassure her husband, ‘A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then!’ She makes Macbeth think that there will be no long term consequences for them, but deep down she really thinks that they have not done enough to cover their tracks, and that they will be found out.
In conclusion, I would like to say Lady Macbeth was the complete driving force in this practice, but in every circumstance there isn’t just one person that is to blame. There is always someone that has an influence upon them. So all in all I will say that Lady Macbeth was the main driving force in the murder of Duncan, for all the pieces she added to it like the planning, the reassurance and the assertion. But the Witches and Macbeth himself, also played their own part in the murder; from the Witches planning to meet Macbeth and “planting ideas” or “showing him his darkest desires” to Macbeth believing what they said and listening to his wife’s assertions and leading to him committing the actual murder.
