Without Lady Macbeth’s physical influence or the witches’ influence via the spell I do not think that the murder would have been commited.
The murder in the play can be traced back to the witches influence on Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s time the audience would have been terrified at the idea of having witches on the stage. The fear of witches in that time attracted many dramatists and writers and was enhanced by the publishing of Daemonologie by King James VI of Scotland and I of England. The book was written to persuade sceptics of the importance of witchcraft, and to put himself in the forefront of modern thinking, showing that his learning and scholarship was thoroughly up to date.
At the beginning of the play, before the witches meet Macbeth, they cast a spell. This is significant because all of the happenings later in the play are influenced by this event. Later, even if Macbeth didn’t want to or couldn’t go through with the murder, he would have had to. At the point where Macbeth is going to murder Duncan, when Macbeth says, “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair”, the witches are tempting him with the vision of a dagger. I believe that the only reason that he sees the dagger is because he begins to waver on the idea of the murder.
This play being a tragedy requires a flaw in the characters, in Macbeth’s case his ambition, and must tell of a person who is highly renowned and prosperous who falls as a result of some error, frailty or because of external forces, internal forces, or both, the force in this is external in the form of the witches.
Macbeth, as we have found, takes the witches’ prophecy seriously from the moment it is given to him. He is told that he will be Thane of Cawdor and eventually King, but he thinks this will happen in time. The witches already know that Cawdor, the traitor, is dead and Macbeth has been chosen as his replacement before the witches and Macbeth met. Macbeth did not know this so he believes that the prophecy is coming true when he is named Cawdor, from him saying, “Two truths spoken as prologues to the swelling act”.
In the middle ages, Kings were said to be, “Chosen by God”. If you were to kill a King in that time it would be not just murder in the eyes of God but it would also be killing his representative on earth. The thought of Kinship in this time is not like the idea of the Great Chain of Being, which ranks the different social standings of the people.
Lady Macbeth has the greatest physical influence over Macbeth in the play. We find her to be an evil character from the first time she is brought into the story. She is brought in reading Macbeth’s letter. She starts to plan the murder of Duncan instantly after she finishes reading the letter telling her about the prophecy.
Lady Macbeth is able to manipulate Macbeth into doing what she wants by calling him a coward or by saying that she would do something like what she is asking him to do. When Lady Macbeth is talking Macbeth into the murder, she tells Macbeth “I would … have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out …” The person she talks about in this quote is their baby, if the couple had one.
Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth is too full of “natural compassion of human beings” to go forth with anything like this. This is mostly the reason why she pushes him towards doing it with so much force and passion.
Even in the banquet where Macbeth still chooses against murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth is persistent to make the murder happen. She does this by attacking his pride and manhood.
At the time of the murder Lady Macbeth drugs the guards. Macbeth feels that he can murder Duncan at this point because his wife was able to do her part. I believe that she knew that this would inspire Macbeth and that is why she added it to the plan.
I do not think that Lady Macbeth would actually go along with the murder if she were in Macbeth’s position because at the end of the play, Lady Macbeth commits suicide because of going mad after the Duncan is killed. If she is this mentally weak affected by the murder, we wonder how Macbeth must feel.
Macbeth as we have found is a very ambitious character and he lets this get the better of him. Both the witches and Lady Macbeth know this and that is why he can be manipulated so easily.
Although he knows right from wrong as we find from him saying, “We will proceed no further in this business…” He knows that murdering Duncan is wrong as he says this to his wife but she is able to sway his judgement quite soon after.
He is a weak man and he constantly needs to prove himself, which makes it even easier for Lady Macbeth to make him do what she wants. I have found that she treats Macbeth more like you would a dog than a husband.
I have decided to believe that Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of Duncan from the information I have gathered in the course of this essay.
By
Christopher David
