The witches mention that Macbeth would become thane of Cawdor and eventually King. “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!” To this Macbeth reacts as if it would be impossible, it’s not everyday that you’re told you’ll be king. However, as the witches continue to insist that it shall happen (“Hail! Hail! Hail!”), Macbeth becomes intrigued and wants to knoe more; “stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more”. From this point onwards, Macbeth becomes puzzled and wrapped into this idea which will lead onto other roles.
Eventually Macbeth talks to King Duncan along with attendants and soldiers. Here his role is the subject to the king as he is praised by being named “Thane of Cawdor”. This is when Macbeth realises that the witches were right and that what they predicted was therefore right. As Macbeth considers this, his thoughts change to jealousy as he hears Malcolm being announced Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth claimed that he fought for honour and duty as he was supposed to. (“Your Highnes’ part […] should be doing every thing”) but he has a soliloquy which to the contrary of that, admit that he has “deep desires”. Which implies that h is jealous. At this point Macbeth begins t descend into the darkness as his mood changes.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare makes Banquo as being a hero, therefore Banquo attempts to make sure that Macbeth doesn’t go down the evil road, but later on we find out that Macbeth does change to a murderer, but for Macbeth to reach that stage, there would have to be some encouragements. This is where his role as a husband comes in.
Macbeth tells his wife that he might become king and to his surprise, Lady Macbeth encourages him to murder the king. “Whiles I stodd rapt in the wonder of it […] lay it to thy heart, and farewell”.
In addition, Macbeth still doubts if the shouled murder the king but his wife calls him a “coward” and Macbeth had always been treated as brave which shocked him and made him more confident and determined to kill.
Macbeth then realises that what he shall do is wrong (“deep damnation”) but his ambitions and desires make him react otherwise. Eventually he comes to a conclusion that he shall do it, along with his wife’s help. “I am settles, and bend up Each corporal […] must hide what the false heart doth know”.
