To Kill Duncan
This exert from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act I, scene vii, concentrates on Macbeth's inner conflict. It is a soliloquy where Macbeth tries to rationalize his decisions, deciding if ambition is a worthy motive to commit the horrible act of slaughtering his beloved, kindly king. With a deliberative tone, Shakespeare draws two options for his main protagonist: fall to corruption for personal gain or remain uncrowned with a clean conscience.
The first option is one of conniving and murder, killing King Duncan. Many lines describe the King as unsuspecting. He is there in “double trust,” and therefore off guard to any possible attack (ln 12). Also, with the king's kindness he is a “new-born babe” (ln 21). This is used as a complementary metaphor, but his heavenly innocent makes him horribly ill prepared for the cold realities of a power-playing earth. Combining with accessibility, Macbeth has a “vaulting ambition” to kill Duncan (ln 27). This phrase, the final thought of the passage, serves to override many of his concerns. He says ambition “o'erleaps itself / And falls on the other,” meaning that his main motivation, ambition, is so powerful that it overtakes everything else (ln 27-28). The imagery conjured from the words “vaulting” and “o'erleaps” connotes restlessness. He desires power so much that he cannot be contained in his current position. This presents the powerful, though single-minded, motivation for assassinating King Duncan.
