“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee thane of Cawdor”
“All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be King thereafter”
Macbeth is shocked by the witches predictions but eager to know more about how they could come true. You can see this by the instantaneous questions he asks. “But how of Cawdor, the thane of Cawdor lives.”
The witches seem to have awoken his true ambitions for power and the possibility of what the future might hold.
When Macbeth finds out he has been made thane of Cawdor he says
“Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act,
Of the imperial theme.”
This tells us that Macbeth is already thinking that the kingship could be his. However he knows for him to become king, Duncan must die.
“My thought, whose murder yet is fantastical, shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, and nothing is, but what is not.”
In battle Macbeth was unflinching but it is obvious that his disloyal thoughts shake him up and make him feel uncomfortable.
When Duncan announces that his son, Malcolm, will be the heir to the throne, we once again see Macbeth’s ambition come to the surface.
“The prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o’er leap
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires
Let not light see my black and deep desires”
He knows that his ambitions are ‘dark’ and he should not be thinking such things.
Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the witches’ predictions, as explained in Macbeths letter to her are in complete contrast. She has no thoughts about whether the prophecy is good or bad. She immediately starts thinking of a plot to make it come true. However she knows her husband is a honourable and loyal man.
“Yet I do fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ th milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way”
She knows that Duncan is coming to stay which provides them with the ideal opportunity for the murder to take place. However she knows that to talk Macbeth into this she will need to use all her powers of persuasion. She asks the spirits of the dark to take away her femininity so that she can be strong and hard and meet the task ahead.
Upon Macbeth arriving back at his castle tries to share her plans with him. She asks when Duncan is leaving. He replies “tomorrow, as he purposes” she replies
“O, never,
Shall sun that morrow see!”
Macbeth knows exactly what his wife means but rather then arguing against her plans he simply says, “we will speak further”. Lady Macbeth replies “leave it all to me.”
Later that night, Macbeth has doubts about his wife’s plan. He knows there will be consequences in this life and the afterlife. He says he will chance the next life but knows if he murders Duncan there wills till be consequences here on earth. This shows he is thinking rationally and his good side is still with him, he thinks about his motives for the killing
“…I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o’er leaps itself.
He thinks of all the reasons why he should not kill;
“First as I am his kings men and his subject,
Strong both against the deed: then as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself”
Lady Macbeth is angry, she needs to change his mind again by making him feel like a coward and weak in comparison to her.
“And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’”
She tells him that he is not a real man now that he has changed his mind.
“When you durst do it, then you are a man.”
Because Macbeth has spent his life being brave and strong he is quick to react and defends his masculinity by saying
“I am settled, and bend up,
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.”
In act two scene one, Macbeth approaches the king’s bedroom, to commit the regicide, he hallucinates, seeing a dagger before him. This shows us the stress he is under but goes through with the killing because of his promise to his wife. On the other hand Lady Macbeth, who has been so strong whilst plotting the murder, begins to show emotion
“Had he not resembled,
My father as he slept, I had done’t”
I don’t think that Lady Macbeth was to blame mainly for the death of king Duncan. I think the witches were partly to blame because they put the idea of becoming king into Macbeth’s head. They awoke ambition that Macbeth might not have even realised he had. It seems to me, that he told his wife of the witches’ predictions because he needed her strength to help him commit the murder. Lady Macbeth may have persuaded him to kill Duncan but he could have stopped at any time. I therefore think that Macbeth was mainly to blame.
