When Macbeth arrives, she tells him to look like the flower but be the serpent underneath, and to leave everything to her. Then Duncan arrives and she greets him warmly, and he is full of complements her and her husband. When she goes to find him he has changed his mind, and come up with several reasons for not murdering him, she is angry and accuses him of not loving her, she says she would rather bang her babies head upon a rock, than break a promise to him. She tells him of a plan, and he so impressed he decides to continue on with the murder. On the way to the murder he meets with Banquo, Banquo raises the subject of the witches, Macbeth looks for his support, but he tells him he will only act honourably. Then Macbeth starts to hallucinate, he see a dagger leading him to Duncan’s room. He gets to the room and commits the murder, he is so obsessed with the idea of damnation he leaves the room with the daggers. Lady Macbeth sees this, but Macbeth will not go back in, so she does it for him. There hands are blood stained so they begin to wash, then there is a Knocking, they now have to rush into bedclothes. The porter goes to answer the door and “awaken” the Macbeths, at the door it is lennox and macduff.
Now I have run through the play up to the murder I’m going to examine Lady Macbeth’s, Macbeth and the witches part in the murder starting with the witches. In the seventeenth century people were very suspicious, they believed in all sorts of supernatural things especially witches. In the seventeenth century there were many punishments for being a witch, you be, thrown off a cliff, burned or drowned. They believed the witches were evil and did terrible things like wrecking ships. Shakespeare show this when the witches say,
“ Fair is foul, and foul is fair “
this means, what is evil is good, and what’s good is repulsive, he also show this when the witches say,
“I my self have all the other, and the very ports they blow, all the quarters that they know I the shipman’s card”
This means that they control the sea and cause the wrecks. In the first scene Shakespeare immediately establishes the influence of the supernatural, by opening with a scene of the three witches. He wanted to show things to come when he did this that not every thing would be normal within the play. The witches almost scared the audience, because they were such a feared part of society. In the third scene Macbeth and Banquo meet with the witches, they describe them as wired, unlike the inhabitancy of the world. If I were at a Shakespeare ‘s production of Macbeth I would expect, and want the witches to look strange, just as they have been described in the play. The witches would behave in an odd and offensive way; they would look crippled and disgust me.
When Macbeth and Banquo meet the witches they make three predictions, Macbeth will be thane of Cawdor, Macbeth will be king and Banquo’s children will be kings. After the predictions Macbeth becomes side tracked, thinking excessively,
“Silenced with that”
this is how Ross describes him, it means the conflict in his mind has made him speechless. Ross is not the only one to comment on his recent state of mind, he is also described as being rapt withal. It eventual comes to point when Banquo has to warn him that the witches may only tell half truths.
At this point I have to conclude that the witches are partly to blame for Duncan’s murder, I believe if it were not for them it wouldn’t have started, but the other two could have backed out at anytime. You have to blame them partly, because they started it all, but you can blame them completely because they didn’t commit the murder.
Now I’m going to examine lady Macbeth’s part in the murder. Back in the seventeenth century most women were very restricted in what they could do, as you Know people were very sexist and believe a women’s place was at home, cooking cleaning and looking after the children if they had any. Something that makes this play particularly interesting is how she plays the role of a far more modern women, in that she is powerful, independent and very much in control of the relationship unlike the average relationship of that time. Lady Macbeth has always been an a character that actresses loved to play, this is because actresses like to act out the deceptive part of character, look like the flower, but be like the servant. This is a translation of what she said in the play, it sums up her character in one, and I think this is what actresses like about her character. If I were managing a production of this play I would chose the prettiest women for this role, so I could show the beautiful exterior, and hope the actress ability could show the evil interior of this character. When telling her how to deliver her lines I would tell her to be sweat and innocent.
When we are first introduced to her character in act 1 scene 5 five we see that she is a bitter and determined women, only interested in have more possessions. To give off this impression she tells us of how she would rather bang her babies head against a rock, than break a promise to Macbeth. She also talks of murder which in it’s own is bad enough, she says that some water would wash her of this deed. Lady Macbeth have a good relationship you can tell this because they call each other, my partner in greatness and my dearest love, when they are alone. The most frightening thing about lady Macbeth character was the she reacted when Macbeth told her he no longer wanted to murder Duncan. She tells Macbeth to go and leave everything to her, but when she returns he tells her that he doesn’t want to go through with it. She is enraged by this and accuses him of not loving her, she tells us that she would rather pluck her baby from here nipple and break it’s head against a rock, than break a promise to her. She tells him how she plans to do the murder, by now he is so overwhelmed and impressed he become enthusiastic about the murder. The use of imagery in this scene is very powerful and disturbing.
Lady Macbeth play a vital role in the actual murder, but is only as guilty as the witches were, because she wouldn’t have come across this dilemma if it were not for the witches prediction. As for the matter of her sanity I think she probably sane, but just very ambitious, because she still has to call upon the spirits to help her commit the murder, because in her sane mind she is not capable of such a thing.
After studying Act 1 I have learnt a lot about Macbeth’s character. As a soldier his is brave and loyal, I know this because of the wounded captain, he describes him as braveries favourite,
“like valour’s minion carved out his passage”
He is a great Scottish soldier and is well like, but how is he as a husband? Judging by the text he is passionate and loyal,
“my dearest love” “my partner in greatness”
these two quotes were said alone, there was no front this was him showing compassion for his wife, and treating her as an equal, which was very rare in the seventeenth century. His aim is all ways to please her and he has great trust in her, for he doesn’t question her at all when she says she would kill a baby over breaking a promise to her.
After just having herd the prophases Macbeth is quiet, but is obliviously thinking about the prediction, Ross describes him as being,
“silence with that”
which means the conflict is his mind has made him speechless. Immediately after the predictions I don’t think murdered ever crossed his mind, until his successor was announced. In act seven Macbeth has to leave the banquet and he lists reason for not killing Duncan, the eight reasons are;
- If I am a teacher in bloodshed then it’s likely I’ll be murdered too
- I shouldn’t kill someone who is a friend and a member of my family
- Duncan is such a good king it is wrong to want to kill him
- The only reason I’m doing this is because of my blind ambition
- Because it would be such a terrible thing to do heaven will punish such a killer and everyone would grieve
- As his host I should be the one to protect him from harm not to kill him myself
- If it wound all be over with the murder that would be alright but I’m bound to be punished in the next life
- Committing such a terrible crime is bound to poison me.
In Shakespeare’s day they had a divine rite, which stated if you were
king you had been put there by God and to kill the king you would be defying God’s will therefore you would be punished with eternal damnation to hell.
I believe that the murder was not entirely Macbeth’s fault, believe that he wouldn’t have been provoked into doing so, but in the end he did the deed, so he is to blame for it, he should receive the punishment. I think Macbeth was to loyal to his wife, so loyal it made him commit murder and lose everything he had in the end, he wanted everything and he ended up with nothing.
