“This castle hath a pleasant seat”
This quote tells us that he had too much faith in Macbeth and he also has forgotten what his former Thane of Cawdor did. He should have learnt from his mistakes and been a better judge of character.
The three witches do have some responsibility for what happens to King Duncan. The three witches tell Macbeth at the beginning of the play that he would become Thane of Cawdor and the king but they did not tell him how he would become it. They did not tell Macbeth to murder Duncan to become the king.
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee,
Thane of Glamis”
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee,
Thane of Cawdor”
“All hail to Macbeth, that shalt be
King hereafter”
The witches, prophecy is that he would become king. The witches do have some blame for the murder because they made Macbeth think about becoming king. They keep on going away from Macbeth and not speaking to him when he wants more explanation from them.
“Whither are they vanished”
“Who in your opinion, is the most responsible for
Duncan’s Murder?”
The witches tempt Macbeth by telling him his future. When they said that he would become Thane of Cawdor and the King he did not believe it at first but when he became Thane of Cawdor he thought it was true. At the beginning of the play Macbeth was a brave warrior but when he kills Duncan he becomes weaker and cannot also keep it a secret. Macbeth is responsible for the murder but he was pushed to commit the murder by his wife, Lady Macbeth. However, Macbeth is the one who murdered King Duncan and blames it on the attendants but it was Lady Macbeth who would not let him back down. When Macbeth has doubts about killing King Duncan, “We will proceed no further in this business”, Lady Macbeth persuades him to go ahead with it by calling him a coward and insulting his manliness, and also saying she would rather kill her child than break a promise. However Macbeth does know the consequences for this murder but he goes ahead with it.
“I have done the deed”
Once Lady Macbeth smears Duncan’s blood on the servants, Macbeth kills them so no-one can suspect him of his involvement in the murder. At this point he gets over the fact that he has killed King Duncan.
Lady Macbeth is also responsible in my view because she is the one who plans the murder from the beginning. When Macbeth sends a letter to her, telling her that King Duncan is going to stay for a night she immediately assumes that they need to kill him.
“Thus thou must do”
Lady Macbeth summons up evil spirits to take her feminine feelings so she can be strong enough to commit the murder of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth admits she cannot kill King Duncan because he looked like her father so she convinces the people there that she had nothing to do with the murder but she takes the daggers back into the chamber to implicate the servants and takes control of the situation because Macbeth is passive and is unable to act further. She also says that she does not feel any remorse over King Duncan’s murder and thinks her husband is a coward.
“I shame to wear a heart so white”
Overall I think that Lady Macbeth has played an important part in killing Duncan. Macbeth would have never killed Duncan if Lady Macbeth was not with him. I suppose that Lady Macbeth was cunning, possessive and power hungry at the beginning and Macbeth was struggling with his guilty conscience but as the play progressed, Lady Macbeth’s guilty conscience caught up with her and lead her to commit suicide, whereas Macbeth is the strong one. However, Macbeth was the one to strike the fatal blow.
