Therefore the witches are partly responsible for the death of Duncan as they put the idea in Macbeth’s head. They offered him temptation, making him think that he had to kill Duncan in order to be king and after the apparition of the Thane of Cawdor came true that made him believe even more.
“All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”(Act 1 Scene 3)
Macbeth is the most important character in the play. He is the one who actually plunges the knife into Duncan’s innocent body. Macbeth loves the power and when he hears he is going to be king he gets all worked up and excited and becomes pre occupied with the thought of ruling the country. He thinks of killing the king as soon as he is aware,
“whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
and make my seated heart knock at my ribs.”(Act 1 Scene 3)
This quote shows Macbeth’s eagerness and yet his fear too. He often speaks in a sides and is planning evil and wicked schemes,
“Let not light see my black and deep desires;
the eye wink at the hand.(Act 1 Scene 4)
However Macbeth experiences many character changes throughout the play. At the beginning he is very brave and heroic in the eyes of the king and his generals, and nothing can really stop him. When he meets the witches, he becomes curious, greedy and urgent, he says to them,
“Speak, I charge you!.” (Act 1 Scene 3)
Then with the prospect of becoming king behind him he turns wicked, evil and mischevious. Closer towards the murder though, he doesn’t seem sure about killing the king and he forecasts terrible consequences associated with the murdering of Duncan.
“It were done quickly; it th’ assassination(Act 1Scene7)
could trammel up the consequences, and catch, with his surcease, success”
Macbeth wants to kill duncan to become king but doesn’t want to face the consequences. He becomes less confident and decides he doesn’t want to do it.
Now Macbeth is getting very nervous and scared about what to do and has no one else to turn to except his trusted wife Lady Macbeth, Macbeth writes a letter to her saying about the witches and the three prophecies. Lady Macbeth is a very kind, magnanimous and gentle woman around the king but when she hears about the prophecies she turns very devious. Macbeth is persuaded to go through with the murder by Lady Macbeth. This was a very bad mistake to make as it causes Macbeth’s downfall. After Lady Macbeth has persuaded Macbeth, he sees images, such as the knife he will murder Duncan with. After the deed he speaks in short sharp sentences, which shows his overwhelming guilt and fear. In the end Macbeth only killed Duncan as he was pressurised by Lady Macbeth and wanted to prove that he was a man to his wife.
Lady Macbeth is a very ruthless and evil woman and she is the dominant one in the relationship. She is evil and thinks it would be best to kill Duncan and she invites supernatural aids to come to her and to take away the goodness in her,
“ Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.”
Lady Macbeth has a very powerful character and uses terrifying language associated with evil, hell, smoke and darkness an example would be in the dunnest smoke of hell. She is not very feminine at all and asks the evil forces to come and take the feminine side from here;
“ Come to my woman’s breasts
and take my milk for gall.”(Act 1 Scene 5)
Lady Macbeth knows Macbeth’s character very well and she knows how to win him over by attacking him in his weak and vulnerable spots. She orders Macbeth around and tells him what to do and how to behave. For example, after Macbeth has killed Duncan, he is suffering from guilt. Lady Macbeth orders him to pull himself together;
“ These deeds must not be thought
After these ways; so, it will make us mad.”(Act 2 Scene 2)
She tells Macbeth to get it off his mind and not to think about it. Like Macbeth Lady Macbeth experiences many role changes throughout the play. On her own and talking to Macbeth she is very forceful. With the king, she is polite and courteous towards him to make him think very highly of her as he does of Macbeth. She acts like an ‘innocent’ flower or baby.
Lady Macbeth is obviously wants a dominant role in the relationship but wont commit the actual murder herself. She is slightly scared of the consequences herself, but this does not stop her from ordering Macbeth around. Lady Macbeth attacks Macbeth’s manhood and personality by saying he is not strong enough or wicked enough to do the deed. A quote, which backs this up, is,
“ When you durst do it, then you were a man
be so much more the man.(Act 1 Scene 7)
She says here that Macbeth has to kill Duncan to be a real man. She makes Macbeth feel like a coward and makes him feel pathetic. She bullies him into the murder by challenging him and pointing out that fact that he stated this plan to her,
“what beast was’t then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?”(Act 1Scene 7)
After the murder Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are very nervous and speak to each other quickly and in short lines
“I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?”(Act 2 Scene 2)
Lady Macbeth soon turns back into her dominant self though and tell Macbeth to stop worrying so it will put her at rest. She is critical and is annoyed when she sees Macbeth still worried, a quote that shows she is worried is,
“Go get some water, and wash this filthy witness from your hand.”(Act 2 Scene 2)
Disregarding all these reasons for Macbeth’s downfall there is another way, which he bought his downfall. It envolves the witches and three apparitions. Macbeth goes to see the witches very angry. He insults them by saying,
“How now you, secret, black, and midnight hags!”(Act Act 4 Scene 1)
Macbeth wants answers from the witches and demands them. The witches give him what he wants and make up a special potion which contains,
“ Pour in sow’s blood, that hath eaten
her nine farrow; grease that’s sweaten
From the murderer’s gibbet, throw
Into the flame”(Act 4 Scene 1)
The witches make Macbeth drink this horrible mixture and everything turns strange for Macbeth. He sees three apparitions, the first one apperars from the cauldron, it is a helmeted head, and it warns Macbeth to be cautious of Macduff. The second apparition tell Macbeth that no woman or child can hurt him. Then the third apparition says that Macbeth will not be beaten until Birnham wood moves to dunstane. After hearing these three apparitions Macbeth is filled with confidence, he thinks that he does not have to fear Macduff and with no woman or child being able to hurt him he was safe. The witches know that Macbeth is nieve and now that he is the king he thinks nothing will be able to hurt him. Macbeth in this instance is being very silly in the fact that he was trying to tell himself everything was at ease and not looking at the apparitions properly. The apparitions seal Macbeth’s fate.
In summary it is clear that Macbeth is not solely responsible for the murder of Duncan. For this to take place all three parties would of have to be involved. If the witches had not of been there then they would of never put the idea and the apparitions into his head. Lady Macbeth’s role was very important because she twisted and turned Macbeth into an evil, ruthless killer through her own nasty ways. She attacked his manliness and that was what ‘ate’ away at Macbeth. Also Macbeth’s under lying exterior was weak and low and he did not have the courage to say no to Lady Macbeth and being arrogant towards those apparitions was the worst mistake he ever made.
