‘all hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!’
‘all hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter.’
Macbeth dreams about becoming king and then hears he has been made Thane of Cawdor. He writes to his wife about this. His wife is called Lady Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wants him to become king but fears she is too kind to kill King Duncan. So she appeals to the dark side in order that she might lose her gentle feminine nature and be able to murder King Duncan this quote can tell you this ‘unsex me here’
This does not work and in the end, Lady Macbeth has to get Macbeth to kill King Duncan.
The witches have really tempted Macbeth to become king. They showed what it would be like to be king by saying ‘all hail Macbeth’. After Macbeth told Lady Macbeth about the witches, she decided that Macbeth would kill King Duncan when they invited him to their castle for dinner. When Macbeth murders Duncan this is seen as one of the worst of all crimes in Shakespeare’s day. Lady Macbeth plans the murder of King Duncan and tells Macbeth what to do, but it doesn’t go quite to plan. When King Duncan was asleep Lady Macbeth had drugged his guards so they fell asleep. Macbeth went into Duncan’s room with two daggers and stabs Duncan to death. He made a mistake by coming down the stairs with the daggers in his hands and blood all over himself. The reason why Macbeth had done this is because he panicked and was in shock after what he did. Lady Macbeth went back up the stairs with the daggers and placed the daggers in the guard’s hands. She then decides to wipe some blood around the guard’s face to frame the guards as planned. One of the reasons why Lady Macbeth didn’t kill Duncan herself is because Duncan reminded her of her father. This shows she isn’t such a monster. Macbeth is already thinking what has he done and regretting the murder of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth is happy while Macbeth is suffering and this shows Lady Macbeth is using Macbeth a bit, she’s only thinking of herself.
When Macbeth does not want to kill King Duncan he thinks it as vaulting which is like show jumping. Macbeth mentions ‘vaulting Ambition’. This means if he kills King Duncan he would become King but it could also mean that he could get found out and then everyone would hate him. That’s why Macbeth says vaulting meaning you could also fall from the horse. When Shakespeare uses these sort of words it is called Equestrian imagery. Macbeth did not want to kill King Duncan because he knew it was wrong. He knew if he told Lady Macbeth that he thought it was a bad idea she would be cross. Everytime Macbeth tried putting of the idea, Lady Macbeth would attack his sense of manhood. Macbeths does know the difference between right and wrong because he does tell his wife a few times that he won’t kill Duncan. But he decides to tell her this when she attacks his sense of manhood.
Macbeth is suffering for what his wife made him do. At one point Macbeth is feeling so guilty he says to his wife ‘full of scorpions is in my mind’ dear wife. Macbeth is really going crazy towards the end of the play.
He starts to see ghost of people he killed. He is up all night with guilt. Macbeth keeps on killing people who he thinks might know that he killed King Duncan. He kills his friend Banquo and muduffs family. Macbeth and his wife lady are no longer as close after all that is happen.
The more Macbeth suffers from the murder he committed the more his people know he is not such great leader. His people begin to hate and notice he’s strange and wired. As time goes on his people see him as a tyrant. In Shakespeare’s day the last thing you wanted to be known, as is a tyrant.
