Macbeth knows that killing Duncan is an option. We see this by the way he talks and the language he uses. He talks aside a lot so that the audience can see into his inner thoughts. After finding out that he has become Thane of Cawdor he says “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,” (1,iii,139) here he is talking about murdering Duncan to become king. The fact that Duncan is Macbeth’s cousin makes him seem more cold blooded, that he would kill his own cousin. However, he is also confused and says “why do I yield to the suggestion whose image doth unfix my hair,” (1,iii,134) here he is saying that the thought of killing Duncan scares him which doesn’t make him seem as evil.
After Duncan announces that his eldest son Malcolm is to become king after him Macbeth says aside “The Prince of Cumberland – that is a step, on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap,”(1,iv,48) by saying this he is using a metaphor, saying that he is going to have to “jump” over him, by which he really means kill him. Though some would argue that up to this point he is not a murderer as he in only thinking about it.
Macbeth is already thinking about killing Duncan to become king but is kind to the king and still acts as if nothing is going on. This shows how callus he is as most people in his position would be feeling shame and would not be able to look that person in the eye.
We see evidence of Macbeth’s ambition when he sets up the murders of Banquo and his son Fleance. When Macbeth is king in Act 3 scene 1 he is not satisfied with just this and says “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus,”(3,i,48) here he is saying that he is king – but he won’t be safely king until he is sure that his children will eventually be kings too. He thinks that it is unfair that he has had to go through killing all these people and go to hell so that Banquos children will eventually be kings. However, when he hires the murderers to kill Banquo instead of just telling them to kill Banquo he feels he has to persuade them. He talks to them about how Banquo us their enemy too. This could be because Banquo is his friend and he feels guilty but he is trying to make himself feel less guilty by getting others to agree that what he is doing is ok. Macbeth also gets the murderers to ensure the death of Lady MacDuff for no reason other than to have revenge on MacDuff after he goes to England to fight against him.
It is clear to the audience that from the start of the play Lady Macbeth is the stronger, more determined one out of the two. As soon as Lady Macbeth reads the letter from Macbeth about the witches’ predictions and before even speaking to Macbeth she decides that Macbeth is going to be king and that he is to murder Duncan. After reading the letter she says “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised,”(1,v,15) she’s saying that Macbeth has Glamis and Cawdor and now he will get what he was promised, to be king. She then says “Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without illness should attend it,”(1,v,20) She knows Macbeth has ambition, but fears he is too noble to make sure that the prediction is fulfilled.
Lady Macbeth talks about defeminising herself to become more of a “man”. She says “Unsex me hear,” (1,v,41) as in Shakespeare’s times women were seen as the weaker sex. She asks the evil spirits to give her strength to murder. When she hears that Duncan is coming to their home she says to herself “Fill me from the crown of the toe top-full of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, stop up th’access and passage to remorse,” (1,v,42) She is saying that she wants to be evil, she doesn’t want to worry or feel guilty.
Lady Macbeth is adamant that Macbeth is to kill Duncan but has trouble persuading Macbeth. He says to her at first “We will proceed no further in business,” (1,vii,31), he does not want to kill Duncan. She tries to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan in a number of ways, and then goes on at him that he is not a man unless he does it.
At this stage Lady Macbeth had a lot of influence over Macbeth. When the witches told Macbeth about becoming king he decided that he wasn’t going to do any thing about it. “If chance may have me King, why chance may crown me without my stir,” (1,iii,143) what he is saying here is that he isn’t going to do anything about becoming king and is saying that if it is going to happen he wouldn’t have to do anything, just like he didn’t to become Thane of Cawdor. But it is Lady Macbeth who changes his mind.
Macbeth is shown as the weak man whilst Lady Macbeth plans the whole murder for him. After he has murdered Duncan he comes back to Lady Macbeth. Instead of being happy that he has done it he looks at the blood on his hands and says “This is a sorry sight,”(2,ii,18).He already feels guilty about what he has done, which many would say was unusual as he is a soldier and is used to killing people. Lady Macbeth is again the calmer one and says “A little water clears us of this deed,” and washes her hands. This is ironic though as at the end of the play Lady Macbeth goes mad and is constantly washing her hands in her sleep.
The Supernatural is an important theme in the play of ‘Macbeth’. When we first meet the witches they are talking in rhymes and riddles and what they say doesn’t make sense e.g. “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” (1,i,12) This sets the audience up to think that the witches are confusing.
At the start of the play, it is the witches who are waiting for Macbeth which suggest that they planned everything that happens to Macbeth. If the witches hadn’t been in the play and Macbeth had still become Thane of Cawdor there is little chance that becoming King and murdering King Duncan would have even crossed his mind.
We can see the witches are evil when in Act 1 scene 3, just before they meet Macbeth, when the witches cast a spell on a sailor so that he won’t be able to sleep day or night. We also find out they are very unattractive creatures. When Banquo and Macbeth first meet with them they are shocked by their appearances. Banquo says about them “That look not like th’inhabitants o’ th’ earth, and yet are on’t?” Here he is saying that they look like they aren’t from the earth as they look like nothing he had ever seen before. He then describes their features by saying “Hey choppy finger laying upon her skinny lips. You should be women, yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so,” here we have an image in our heads of how hideous these women are.
The witches deceive Macbeth by only telling him half the truth. The first time he meets them he isn’t really sure whether he trusts their predictions, but by the second time he puts all his trust in what they say and doesn’t doubt them. At the end Macbeth and the audience are reminded how evil the witches really are. Banquo, however, was wise to the witches from the start and warned Macbeth not to trust them either.
I believe that at the start of the play Macbeth is influenced mostly by Lady Macbeth as it is her that persuaded him to kill Duncan and even though it was the witches who told Macbeth that he was going to become King Macbeth said that he was not going to do anything about it until Lady Macbeth persuaded him. After the murder is committed she is still the calmer one. Macbeth seems to be handling everything well until at a dinner he sees Banquos ghost and starts going crazy, again it is Lady Macbeth who calms him down. However, as the play goes on he begins to organise murders with out her and goes to see the witches while she stays at home and goes mad with guilt. By the end of the play I think it is the witches who influence him the most as he listens to and believes everything that they say. It is only at the end, just before Macbeth dies that he realises what a fatal mistake he made by trusting the witches. I think that Lady Macbeth and the witches had a lot of influence over Macbeth but I don’t believe they are solely to blame and Macbeth’s ambition and drive contributed to it too.
By the end he is the one organising murders without telling her.
