In act I scene III Macbeth questions Banquo about the witches’ prophecies and how his children will be king one day. And without surprise Macbeth sees this as competition to the title of king. Macbeth could be trying to slightly scare Banquo into stopping his children from becoming king seeing how ambitious Macbeth is, he would kill to reach his goals.
"Stars, hid your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires...."
Macbeth meets King Duncan, thanking him for his new title; the also loyal Banquo receives nothing. King Duncan remarks how he completely trusted the previous Thane of Cawdor. King Duncan announces that his son, Malcolm will be the new Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth sees Malcolm as a threat to what he now takes seriously as his destiny to become King of Scotland, a major turning point in Macbeth's changing morality. Macbeth makes this clear by famously asking in an aside for the stars to hide their fires least they reveal his dark and deadly purpose or intent to kill King Duncan. But he is trying to get rid of Duncan without having blood on his hands. Later on in the play, he realises that this is unlikely therefore he is encouraged by his own partner into an action that will come with consequences and regret.
In a soliloquy, Macbeth ends the scene already plotting his way to kingdom: "The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'er-leap
For in my way it lies"
This quote says everything what Macbeth is thinking, he clearly sees Malcolm an obstacle for his ambition and he sees him as a step. A step on which he must give in to or a step which he must conquer and leap over, in other words: murder Malcolm.
Over this analysis, we learn that Macbeth is wise and can make his own decisions. He is ambitious and he will do anything to achieve his goals. Sometimes the ambition might lead to an obsession. So his determination will lead him to do things which he normally wouldn’t do and will cause him to suffer.
"Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe full of direst cruelty: make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse...."
Lady Macbeth learns from the letter from Macbeth of the Three Witches' prophecies for her husband and eagerly embraces them as fact. Fearing Macbeth is too compassionate and weak-hearted to do what needs to be done, killing Duncan. She famously asks the gods to remove from her all signs of compassion and feminism, replacing them with cold remorseless ruthlessness. She is willing to have the power of a man so she can do what Macbeth can’t because she is far more cold hearted than Macbeth will ever be. Macbeth arrives and Lady Macbeth already tells Macbeth to appear innocent like a flower but to be "the serpent under". She advises him to leave the evening to her care and exclaims that King Duncan will not see tomorrow. Macbeth says they will speak further on the issue. Lady Macbeth’s plan is to treat King Duncan like a royal guest that he is. Yet that’s what they are appearing to be, but Lady Macbeth bullies Macbeth into murdering him, by using his manhood as a goal that he has to reach. She does this by saying...
“Then you durst do it, then you were a man” Keeping in mind the fact that he is overly ambitious so he is tempted to do as she says. At Macbeth's castle King Duncan arrives whilst Lady Macbeth plays the most perfect of hostesses. Macbeth's castle seems to be a haven of sanctuary, so much so that Banquo describes it as being almost heaven like in its peacefulness. King Duncan asks "Where's the Thane of Cawdor?" Who is not yet present. Lady Macbeth is at her most light hearted act but the audience know that it’s all a fake act to fool King Duncan into thinking that he is in no real danger.
A guilt-ridden Macbeth wrestles with his conscience, certain that he should not kill King Duncan yet guiltily having to remind himself of all the reasons why it would be wrong. Macbeth decides against murdering his King but Lady Macbeth belittles him for not being able to murder, threatening to take away her love for him if he does not. This threat wins Macbeth over and Lady Macbeth outlines her plan to kill King Duncan in his sleep while he is a guest at their castle.
Macbeth will not kill his King as he is far too aware of the consequences. Lady Macbeth enters and upon knowing this, scolds him as being less than a man. Additionally Lady Macbeth makes an ultimatum: "From this time such I account thy love" in translation – “from now on or what you now do will I measure your love for me”
This line threatens Macbeth and asks him if he loves his wife or not, and if he does, then he must do what she says which is how it follows. From this scene we learn a lot about how Lady Macbeth is extremely manipulative. She has the power to cease Macbeth’s mind and have almost all control of his decisions. By having this power and control over Macbeth, it could make her a suspect of Duncan’s murder.
Banquo suspects the presence of danger but cannot say exactly what it is. Macbeth meets them and when the question.
"Who's there?" is asked, replies "A friend”. And the audience knows that Macbeth is trying to cover up his devious act by calling Banquo a friend. Later in the play, Banquo will not expect his own loyal friend to be murdering him.
Banquo mentions a dream he had of the three witches to Macbeth.
Macbeth replies that "I think not of them:" However Macbeth is lying to Banquo; the witches’ prophecies haven’t escaped his mind since they entered. He lied about it because he does not want to bring up the subject of being king since it will cause suspicion and tension between the characters.
Macbeth now alone, sees a dagger, asking himself, "Is this a dagger which I see before me". At this point, Macbeth begins to lose his mind. He begins to hallucinate, seeing the dagger as if it’s a human and speaking to it, deciding whether he should proceed with the murder or stop before something goes wrong. All of these thoughts were merely created by Lady Macbeth. She has opened the topic of murder and has locked it in Macbeth’s thoughts. Now he begins to get paranoid all due to his wife’s actions and words.
We learn that Lady Macbeth was to have killed the King but the King's resemblance to her father stopped her. Macbeth announces that he has "done the deed" and asking if she heard, she replies only that she heard an owl scream and a cricket cry. This means that Macbeth did it with stealth and success. Macbeth was nervous and when two men in the adjoining room cried, “Murder!” and later “God bless us!” Macbeth could not reply “Amen,” as the other man did. Interpreted as a symbolic act of the fact that Macbeth no longer sees himself connected to God or on the side of good.
In conclusion we know that the witches had no actions in King Duncan’s murder. Maybe they had something planned but we have no proof so they are not to blame. Lady Macbeth on the other hand played a big part in King Duncan’s murder. She manipulated Macbeth into lunging that dagger, and she did not stop him once to let him think about his own independent choices and what he would prefer to do. Lady Macbeth had continuously kept stuffing thoughts of murder into his head and constant reasons for doing it. However, Macbeth is a superior warrior who has independent choices to make and is still in control of his decisions. Even though he was influenced by his wife who had a large part to play in Duncan’s murder, Macbeth never had to include murder in his up-rise in power. If he would just let time take its own affect over him, he would have become king with no guilty conscience on him. Even after he was charged as guilty for the murders he did not attempt to reverse his actions in any way, and he doesn’t offer anything to make up for mistakes which in the end, brought him down to his knees in failure.
