The next scene is Macbeth and Banquo who are close companions are marching back to camp after victory on the battle front. They find three witches who can tell the future they say to Macbeth ‘Hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis’ (which he was at the time), then another witch says ‘Hail Macbeth, hail to the, Thane of Cawdor’ Macbeth finds this weird as there is already a Thane of Cawdor but he does not know Duncan wants to give Macbeth this title (dramatic irony). But the third witch says ‘Hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter’, this is the first indication that Macbeth may kill the king so he could become king. Later Macbeth received the title Thane of Cawdor and writes a letter to his wife telling her about the witches and what happened. You get an idea on what he is feeling. He then returns home and tells his wife, Duncan is staying there she then says he will never leave, so you know that they are going to kill him. This is unlike Romeo and Juliet where the deaths were unplanned and done very spontaneously.
The events that happen before the murder scene in Romeo and Juliet are at the start of the play Benvolio and Tybalt have a fight and the officer catches them saying that if they disturb the peace once more then the offender will be sent to death. Later on Romeo and Benvolio trick a clown who can not read into giving them tickets to the Capulets party. So then they go with Mercutio to the party and Romeo meets Juliet and falls in love with her. But Tybalt spots Romeo and he thinks that Romeo is making fun of him by coming to his party this gives Tybalt a reason to fight Romeo later. Later Romeo wishes to marry Juliet and she accepts. Romeo then goes to Friar Lawerence who agrees to marry them to join the two houses together but no one else knows that they are getting married. Romeo returns home to find a letter from Tybalt challenging him to a duel but he tells jokes with Mercutio until Juliet’s nurse arrives telling Romeo that Juliet will be at the church in the afternoon where they will be married. They get married and this gives Romeo no reason to fight Tybalt as he is family.
The differences in the lead up to the death scene in both plays are that in Macbeth you already know that Macbeth is going to kill Duncan due to the witches saying he will be King and his wife constantly pressurising him into doing it. In contrast in Romeo and Juliet you have no idea that Mercutio dies as everyone in both families likes him and have no reason to kill him, but maybe you could guess that Tybalt or Romeo might die as Tybalt has asked for a duel as Romeo disrespected him by going to his party. But there are some similarities in the two plays like both plays build up the story, in the first scene, Macbeth with the witches and Romeo and Juliet with the fight and the party.
The murder scene in Macbeth is in Act 2 Scene 2. It starts with Lady Macbeth talking to herself wondering if he had killed Duncan. ‘Hark! I laid the daggers ready’, by saying this she tells the audience how she prepared everything for him but she doubts whether or not he is strong enough to carry out the murder. Macbeth then returns with two bloody daggers and says ‘I have done the deed’, this makes it obvious to the audience that he has killed Duncan. He then acts shocked as he cannot believe he has just killed the King even though he is a great warrior and has killed hundreds before, and says, ‘I am afraid to think what I have done, Look on’t again I dare not’, so this makes it obvious to the audience that he has killed Duncan. He is so shocked he brings the daggers back with him instead of leaving them there so it looked like the guards killed the King. Lady Macbeth then tells him to put the daggers back but he cannot bring himself to do it so she does it for him. He then goes to the well and tries to wash the blood off his hands but he imagines that is cannot come off he says, ‘Will all great Neptunes’s Ocean wash away this blood’.
Lady Macbeth then comes back with blood on her hands because of the daggers and tries to wash it off thinking it will be clearing them of the murder she says ‘A little water will clear us of this deed’. The gate then knocks and this scares them as they think someone will catch them and they will be killed. The scene then ends with Macbeth saying ‘To know my deed, twere best not know myself’ which means that he is unhappy on what he did and he wants a new identity because of it.
In this scene there is not that much visual action but it is one of the most important scenes due to the partnership of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth which you can tell is strange as Macbeth killed Duncan partly because she said so and she then helps him by putting the daggers back and also says that they were in it together by saying ‘My hands are of your colour’ Shakespeare uses amazing language and imagery as in their time they did not have special effects so they could not kill people on stage and remove the bodies while still acting.
The murder scene in Romeo and Juliet is in Act 3 scene 1. It starts with Benvolio and Mercutio joking around with each other until Tybalt enters with his men. He comes with goodwill as he calls them gentlemen but Mercutio makes fun with Tybalt which angers him and he says to Mercutio ‘Thas consorts with Romeo ‘ which makes Mercutio really angry but just when it looks like they would fight Romeo comes back after marrying Juliet and Tybalt wants to fight Romeo for gate crashing the Capulets party. But Romeo does not want to fight as Tybalt is now related to him but Tybalt does not know that. Tybalt takes Romeo not wanting to fight the wrong way and sees it as disrespectful towards him. Mercutio then feels embarrassed for Romeo and he fights Tybalt for him. Soon after Romeo tries to stop the fight by getting between the two but doing so Tybalt stabs Mercutio and runs away. Mercutio then stands up and says ‘I am hurt. A plague o both your houses! I am sped. Is he gone, and hath nothing?’ this means that Mercutio is hurt he then curses the two houses and says that he is finished. He then exits the stage after giving his final speech where he still makes fun but at the end of the speech he blames Romeo by saying ‘ Why the devil came you between us! I was hurt under your arm’. He goes off stage with Benvolio and Benvolio then comes back and says that he is dead. Tybalt then returns and Romeo lashes out at him killing Tybalt but after doing so he realises what he has done and says ‘I am fortune’s fool’. The scene ends with the prince banishing him from Verona. The friendships within this scene are really made obvious with Mercutio and Romeo being such friends that Mercutio fights for him and dies for him, and Tybalt hating Romeo so much just because he gate crashed his party are felt throughout the scene.
The significance of the deaths of Mercutio and Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet is that it changes the outcome of Romeo and Juliet’s lives, as they both committed suicide. When Tybalt killed Mercutio it caused Romeo to seek revenge of Mercuito death so he killed Tybalt. This in turn caused the Prince to say ‘and for that offence Immediately we do exile him hence’ so with Romeo banished from Verona he could not tell anyone about his marriage to Juliet.
When Juliet returned home her family were very upset over the death of Tybalt. Juliet’s father then encouraged Paris to agree to wed Juliet. He wanted this to happen quickly to take everyone’s mind off the death of Tybalt. Juliet did not want this to happen and even threatened to kill herself. ‘If all else fail, myself have power to die’.
She then goes to Friar Lawerence for help. They come up with a plan to put her asleep for forty-eight hours by taking some poison. ‘Like death when he shuts up the day of life. And then awake as from pleasant sleep’. The plan was she would miss her wedding everyone would believe she was dead. She would have been put in the family crypt and arrangements could be made for Romeo to come back from exile to collect her and live with him in exile. However, Romeo never received information from Friar Lawerence about the plan as the messenger did not reach Romeo.
Romeo later hears that Juliet had died and he goes back to Verona to kill himself. When he gets there he finds Paris heart broken over Juliet’s death.
When Paris sees Romeo arrive in the crypt he gets very aggressive towards him, he draws his sword and Romeo has to defend himself and in turn kills Paris. Romeo lies Paris’s dead body next to Juliet as requested, ‘If thou be merciful, Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet’. He takes his poison and kills himself. Juliet wakes up realises that they are both dead and kills herself with Romeo’s dagger.
As regards to Macbeth’s murder scene it is very significant to the whole play. Even though Macbeth had killed in battle it was the first time he had killed in cold blood. He only killed Duncan as it had been foreseen by the three witches ‘Hail Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, Hail Macbeth who shall be King heafter’ and after telling Lady Macbeth this she had encouraged him to carry this out. By killing Duncan in cold blood it seemed to send Macbeth into a state of shock because he still imagined he had blood on his hands even after washing them. Duncan’s sons fled to England because they thought they were next to be assassinated, thus leaving Macbeth the King of Scotland. Unfortunately, Macbeth becomes paranoid about everyone thinking they know about Duncan’s murder. This is brought on by Banquo knowing what the three witches had foreseen when they told Macbeth.
Macbeth orders three assassins to kill Banquo and his son. Banquo gets murdered but saves his son. The assassins give this news to Macbeth but Macbeth sees Banquo ghost at his dining table this makes him even more paranoid. He shouts out like he was going crazy ‘Hence horrible shadow unreal mockery hence’, this makes everyone wary of him.
After this Macbeth goes to see the witches again and they inform Macbeth that he cannot be harmed by any man born from a woman ‘for none of woman born harm Macbeth’, but to be careful of a man named Macduff. Macbeth than orders assassins to kill Macduff, they kill Macduff’s wife and son but Macduff is not there. They inform Macbeth that everyone is dead and Macbeth believes he is safe now.
However Macduff brings an army from England including the two heirs and eventually beheads Macbeth. The witch’s prophecy was correct as Macduff was born by caesarean.
The main significance of the murders in Romeo and Juliet was that they were done on the spur of the moment with emotions running high so they were spontaneous murders. However, in Macbeth it was a cold blooded calculated murder, which was very well planned and premeditated.
In conclusion I am of the opinion that there are few similarities between the murder scenes in each play. In Macbeth the cold blooded murder of Duncan is anticipated well in advance by the audience. So when it eventually happens there is no surprise. The audience do not actually see the murder as it takes place off stage. Their first knowledge of the murder is Macbeth’s blooded hands and his admission of killing Duncan. The audience are left to draw their own conclusion of how the murder was carried out. But they are shocked to see Macbeth come out still holding the daggers and are left wondering how he is going to get away with the murder when he is holding the evidence.
Lady Macbeth takes charge to help him cover it up and in turn gets covered in blood herself. A knock occurs on the castle door and they both scurry off stage covered in blood. This leaves the audience wondering if they will get found out. This is not conclusive till later in the play.
In contrast in Romeo and Juliet the two murders are a total surprise to the audience as there is no real lead up to them as they happen after Tybalt and Mercuito exchange words with each other which was followed by a fight. Tybalt inflicts a mortal wound on Mercuito and Mercuito leaves the stage with Tybalt. The audience still do not know of the death of Mercuito until Benvolio comes back onto the stage and lets the audience know he is dead. This is a total shock as Mercuito is a very likeable character with no enemies. The audience’s response is to want revenge, justice and the death of Tybalt. Romeo eventually carries this out.
