Responsibility in the Killing of King Duncan Shakespeare, one of the greatest English poets of all time, wrote many plays. Macbeth is a tragedy that mostly takes place in Scotland, dealing with the physical and psychological effects of ambition. A pivotal point in this play is the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth team up and kill him because they have a desire for power. While both of them are involved in the killing, Lady Macbeth is strictly responsible for the attack. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are equally evil characters, and Lady Macbeth is the one responsible for the murder because she convinces Macbeth to commit the crime and makes the arrangements for the killing. Lady Macbeth uses different tactics and words to …show more content…
When she hears that Macbeth is contemplating the murder and deciding whether to follow through with it or not, she attacks him verbally. She questions his manhood when she says, “What beast was’t, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man” (I.vii.). Lady Macbeth is explaining how Macbeth’s masculinity is in question because he is wavering in his decision to follow through with the plan of killing Duncan. Macbeth is offended when she humiliates him. He does not want to be labeled with female characteristics because this would be a major insult towards him. He decides to follow through and commit the murder. Lady Macbeth also takes a shot at Macbeth’s courage. Macbeth has a problem believing that the plan will succeed. He has a strong feeling that the plan will fail and he will be the one to deal with the consequences. Lady Macbeth says, “But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail” (I.vii.). She is telling Macbeth that if he is courageous then they will not fail. He is concerned that it will be the servants who catch him of this crime, but Lady Macbeth tweaks the plan to make Macbeth feel better. She tells him she will get the guards so drunk that they will not have any memory. When he hears this, he is reassured that everything will go as planned. Lady Macbeth uses words and persuasive techniques to assure that …show more content…
Macbeth is constantly power hungry and has an excessive desire to be on the throne. He comes across as very greedy and selfish. Macbeth chooses to live a life of evil by making some decisions that are not considered virtuous. He says, “The prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down” (I.iv.). Macbeth is saying how he either needs to accept the fact that Malcom is prince or he needs to do something to change it. He believes that he will have to murder people to change Malcom’s status. Macbeth also chooses to follow the evil witches. He adheres to the prophecies they make which tells him about the future. Macbeth demonstrates that he is an evil character because he kills people for no reason. For example, he kills everyone who is in Macduff’s family except for Macduff himself. They are innocent people who have committed no crimes towards Macbeth. He also kills people in order to make his way up the throne and gain power to become king. One that kills someone for no specific reason or to gain more power is very malicious and living a life of
The play entitled Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays Macbeth, a loyal and brave thane to the king. When a prophecy reveals he will become king, Macbeth is overcome with ambition and greed. Convinced of this prophecy and the encouragement from his wife, he is able to kill the king and take the throne. Although Macbeth was able to obtain the throne, he was was overwhelmed by power and guilt leading to internal conflict, which suggests that success is not desirable through cheating and corruption and ultimately cost more than its actually worth, Macbeth`s reckless pursuit of killing and becoming the king is representative of the power he has and what he is able to do with the power he's gained; therefore. His relentless ambition for king reveals the guilt behind power.
She emasculates Macbeth and challenges his bravery, which to him is the essence of a being a man, "coward." Compelling her husband by giving him an ultimatium, be a coward or kill the king. Macbeth succumbs to evil and in doing so, betrays his King. God 's divine order is disturbed as Macbeth challenges God by killing the God appointed King and assuming the role for himself in his quest for power. Later on in the play, Macbeth asserts his right over Lady Macbeth, flipping their dynamic, and distances himself from her,"be innocent of the knowlded dearest chuck.
Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death.
Macbeth had become everything that he had ever wanted to be which was the king of Scotland and when the witches told him that someone else was going to take his crown he went to extremes to try to keep them from doing that which was eventually what lead to him dying. The witches had told Macbeth that the sons of Banquo would take his crown so he decided to have Banquo and his son killed Macbeth said, “Our fears in Banquo stick deep/ And in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared”(3.1.49-51). Macbeth did everything he could to protect his crown, but that is eventually what lead to his downfall and his death. He killed his best friend Banquo which was when his ambition had gone to far and was the beginning of his decline.
In the play Macbeth there was a lot of stuff that went on that could keep the reader interested. One of these things are all of the murders in the play. With all these murders happening, there has to be someone to blame. In the play Lady Macbeth is to blame for the murders because she called evil upon herself, influenced Macbeth to be a murder, and she wanted power.
Macbeth believes that the Prince of Cumberland stands in his way to more power. “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies.” (1.4.48-50) Macbeth’s dissatisfaction with his current power is well illustrated with him referring to the current heir to the throne as an obstacle to overcome.
Then, when he still had second thoughts she begins to tell him that she would do a better job than he would. Lady Macbeth also call Macbeth not a man, telling him to man up. Lady Macbeth also said, “When you durst do it, then you are a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more than a man.” (pg-43). Lastly Macbeth tell Lady Macbeth that his biggest fear is failing at killing the king so she said, “We Fail?
William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a
The fact that Macbeth believes the witches’ prophecies are not evil nor good foreshadows how he will go on to kill any other person standing in his way to more power. His ambition blinds his mind to make him even think about ruthlessly committing a murder. This forceful way of gaining power will only lead Macbeth to become a “tyrant” in Scotland and his “fantastical” desires of killing Duncan and receiving the crown will lead Scotland to failure. Under Macbeth’s rule, Scotland seems to be in a terrible condition. With distrust among the people, there is tension all within the country, as Macbeth’s totalitarian regime had rendered the prosperity of Scotland.
Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.
Integrity can be defined as being honest and having strong morals. Being able to balance one’s own integrity and professional responsibility is what determines how successful they will be. If someone’s personal integrity and professional responsibility aren’t balanced, they will interfere with or hinder the other. Ultimately, a person is successful if they can balance their personal integrity and professional responsibility.
In the play of Macbeth, there are some characters that could be responsible for Duncan’s death. I personally think Lady Macbeth is the cause of Duncan's murder. She is the most ambitious to kill the king in the beginning of the play, pressuring Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was persuasive of driving Macbeth to commit the murder. She manipulates him to go through with the murder even though he was very doubtful about it.
Macbeth is More Responsible In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” Macbeth is seen to be as the one responsible for King Duncan’s murder, as Macbeth’s hands were the ones that actually killed King Duncan. However, while Macbeth may be thought of as ultimately responsible for his actions, but there are other influences that actually show on a closer inspection of the text, the three main influences to his decision are Lady Macbeth, himself, and the witches. This is (in my opinion) convincing evidence that Macbeth is completely responsible for the murder of King Duncan.
In act one scene 7, Macbeth doubts if he should kill the king; however, his wife, Lady Macbeth, manipulates him into proceeding. It might be difficult for Macbeth, the renowned warrior, to hear his wife accusing him of cowardice. Therefore, under Lady Macbeth’s influence, as she questions his manhood, he commences the murder in order to prove to her that he is not a “coward.” This is important to note because his soliloquy shows his determination to proceed.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare set in Scotland about a murderous and vehement king who spirals on a path of destruction as he suffers from the consequences of determining his own fate. The predominant theme portrayed throughout the play is honor vs. loyalty. This is represented through the identification, actions, and quotes of numerous characters. To introduce the theme of honor vs. disloyalty, the characters Banquo and Macbeth exemplify traits that are equivalent with the moral of the story.