But his speech is crippled by “or’s” and “and yet’s” (2.1 lines 45-50). He even tries to make the appearance of the dagger responsible for leading him to murder (2.1 line 54 and 55) which disassociates him from the murder act. Proceeding with the scene, we see Macbeth after the murder – horrified. Reflecting upon the deed after it had been done, he then addresses his fear of eternal punishment when he could not say “Amen” to “God bless us” (2.2 lines 43-45) because of what he had done. And now, he fears the deed too (2.2 lines 65-67) and wishes it undone (2.2 lines 93-95).
She is asking him if he wants to be king or not, and if he is to be king he must commit regicide. By telling Macbeth this, she is his doubting his manliness, and his ambitions. She goes further to say that she would make a better man than he: “I would, while it was smiling in my face,/ Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,/ and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this” (Act I, Scene vii, Lines 56-59) As a result of this verbal abuse and pressure, Macbeth ends up killing Duncan that same night. This shows us that Lady Macbeth's ambition is greater than Macbeth’s, because while he hesitates and is distrustful of his powers, she never wavers. She needs no supernatural temptations to urge her on.
When Lady Macbeth informs Macbeth about the plan of murdering Duncan, he refuses to do so as he says “We will proceed no further in this business”. After insults from Lady Macbeth and making him feel less like a man, Macbeth halfheartedly progresses with the murder. He sees a dagger before him and questions whether or not it is a “false creation”. Subsequent to the killing, Macbeth returns to his room where Lady Macbeth continues to taunt him. “You do unbend your noble strength, to think / So brainsickly of things.” She comments on how he has become more worried and thinks feverishly of things.
As the play moves on, the audience observe the hasty crumbling of his devotion to God and the King. Macbeths longing to becoming king leads him to misjudging the prophecies. He sees them as an excuse and a form of consent- making it seem to him an acceptable action to kill the king in order
He also tells the murderers that Banquo is blameworthy for their tragic, unhappy lives. After angering the murderers, Macbeth switches to a more sarcastic tone and manipulates the murderers so they will feel like they need to prove themselves men, worthy of Macbeth’s presence. By asking questions, Macbeth leaves a gap between him and the murderers and waits for them to fill it. He asks “Are you so gospeled/ To pray for this good man and for his issue/ Whose heavy hand hath bowed you to the grave/ And beggared yours forever? (3.1.98-101).
Macbeth first takes this in a joking manner, but soon begins to take it very seriously. When he came home to his wife, he shared the witches’ prediction with her and she encourages Macbeth to quicken the process by murdering the current king, King Duncan. After murdering the king, Macbeth soon finds himself needing to kill many more in order to keep his secret. His kingship comes into jeopardy when he hears of someone named Macduff who is foretold to have the power to defeat him. Macbeth hears some juxtapose news that gives him a reckless attitude.
Macbeth is physically strong and competent, however his weak character causes him to lose his grip over guilt and his insecurities. When he becomes crowned thane of Cawdor just as the prophecies had said, the thought of murdering Duncan crossed Macbeth’s mind, and he starts to seriously consider it. However, during this period, Macbeth reveals his inner turmoil and moral dilemma in his soliloquies. (kinsman, host, and Duncan hath born his faculties so meek, act 1 sc 7) Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth is too “full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”, so she challenges his manhood by calling him a coward, knowing that Macbeth will in turn, show that he is not a coward by accepting to murder Duncan. This shows that his ambition and self-image of bravery wins over his virtues.
The murder was driven by lust for the queen and also a desire for power, two factors which remain with the king until the final moments in the play. “Mine crown, mine own ambition and my queen. Can one be pardon’d and retain the offence?” Claudius’ deceiving nature is central to the plot of the play, and is the catalyst for the betrayal of many other characters, such as Polonius, Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet himself is not immune to corruption, and he himself deceives those around him in his actions and in his words. Following the revelation from the Ghost, Hamlet assumes an “antic disposition”, in order to distract those surrounding him from his suspicious behaviour.
The isolation of Macbeth, isolation from his friends, his country, God and even his wife further prove him as a tragic hero. Every action that he takes further pushes him away from everything that he has at the beginning of the play. Firstly is the isolation that he takes from his friends, namely Banquo. At the beginning of the play, they are great friends, and even battle alongside each other for their country, but the friendship is not to last, as the life of Banquo ends due to order from Macbeth. The first evidence of Macbeth distancing and isolating himself from his friend is at the beginning of the play, when they are told the predictions by the witches that Macbeth “shalt be King hereafter!” (1.3.50).
The image of a dagger with blood, the voices when killing Duncan and the ghost of Banquo all play key roles in the deterioration of Macbeth’s mental state. In Act 2 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth compose a plan to murder King Duncan. As Macbeth approaches Duncan’s room he notices a dagger floating in front of him “Is this a dagger I see before me? The handle towards my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” (2.1.33-35) Macbeth looks at the dagger in front of him that is pointing towards Duncan’s room and tries to grab it but he cannot.