After having finished reading the letter from her husband about their encounter with the witches, she is told that the king will be staying at their home tonight. After hearing this fear soon arises for she fears that her husband will not have the
The truth is that many of these decisions that Macbeth makes or follows is based on what the witches told him. One example of this is when Lady Macbeth convinces him to kill Duncan in order to become king. She specifically says, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature / … / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, / and chastise with the valor of my tongue” (1.5.16-17, 27-28). In this quote Lady Macbeth is thinking about the witches prophecy and how she can make it come true.
She finds him a coward because he fails to follow the murder plan and does not leave two daggers with Duncan’s sleeping guards so as to blame them for the murder. By boldly doing the act herself and going back to the murder scene to smear blood on the guards, Lady Macbeth proves ambitious and ruthless while Macbeth appears yet still contemplative and somewhat humane. After Macbeth says “I am afraid to think what I have done./ Look on it again I dare not..” [2.1.63] Macbeth scrutinizes him and tells him “‘tis the eyes of childhood/ That fears a painted devil,” [2.1.66] which ultimately shows Macbeth’s moral compass falling into the hands of his wife who proves the stronger
Summary: Act 2, scene 1 Banquo and his son Fleance walk in the torch-lit hall of Macbeth’s castle. Fleance says that it is after midnight, and his father responds that although he is tired, he wishes to stay awake because his sleep has lately inspired “cursed thoughts” (2.1.8). Macbeth enters, and Banquo is surprised to see him still up. Banquo says that the king is asleep and mentions that he had a dream about the “three weird sisters.” When Banquo suggests that the witches have revealed “some truth” to Macbeth, Macbeth claims that he has not thought of them at all since their encounter in the woods (2.1.19–20). He and Banquo agree to discuss the witches’ prophecies at a later time.
In Act 2, Scene 2 line 35, Macbeth said, “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep’, the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, the death of each day’s life.” There is another example of this motif. At the end of this play, Lady Macbeth described as a sleepwalker. Gentlewoman describes Lady Macbeth’s illness, in Act 5, Scene1, line
(1.3.71)” Banquo also doubts the intension of the witches, he believes that evil always tells one part of the truth in order to earn one’s trust and lead him to destruction. Banquo warns Macbeth, ”But ‘tis strange./And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/ the instruments of darkness tell us truths,/win us with honest trifles, to betray’s/In deepest consequence. (1.3.124-128)” On the other hand, Macbeth ignored his friends warning and believes in what the witches say. He is over whelmed by his ambition to be king, he said to himself,”Glamis, and the thane of Cawfor!/The greatest is behind. (1.3.118-119).””Two truths are told/,as happy prologues to the swelling act/of the imperial theme.
One of the main messages he is trying to deliver to us is to always weigh what you achieve to what the consequences will be. This especially holds true for Macbeth, as when first contemplating if he should kill Duncan, not once did he think of how he could be punished. Also, when Macbeth first hears the witch’s prophecy of him being a king, he jumps directly to the idea of murder. This kind of thinking is exhibited in Macbeth’s monologue in scene 5 act 5, where he discus’s the uselessness of living, and this attitude towards life made him go mad. This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was.
Question: Is Lady Macbeth's swoon, on hearing of the murder of the grooms, real or feigned - and the grounds of your opinion? Answer: We can readily understand how, upon a first reading of the play, having nothing upon which to base an opinion save Lady Macbeth's preceding words and conduct, one might think this swoon feigned, and but another exhibition of that presence of mind and determination of will by means of which she had succeeded in screwing her own and her husband's courage to the "sticking-place," which had not abandoned her during the murder scene (at first reading one might easily overlook the single unmistakable touch of weakness shown in the words, "Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done it,"), which had enabled her to take back the daggers and gild the faces of the grooms with blood, when the "infirm of purpose" refused to do it, which even that terrible task could not destroy, since, upon her return, hearing the knocking, she remembered at once that to be found fully dressed would show them to be watchers. But, having gone through the play and heard Lady Macbeth's troubled sigh "Naught's had, all's spent; Where our desire is got without content" (III. ii. 4-7); having observed her in the short scene with Macbeth after the banquet; and especially in the sleepwalking scene, we are satisfied that the swoon on this occasion is real.
Oh, Oh, Oh!”(5.1.51-53). This quote also means that the guilt will never leave her. Lady Macbeth then tells about Banquo and says, “Look not so pale.—I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave” (5.1.64-65). When Lady Macbeth leaves, the doctor tells the gentlewoman that, “Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets” and that Lady Macbeth needs a Priest not a doctor (5.1.50-51). When the doctor says “infected minds,” it means guilt.
Lady Macbeth also plays and evil role beside him. She mocks him, if he frets over her instructions, saying that he will be less of a man if he does not follow the plan. She gives Macbeth a lecture of deceptiveness when planning the murder of King Ducan. She had also prepared a dagger for Macbeth to kill the King in advance. Though Macbeth still had doubts, she was ready to do this blood thickening job, herself.