He considers that, even if Duncan’s murder could be completed without any negative consequences, like getting caught, he still would have to live with guilt. He states why he should not kill Duncan; "First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, / Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, / Who should against his murderer shut the door, / Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan / Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been / So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against / The deep damnation of his taking off." (1.7.14-21) Macbeth proves very uncertain in his thoughts and did not have any legitimate reasons for killing King Duncan and obtaining the throne except for his own ambition and greed to become king. With the witches’ prophecies mulling over in his mind, and knowing that he was not the successor of the throne, he knew he had to take matters into his own hands.
That is a step on which I must fall down, or else oerleap for in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires.” When Lady Macbeth receives the letter from her husband about the witches prediction she also realises that Duncan must killed. She thinks that Macbeth deserves to be great but also believes he is too noble to do such a thing. “Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full othe milk of human-kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” This shows that Lady Macbeth simply brings out the murderous butcher within Macbeth which was always subconsciously there with his ambition for glory.
Throughout the play Lady Macbeth is the driving influence behind Macbeth and the immoral path that he chose to follow. To put it simply Lady Macbeth started the rot and persuaded the hesitant and indecisive Macbeth to “be a man” and do the deed of killing Duncan. Macbeth initially decided to “proceed no further” in the matter of killing Duncan because he had been kind to him of late bestowing the position of Thane of Cawdor on him. She responds to this by saying that if he can lose his ambition so readily, his love for her must also be changeable. Then she insults his masculinity and questions his courage.
It is true that Lady Macbeth originally came up with the plan to kill the king, but it is also true that Macbeth was selfish and greedy. If he had been patient he would have learned that he had already been promoted to Dane. His wife did encourage him to commit murder, but she did not force him to choose his path. The three witches could also be considered responsible
Macbeth has just finished a powerful soliloquy in which he considers his earlier plans to murder the King. Now that he is closer to the time, he is more conscious of the potential consequences which could follow this act. He realizes that there are many reasons for which he shouldn’t kill Duncan, and only one reason to kill him; his own ambition, which is not always reliable: such an ambitious leap, he says, could only result in a very nasty fall. When Lady Macbeth enters, he announces to her that he has dropped the idea of killing the King. He explains that he is glad enough with the honors he is currently receiving and with the knowledge that he will almost certainly be appointed King at Duncan’s death, so sees no reason to rush the procedure and run the risk of getting caught.
It can be argued that Lady Macbeth is the true butcher; she is the person who persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan. Macbeth’s conscience tells him not to kill the King, he actually attempts to stand up to Lady Macbeth but she uses interrogative language to belittle him. Lady Macbeth’s overpowering traits at the beginning of the play would have been seen as very unusual to an audience watching at the time it was written as females were usually dominated by their husbands. This is effective in the play because it shows how weak Macbeth was at the start of the play and shows how their personalities change after killing King Duncan; Lady Macbeth becomes
She understands the quickest way for her husband Macbeth to become king is to murder King Duncan. Not able to do this alone she calls upon evil spirits to clear her concious and give her the strength of a man. The evil spirits were only enough for her to put on a persona for Macbeth and influence him to commit the muder. After the aweful scenerio takes place Lady Macbeth crumbles under the pressure of guilt and becomes mentally insane. She is effected so much that she is driven to her own suicide.
Macbeth, on the other hand, does not like a possible future by the withes prophecy: that he will kill his King. This shows the difference between Lord and Lady Macbeth. It is only after much nagging and cajoling from his wife that he decides to go through with it, and then half heartedly. His wife uses insults, demeans him, and makes him feel less than a man, so Macbeth finally gives in. While Lady Macbeth is the one who sets the ball rolling, it was the witches that put the ball at the top of the hill.
Like all tragic heroes Macbeth demonstrates he is doomed to make errors in judgment when he allows Lady Macbeth to convince him to commit murder in order to gain the crown. In addition we know that at the beginning Macbeth is good. He was rewarded the respected title Thane of Cawdor after the execution of the previous Thane. It is easy to identify with Macbeth as he is pushed by Lady Macbeth to commit the murders and faces the external and internal conflicts typical of a tragic hero. Another aspect of the tragic hero is that they are responsible for their own fate.
Lady Macbeth is calling upon the gods to “unsex” her so she can proceed and help Macbeth commit the murder of Duncan. During the Shakespearian era, women and men were viewed quite differently. Women, in contrast to men, had the stereotype of kind, calm, and loving. The reason Lady Macbeth wants to “unsex” herself is in order to remove the kindness and calmness and become more manly, or more aggressive and fierce. With this in mind, Lady Macbeth knows that in her time, for a woman to commit a murder is unheard of.