Lady Macbeth as the Driving Force Behind the Murder of Duncan in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Lady Macbeth as the Driving Force Behind the Murder of Duncan in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth is a very exciting play containing all kinds of plots and

murders. Many of the characters deceive one another in some form, and

are generally very treacherous. Two of the most dangerous characters

in the play are Lady Macbeth and her husband, Macbeth. Together they

commit a most dreadful crime by killing the King; Duncan. It is for

this reason that it is difficult to determine if Lady Macbeth is the

real driving force as they each do their own part in committing the

crime. Lady Macbeth prepares and directs the plan, encouraging Macbeth

to go through with it. Macbeth does the actual murdering; he however

was also the first person who thinks about killing Duncan. Furthermore

he commits some murders on his own. Lady Macbeth does not have any

involvement in these cases. And it is purely for him self that Macbeth

kills Banquo and his son.

So does this mean that Macbeth is totally to blame for the killing of

Duncan? Or is Lady Macbeth the one that pushes him into it, putting

the dagger into his hand as it were?

Well in my opinion, Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind the

murder of Duncan to some extent. I believe that after Macbeth’s letter

home, she iss very sure of the course of action they should take. When

the prophecies were foretold, by the witches, “hail Macbeth, that

shalt be king hereafter” Macbeth was shown to be startled by these

words as Banquo shows when he says, “why do you start and seam to fear

things that do sound so fair?” This shows that Banquo is confused by

Macbeth’s reaction, and that he also notices him, and ...

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... considering all of the evidence, that Lady

Macbeth was the driving force behind the murder of Duncan. She used

the love that Macbeth felt for her to get Macbeth to agree to kill

him, and then made sure he did not fault in their plan. She did

however; feel guilty after the murder as shown here when she says,

“what, will these hands ne’er be clean?” She imagines that the blood

that was spilt on her hands when killing Duncan was still there, and

that she can not wash it off. Lady Macbeth does feel guilty for

murdering Duncan, as did Macbeth. She does not feel this till much

later in the play however, and only after she dwells on what they have

done feels any resentment towards there actions. I believe that Lady

Macbeth was just as ambitious as Macbeth, if not more so and therefore

was the driving force behind the murder.