Was Lady Macbeth Responsible For Duncan's Death?

We certainly know that the direct responsible for Duncan’s death is Macbeth. However this does not necessarily mean he is to blame, for his violent death is obviously the consequence of certain influences that forced Macbeth to perform his fatal deed. Furthermore, to unearth the truth about who is really the guilty for Duncan’s murder we must explore the influences the different characters have on Macbeth’s impulses and the overall scenario of the slaying.

Under Lady Macbeth's power, Macbeth kills Duncan while a guest at his home. The hesitation of the whole plan to murder the king sticks with Macbeth throughout the rest of the play haunting him. Lady Macbeth's power comes from her control and harshness towards her husband. She figuratively and literally would have little societal standing if not married to the great warrior Macbeth. Macbeth is a passive person when it comes to his wife and follows her orders as if she were ruling him. Once dead, Macbeth feels immediate guilt which is strange for such a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. This guilt though is just a product of his quest for immediate power over the land and thinks that it is worth the riches and power of the position. Macbeth killing Duncan helped to assure that he would soon

...acbeth, but she had her own reasoning behind her plan that would lead to their fortune. This crazy plan she had wasn’t bound to work from the beginning, and Macbeth knew that. When he agreed to do this deed, he completely left his morals, and became a person who thrived off of power. In the beginning of this plan, all Macbeth wanted was to make his wife as happy as he could, and this led him to be weak, and easily persuaded. After Macbeth realized that this was the way for him to get power, he started to not consult Lady Macbeth with his killings, and just do whatever he thought was going to give him more power. This caused Lady Macbeth to go crazy, and eventually die, because Macbeth was growing apart from her, and she did not know how to cope with it. Overall, Macbeth was the one who led to his own demise because he became the person he never thought he would.

Macbeth's Responsibiility for the Death of Duncan Macbeth is a loyal general in the army. Macbeth would not stop killing until he has the head of the enemy. In the play we hear about one friend this is Banquo. Banquo is also in the army and is a general like Macbeth. Macbeth describes Banquo as "... royalty of nature" this means that was Banquo acts or behaves is like royalty.

Overall Lady Macbeths ambition, confidence and naivete is perhaps the major factor in pushing Macbeth into the murder of Duncan. She does not think of the consequences of the murder so she is 100% behind Macbeth killing Macbeth, which makes it difficult for Macbeth to go against her.

Lady Macbeth seems like the right person who the most at fault. It is true that Lady Macbeth is the one who tells Macbeth to murder Duncan, and with her words in her aside, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty,” (I.v. 391-392) along with many other horrible scenes Lady Macbeth gives. It gives the audience a purpose to accuse her for all the murders. Lady Macbeth is argued to be in control of Macbeth. John Turner, coauthor of two books on Shakespeare, says, “Until her sense of time dissolves and Macbeth seems crowed already,” (Johnson) which shows that the image of Macbeth being King and having power is driven by Lady Macbeth’s ambitiousness. This is not entirely true. Lady Macbeth does have an ambition for power but not to the extent to be killing everyone. She only wanted Duncan off the throne, she was not aware of the other men in authority, such as Macduff, suspecting her and her husband. She was not paranoid like Macbeth, which is why he killed so many people. It’s reasonable to argue that Lady Macbeth was the influence; therefore she is to be at most at fault. She also was not the one to kill Duncan and the other people, Macbeth did.

After the death of King Duncan, Macbeth becomes the more controlling one, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually becomes too much for her to handle which leads to her death. Lady Macbeth is in fact the one that performs the preparations for the murder of King Duncan, but still shows some signs of humanity by not committing the murder herself because he resembles "My father as he slept". After the murder has been committed, she also shows signs of being a strong person because she calms Macbeth down in order to keep him from going insane.

If MacBeth had never been persuaded to kill Duncan, MacBeth probably would not have committed any other murder crimes throughout the rest of the play. One could blame Lady MacBeth for persuading her husband to become a killer --- blame women’s ability to manipulate men into having bad character. Though, one could also blame MacBeth, seeing as he was responsible for his own decisions. MacBeth had the option of how strongly he stood up to his wife for his moral beliefs, and he chose to barely defend his opinion. It’s clear that neither MacBeth nor his wife were solely responsible for his final decision to murder King Duncan. Without his wife’s persuasion, MacBeth would not have killed the king, but MacBeth could have chosen to not be so easily persuaded by his wife.

Who do you blame for king Duncan’s death? Consider the role of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the Witches.

Throughout history women have fought for the same rights of men. In the time of William Shakespeare they were seen in society as weak and vulnerable. They were seen to be good, caring and not as powerful as men. Men were the superior and ruled the land. Shakespeare has taken the stereotypical image of the women of the time and turned it on its head in ‘Macbeth’. Lady Macbeth is shown as a very powerful, strong woman. She has an evil about her that Shakespeare has used to make ‘Macbeth’ a supernatural play. Women were seen to be good and not as powerful as men, in ‘Macbeth’ Lady Macbeth is the dominate character and commands and persuades Macbeth to commit the murders and crimes that he does.