William Shakespeare's Macbeth

William Shakespeare's Macbeth

It is very clear in the play who murders king Duncan. However there is

a large, ongoing debate over who is most responsible for t. We have to

take into consideration what roles the witched and lady Macbeth play

in the murder. We will explore the case for and against each.

In Shakespeare's time, witches and witchcraft were extremely popular

throughout the country. Apart from a small proportion of people who

were against the superstitions and beliefs about witches, the extreme

majority were in favour of these ideas and barbarous persecutions. I

think that it was something to get excited about and people would

enjoy to attend a witch trial as entertainment. Pamphlets and

information brochures were produced by the million, describing the

intimate details of witchcraft trials and general information about

the supposed, supernatural powers of these beings. According to

'experts' they could predict the future, fly, sail in sieves, bring on

night in daytime, cause fogs and tempests and kill animals. They could

take possession of any individual they chose, they could hear cats and

toads calling them and many more superstitions. In Macbeth there are

three witches who start the play off and appear in it many times,

always together. They speak in riddles and rhyme and can end each

others sentences as if they are all thinking the same thing. They can

also all speak together saying the same things. In the first scene of

the whole play they show that they are witches with their powers by

creating the weather and predicting the future. They speak about

Macbeth and there plans to meet with him. This is what many people
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...rent groups of characters. Having taken the evidence into

account I think the witches did play a big part in the murder of king

Duncan, as they were the ones who introduced the ideas to Macbeth in

the first place. There is no definite evidence, however, that he was

possessed by these witches, so we cannot know whether they had this

power over him or not. I think that Lady Macbeth also played a large

part in the killing of the king, because she was so ambitious she was

extremely persuasive and manipulated Macbeth with ease. But on balance

I think that Macbeth is mainly to blame for the murder as he was the

actual individual who committed the regicide. The witches and lady

Macbeth are also to blame, but in the end, if he hadn't wanted to kill

Duncan then he wouldn't have and so he is fully responsible for his

own doings.