Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of Duncan Essay

Lady Macbeth is the real driving force behind the murder of Duncan Discuss this statement and decide whether or not you agree (1000 words) - Essay Example He is praised and made to feel successful. Discovering that Macbeth is a kinsman to the King Duncan, the audience learns of his bravery and ability on the fields of battle, but they see nothing yet of base envy, or of any desire to rule the country. His loyalty and respect for Duncan are not put into question. But the encounter with the witches plants the seeds of ambition and arrogance. Macbeth is silent while Banquo answers the witches. His mind is at work, and in his heart is growing the seed of evil. Elements of treachery enter the scene, and delusions of grandeur infiltrate where before there were none. ‘If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, / Without my stir.’(Act I, Sc 3). Still, he does not exactly leave it to chance, even if he thinks he does not have to do much. He puts the whole thing in a letter to his wife. From the apparition on the heath, desire for power has entered the credulous thane’s spirit, like a curse cast on completion of a successful battle. All of a sudden, being a respected thane is not enough. Through the fateful flaw of being gullible, and believing tenuous predictions, Macbeth is spellbound. This gullibility leads him to ignore his formerly good conscience and become obsessed with gaining what he had previously not even considered for a moment to be rightfully his: ‘to be king / Stands not within the prospect of belief,’ (Act I, Sc 3). Bewitched, he ruminates repeatedly on the prospect of authority and power. The curse travels inside a letter from Macbeth to his wife, who reads it, entranced. She cannot wait for Macbeth to return, so she can persuade him not to be so timid: ‘Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear; / And chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round.’(Act I Sc 5). She knows that so far, her husband has proved himself to be a good man, and fears he might be too nice to share her