Macbeth Murders King Duncan example essay topic

Developing (or dynamic) character. A character who during the course of a story undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of his / her personality or outlook. Static character. A character who is the same sort of person at the end of a story as's / he was at the beginning. Lady Macbeth " They met me in the day of success: and I have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge' (1.5. 1-3).

Lady Macbeth is reading the letter in which Macbeth tells of his meeting with the witches. After she has read the letter, Lady Macbeth is determined that she will make the witches' prophecy come true. She prepares herself to work her husband into a murderous state of mind. She also gets here self into a murderous state of mind, crying out, 'Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty!' (1.5. 40-43) When Macbeth arrives, she advises him to put on an innocent face in front of the King and to leave the rest to her.

[Scene Summary] See, see, our honour'd hostess!' (1.6. 10). Thus King Duncan greets Lady Macbeth at the gates of Macbeth's castle. In a display of consummate hypocrisy, Lady Macbeth gives a warm welcome to the man she is planning to murder.

[Scene Summary] While King Duncan is having supper in Macbeth's castle, Macbeth steps out to think about the plan to kill the King. When Lady Macbeth finds Macbeth, she exclaims, 'He has almost supp'd: why have you left the chamber?' (1.7. 29). Then, in order to keep Macbeth committed to the murder plan, she verbally assaults his courage and manhood. This is the scene in which she brags that if she had made a vow to do a murder, she would follow through. Even if it were her own baby, she 'would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, / And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you / Have done to this' (1.7.

56-59). In a few minutes, Macbeth sees things her way. [Scene Summary] Banque tells Macbeth that the King has been very pleased with the hospitality shown to him, and that 'This diamond he greets your wife withal, / By the name of most kind hostess' (2.1. 15-16). We never learn if Lady Macbeth receives that diamond, but we do learn that she rings the bell that tells her husband it's time to murder the King. [Scene Summary] As she waits for her husband to come with the news that he has murdered King Duncan, Lady Macbeth says to herself, 'That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold' (2.2.

1). She's referring to the fact that she has given possets (wine and milk) to King Duncan's grooms. Apparently, she's had a posset herself, so that she's experiencing a kind of drunken courage. The grooms, on the other hand, aren't feeling a thing, because Lady Macbeth drugged their possets. Not only that, but she made sure that King Duncan's door was ajar, and that the grooms' daggers were in plain sight, so that Macbeth could easily go in, kill the King, and leave the bloody daggers on the grooms.

However, things don't go quite as she has planned. To her mind, Macbeth is too slow, and she fears that he won't get the job done. Then, after murdering the King, he comes to her with his hands all covered with blood and carrying the grooms' daggers. Not only that, but he's so unnerved that all he can do is stand and look at his hands. Finally, she has to do what he should have done. She takes the daggers from him, carries them back to place them with the grooms, and smears the grooms with the King's blood.

After all of this, she has to lead Macbeth away to wash his hands, telling him that 'A little water clears us of this deed' (2.2. 64). [Scene Summary] After Macduff discovers the body of King Duncan and rings the alarm bell, Lady Macbeth comes in and calls out: 'What's the business, / That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley / The sleepers of the house? speak, speak!' (2.3. 81-83). Of course she's only pretending that she doesn't know what's wrong. Later in the scene, just after Macbeth explains why he killed the King's grooms, Lady Macbeth faints, which keeps anybody from actually thinking about Macbeth's explanation.

[Scene Summary] MACBETH In his report of Macbeth's victory over the rebels, a sergeant emphasizes Macbeth's courage. Even when it looks like Fortune is smiling on the enemy, 'brave Macbeth -- well he deserves that name -- / Disdaining Fortune' (1.2. 16-17) plunges fearlessly into battle and wins the victory. [Scene Summary] Just after Macbeth hears the witches' prophecies, Ross and Angus tell him that he has been named Thane of Candor.

Upon hearing this, Macbeth goes into a trance-like state as he tries to sort things out. He tells himself that the witches' prophecies can't be bad, because they have foretold a truth. On the other hand, if the witches' prophecies are good, he asks himself, 'why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, / Against the use of nature?' (1.3. 134-137). 'Suggestion' means 'temptation,' so Macbeth is asking himself why he feels himself giving into temptation, especially a temptation that makes his heart race and his hair stand on end. He goes on to reflect that 'Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings' (1.3.

1137-38). He means that the fear that you feel in the face of actual danger is not nearly so bad as the fear of imagined danger. Apparently he's trying to talk himself into believing that the murder which he is tempted to do can't possibly be as frightening as he now feels it is. [Scene Summary] When King Duncan announces that Malcolm is heir to the throne, Macbeth sees that as a roadblock, then says to the heavens, 'Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires: / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see' (1.4. 50-53). He's thinking about committing murder.

He wants his own eye to blind itself ('wink') while he's doing it, but he wants it done, even if his eye will be afraid to look at it afterwards. It doesn't appear that he afraid of getting caught and being punished. His fear of murder seems to be like the fear of the sight of blood -- irrational and instinctual. [Scene Summary] When she receives Macbeth's letter about the witches' prophecies, Lady Macbeth says to her absent husband, 'Thou wouldst be great; / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it' (1.5. 18-20). She, like the witches, believes that foul is fair.

Ambition 'should' be accompanied by 'illness. ' Yet she does not believe that Macbeth is really good. She says that he 'wouldst not play false, / And yet wouldst wrongly win' (1.5. 21-22). In her view, he's something of a coward, because he has that within him that tells him what he must do if he is to have the throne, but he's afraid to do it. She tells her absent husband that he should hurry home so that she can 'chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round' (1.5.

27-28). In other words, she plans to nag him until he's ashamed of himself for being afraid to be bad. After all, it's only that fear that's keeping him from wearing the crown. [Scene Summary] In the midst of a feast that he's giving for King Duncan, Macbeth steps aside to think about the murder he's planning.

He says to himself, 'If it were done when 'tis done, then 'there well / It were done quickly (1.7. 1-2). That is, if everything could be over with as soon as Duncan is killed, then it would be best for Macbeth to kill him quickly. If only, Macbeth thinks, the assassination could be 'the be-all and the end-all -- here / But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, / We " ld jump the life to come' (1.7. 5-7).

Where Macbeth says 'but here,' we would say 'just here' or 'only here. ' In other words, Macbeth knows that he can get away with murder only here on earth. In the afterlife he will certainly be punished. He also knows that the afterlife is very long; it's like a boundless ocean, and our life is only a 'bank or shoal' on the edge of that ocean. Nevertheless, if one murder could be the last murder, he would take his chances with the afterlife. The problem is, it's not very likely to be 'done when 'tis done,' and Macbeth knows this, too.

He knows that -- as we say -- what goes around comes around, that acts of violence are 'Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return / To plague the inventor' (1.7. 9-10). Of course, Macbeth has good reason to be afraid. In a warrior society such as his, there would be plenty of kith and kin eager to avenge the murder of any man, even if he weren't a king.

To put it bluntly, Macbeth thinks that he's likely to get caught, and he's about to chicken out. Only at this point does he start thinking of other reasons that he shouldn't kill his king, and when his wife comes looking for him, he tells her he's decided not to do it. She responds by telling him that if he's going to go back on his word, he doesn't really love her, and he's a coward, no better than the 'poor cat i' the adage' (1.7. 45), who wants a fish, but doesn't want to get its feet wet. Macbeth tries to defend himself by saying, 'I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none' (1.7. 46-47).

Macbeth also asks what will happen if they fail, and his wife pooh-poohs the very idea, exclaiming, 'We fail! / But screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we " ll not fail' (1.7. 61). She wins the argument. [Scene Summary] After Macbeth murders King Duncan, he comes back to his wife with the bloody daggers in his bloody hands. She tells him that he must return and place the daggers with the King's grooms.

Macbeth, however, is paralyzed with the horror of what he has done. He says, 'I'll go no more: / I am afraid to think what I have done; / Look on't again I dare not' (2.2. 47-49). This makes Lady Macbeth scornful of her husband.

She takes the daggers from him and tells him that it's childish to be afraid of the sleeping or the dead. And she's not afraid of blood, either. She says, 'If he [King Duncan] do bleed, / I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal / For it must seem their guilt' (2.2. 52-54). With these bitter words, she goes to finish her husband's job for him. When Lady Macbeth returns, she comment.