Lady Macbeth is Responsible for Duncan’s Death

The story of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth was most likely written in 1606, early in the reign of James I, who had been James IV of Scotland before he succeeded the English throne in 1603. Macbeth is an epic tragedy written by and is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on

those who seek power for their own sake. Now who had killed their precious King Duncan, who is to blame for his murder, could it possibly be the three witches, or maybe lady macbeth or could it be Macbeth himself? In this essay I will explain how Shakespeare uses the natural disturbance to create the mood and meaning in Macbeth.

I will still use text evidence and quotes to backup my statement.

We all know that Macbeth went off to murder King Duncan at the end of (act 2 scene 1) and Lady Macbeth is waiting to come back from the murder in (act 2 scene 2). Which is one of the first things that is noticed that also reflects Shakespeare use of language. With Lady Macbeth she reflects to the murder by saying “owl shrieking’’ and back then the word meant to say death. She also says the “fatal bellman” which is when someone who rang the bell before an execution. Both of these give a signal on what’s about to happen to King Duncan. At the beginning of the scene we know that Lady Macbeth has been drinking to cool her nerves. The drink she offered the guards gave her confidence a ¨Bold & Fire¨ but she was still really nervous underneath. When she hears the owl shriek she jumps, which proves that she is not so confident after all.

‘Is he going to go through with it?’ and or ‘Will he get caught?’ This is answered when Macbeth makes a dramatic entrance while carrying two bloody daggers, it was a bloody crime. Macbeth had killed King Duncan while he was asleep, the murder was considered to be the worse because King Duncan was killed while he was asleep and he had no way of defending himself while he was in his slumber. Sleep was meant to be seen as a state of innocence but that was not what occurred. People of this time believed that before you die you are suppose to confess your sins so you wouldn’t have them held against you while you traveled to the other world. Duncan didn’t have the chance to do this so in their beliefs they feared there precious King Duncan will be sent to the dark world. At this very point Lady Macbeth is getting very anxious about getting caught. Shakespeare emphasises this by making Lady Macbeth not notice that Macbeth is carrying the two bloody daggers even though he is standing right in front of her.

He was suppose to leave the daggers with the guards to show it was the guard who murdered King Duncan who murdered Duncan. Lady Macbeth had said ‘Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go carry them & smear the sleepy grooms with blood.’’ Macbeth is being told to take the daggers back to King Duncan’s room but he refuses to go as he feels guilty for what he had done and did not want to see what he has done and he is scared 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’ (act two scene two).

My conclusion is that Shakespeare uses the natural disturbance to create the mood and meaning in Macbeth by death using his language, stagecraft, different themes, characters personalities, social & historical context & the structure of the scene in order to make the scene more sinister and guilt. In the end it had turned out that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were the ones who killed King Duncan while he was

in his peaceful slumber that late night. This had created an evil plague among the play and left the guilt to eat up both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. “What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood & clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather” (act two scene two) This was one of my favorite things that Macbeth said as he cleanse his hands in the rain for what he had will haunt him for the rest of his days.

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