Lady Macbeth Is Not Justified In Killing King Duncan

The most horrid thing a mortal could commit to do is murder. The act of ending someone’s life. If this statement can be agreed on , then why should Lady Macbeth be justified in killing King Duncan? The play, Macbeth, focuses on the main themes of power, justice, determination and murder, which Shakespeare reveals the themes through values, attitudes and beliefs of different characters. One of the characters, Lady Macbeth not only ended an innocent life just to gain power, she used her own husband to act on her evil deeds? Hence, Lady Macbeth is not justified in her role of killing King Duncan because not only she manipulates her husband into the assassination of King Duncan, she also is willing to kill to gain power for herself, ultimately

In Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband, Macbeth, which informs her about the appearance of the 3 witches who prophesied Macbeth to be the “future king’’ of Scotland. After hearing this, Lady Macbeth conceives the idea of manipulating her husband to kill the king as she states after reading the letter, “Hurry home so I can persuade you to talk you out of whatever’s keeping you from going after the crown”. From this it shows that Lady Macbeth is impatient and eager to do anything to make the prophecy come true. From this, not only that Lady Macbeth wanted to end someone’s life, she was determined to take advantage of her husband to act on her vicious deeds just because she wanted to become the “future queen of Scotland”. These reasons are not just for Lady Macbeth’s role to kill King Duncan at all! In addition, in Act 1, Scene 7, Lady Macbeth quotes, “When you dared to do it, that’s when you were a man. And if you go one step further by doing what you dared to do before, you’ll be much more the man.” The statement shows Lady Macbeth

Stated in Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth quotes, “Come you spirits that assist murderous thoughts, make me less like a woman and more like a man, and fill me from head to toe with deadly cruelty. The quote shows that Lady Macbeth is pleadingly asking to remove her feminine qualities, as referring back to Shakespearean times, women were known to be fragile and delicate while men were known to be strong and ruthless. She states she needs be fierce and callous to achieve her goal of becoming strong enough to seize the crown, showing that her willingness to kill King Duncan’s life for power. King Duncan was a loyal, wise and honest man in his reign of king of Scotland who generously named Macbeth Thane Of Cawdor and provided power and reputation towards the Macbeths. However, he was only to be brutally murdered in the end by Lady Macbeth. How Lady Macbeth be justified for the death of such an innocent life just because she wanted to gain more power for herself. Lady Macbeth already had more than enough power to begin with, revealing her selfishness and greed for