William Shakespeare’s Macbeth follows a tragic journey of friendship, cunning, and betrayal. With an introduction to the medieval setting within the Kingdom of Scotland, readers follow the journey of the brave Macbeth—specifically, his internal conflict after discovering that he must murder the friendly King Duncan. Macbeth’s reservations regarding the seemingly inevitable murder of King Duncan come from a variety of internal feelings—indecisiveness, care and compassion for Duncan, and fear of karma—and express the conflictual nature of his ambitious yet intuitive soul. Following the revelation of the inevitable murder, as well as expressing the initial pain that he felt after realization, Macbeth expresses that this reluctance of his (certainly …show more content…
Based on these traits, Macbeth intuitively expresses his concern for the murder by acknowledging the karma that he may sustain as a result of Duncan’s assassination. Furthermore, Macbeth refers to the murder as a “taking-off” rather, transforming the tone and feel of the devious plot from evil to merely unfortunate. This obfuscation—the refusal to mention the possible plot to kill King Duncan—is a prevalent motif throughout the first act, and displays an overarching expression of Macbeth’s reluctance to acknowledge the murder, much less willingly go through it. Finally, Macbeth expresses the possibility of his murder inspiring others to murder him—the succeeding King—as the last primary catalyst behind his reservations and reluctance. Macbeth expresses his concern for inspiring others to come back and kill him by stating “We still have judgment here, that we but teach / Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return / To plague th’ inventor” (1.7.8-10). Through this statement, Macbeth uses the synecdoche of his “bloody instructions” as, yet again, an obfuscation of Duncan’s