Prophecies In Macbeth

In William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, Macbeth is a brave war hero that is admired by everyone. He kills the traitor Macdonwald and captures the Thane of Cawdor. King Duncan gets the Thane of Cawdor killed and wants the title to be given to Macbeth. Macbeth and his close friend Banquo stumble upon the three witches as they were walking. The witches then tell Banquo and Macbeth their prophecies. Macbeth’s prophecies are: Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and “king hereafter” (1.3.50). The witches tell Banquo that “[he] shalt get kings” (1.3.67) even though he is not one. Macbeth wants more information from the witches, but they vanish. Hearing the prophecies gets Macbeth thinking about being king, but he has to kill King Duncan to

Lady Macbeth knows that the only way her husband will become king is if Duncan is killed. When she learns that Duncan is coming to stay at their castle, she decides they have to kill him themselves. Macbeth has thought about murdering the king before: “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical” (1.3.139). But, Macbeth’s indecisiveness causes him to be unable to act on his thoughts: “Function/ Is smothered in surmise” (1.3.140-141). Macbeth knows he can leave nothing to chance, but he still hesitates to kill Duncan because he is his kinsman, subject, host, and people would want revenge. He realizes there is no reason to kill the king only his “vaulting ambition” (1.7.27) which will lead to his demise. Lady Macbeth knows her husband is too kind to commit this deed so she attacks his manhood: “When you durst do it then you were a man” (1.7.49). Macbeth fears getting caught so they come up with a plan to get the guards drunk, kill Duncan, then blame it on the guards. Macbeth likes the likes the idea of someone else getting blamed so he agrees to go through with the murder. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth immediately regrets it: “Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I wish thou couldst” (2.2.73). With the help of his wife, Macbeth successfully completes the murder, but not without people becoming

He fears Macbeth may have done something evil to fulfill his prophecy: “And I fear/ Thou play’dst most foully for’t” (3.1.3). Banquets prophecy causes Macbeth to fear him and not be secure about his position: “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” (3.1.48). Macbeth decides to take further measures to feel safe. The fact that Macbeth’s sons will not be heirs to the throne provides more motivation for Banquo’s murder. Macbeth decides not to include his wife in his plans about murdering Banquo. He takes matters into his own hands and hires murderers to do the job for him. Macbeth tells the murderers: it must be done tonight, must take place away from the castle, and Fleance must be killed. Macbeth wants Fleance to be killed because he is Banquo’s son and fears he might try to overturn him and get the throne. Fleance safely escapes the murders, but his father did not. Macbeth had more remorse for killing Duncan than he did for his best