To What Extent Is Lady Macbeth Responsible For Duncan's Death

Is Lady Macbeth more responsible than Macbeth for the murder of King Duncan?

Who the burden of the blame for King Duncan’s death should fall upon is a highly contentious matter. Should Macbeth, the man who physically committed the murder be blamed? Or, should Lady Macbeth be blame? She was the one who pressured and urged Macbeth to commit the murder. Macbeth would not have committed the crime except at his wife’s urging. Lady Macbeth makes the killing into a test of manhood, so that Macbeth will only be a man in her eyes, she says, if he murders the king. Additionally, immediately after King Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth has no regrets, whereas Macbeth wishes he hadn’t done it as soon as the task has been accomplished.

Lady Macbeth should take blame for King Duncan’s death because, she played such a vital role in it that Macbeth would not have committed the crime except at his wife’s urging. Lady Macbeth speaks with such annunciated dictation of her intentions, that it becomes clear that

Lady Macbeth puts this into action when she even does so much as to formulate the actual plan, which is used to murder King Duncan (Act 1, Scene 7, lines 59 – 72). Multiple other methods are also used by Lady Macbeth to convince her husband of this evil deed.

Lady Macbeth making the killing into a test of manhood, so that Macbeth will only be a man in her eyes, she says, if he murders the king, is one of the more prominent methods used by Lady Macbeth to pressure Macbeth. It was used to encourage him to complete the deed of murder against King Duncan to achieve his place as king. Lady Macbeth asserts:

“What beast was’t then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” (1.7.47 –