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

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Macbeth is responsible for King Duncan's murder, because he was the person to physically kill, even so, Lady Macbeth is the more evil of the two because she influenced Macbeth to wrongly pursue his ambitions.

Lady Macbeth's evil side is shown multiple times throughout the play. In Act 1, Scene 2, we see Lady Macbeth reading a letter from Macbeth telling her that he is Thane of Cawdor and King Duncan is coming over for dinner. He also says that the witches told him he will become king which leads him to suggest killing him, which leads Lady Macbeth to plan on killing him and asks “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,” (Shakespeare 1.5, 44) which is implying how a woman can not kill and asking to be turned into a man to kill. Two Scenes later Macbeth is having doubts about if he should kill Duncan and Lady Macbeth starts manipulating him to get him to do it. “From this time, Such I account thy love.” (Shakespeare 1.7, 41-42) she is questioning his love for her because he will not kill Duncan. After the crime is committed she is the one that takes the dagger from Macbeth and wipes blood on Duncan's attendants, “My hands are of your colour, but I …show more content…

After he kills him he starts panicking and hallucinating “Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.” (Shakespeare 2.1, 40-41) in this quote he is hallucinating a dagger pointing to his hand, which means he is feeling guilty. He is responsible for his death because he could have stopped it, he could have just told her no but he still did it. It was partially because of his ambitions and because of Lady Macbeth but either way he is the only one to

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