Nature’s reaction to King Duncan’s death …show more content…
The driving forces of the play are Macbeth and his wife who are too ambitious for their own wellbeing. Though people argue that Macbeth never had a free will in the first place, it is still through his deeds that one see conflict arise both in him and the world around him. The roles of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are reversed as the play continues, evident through their confidence “fluctuations” throughout the play. One is able to truly see these variations in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters in the latter’s introductory soliloquy: “What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest [way. Thou] wouldst be great art thou not without ambition…” Lady Macbeth calls her husband too kind to ever commit a crime against the king despite his ambitions to become greater. (1.5.4-6) The same scene demonstrates her own ambitions to become queen: “Come into my woman’s breasts and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers… you wait on nature’s mischief” (1.5.37-40) where she literally pleads to be stripped of her womanly traits to become evil, especially if Macbeth is unwilling to commit the sin of murder that “fate and metaphysical … doth seem to have [him] crowned.” (1.5.17-19) One sees his insecurities and hesitation further on when he finally meets Lady Macbeth to discuss the ominous prophecies of the Wyrd sisters and later after Duncan’s death. Macbeth, distraught, demonstrates his remorse through his paranoia, stating, “One cried ‘God bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other as they had seen me with these hangman’s [hands. Listening] their fear, I could not say ‘Amen,’ when they did say ‘God Bless us!’” (2.2.28-31) The roles are reversed once he is crowned king, palpable through Macbeth’s gain of