Macbeth: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Exchange Essay

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Macbeth paper One of the hardest questions to ask from reading the play Macbeth is who is more immoral, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth? By the end of the play, Macbeth is the more immoral one. He does not show any regret for the murders of Duncan or Banquo at the end of the play. Macbeth murders his way to the throne, even by killing his best friend Banquo. It takes someone very selfish to murder his or her best friend, no matter how big of a prize there is. For Macbeth, the prizes were how he worried if people would find out about the murders he committed and how to keep himself as the king. For Lady Macbeth, it is about her keeping her role as queen. From the beginning of the play until the end, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth exchange roles of good and evil. In regards to the death of King Duncan, Macbeth at first was very nervous and anxious about murdering him, but with the help from Lady Macbeth, he conquered his fear and killed him. The initial plan was for Macbeth to murder Duncan, without Lady Macbeth pressuring him to do it Macbeth would not have followed through with his plan. Before the murder happened Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a conversation and Lady Macbeth stated, “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.” (1.7.56-58) By Lady Macbeth convincing him and saying he would be more a man if he followed through with the murder, Macbeth felt more pressure to follow through. This proves that with the stress Lady Macbeth was putting on Macbeth, at this point makes Lady Macbeth seem more like the villain. Immediately after Macbeth killed Duncan he felt extremely guilty and thought to himself, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand/ No, this my hand will rather/ the multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red.” (2.2.79-81) this quote proves that after Macbeth kills Duncan he has signs of immediate guilt and regret. He thinks no matter how hard he tries, the blood of Duncan will never wash off his hands. As for the murder of Banquo, this shows a medium of Lady Macbeth not being in on the plan, therefore having no initial reaction but as Macbeth’s wife, she covers for him and Macbeth slowly starting to become evil. As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are having a conversation after the murder of Banquo, Macbeth confesses, “I am in blood/ Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (3.4.168-170) By Macbeth stating this, he is saying how he has already committed so many crimes to stay king, he does not necessarily feel as emotionally effected by them anymore. That proves how from his initial feelings towards murder to the feelings he is experiencing now have changed negatively. However, for Lady Macbeth, she did not know about the murder until after it happened and did not have a big reaction to the murder of Banquo. Finally, at the end of the play, you see the biggest switch of good and evil between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth by the way each of them dies. As Macbeth is getting ready for battle, the
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