The Decision To Kill Duncan In William Shakespeare's Macbeth

There are many motivators for Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan, the king of Scotland. Macbeth, the Thane of Cawdor, desperately wants to become king, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to continue any time his conviction falters, and the weird sisters tell Macbeth that he will be king in the future. Although all of these are influential, the most influential are the weird sisters. When the weird sisters tell Macbeth that he will become king, this creates a great desire for Macbeth to become king. After the weird sisters leave, Macbeth says to Banquo, “And Thane of Cawdor too. went it not so”(i iii 91). This shows that Macbeth has already started thinking about becoming kind and Thane of Cawdor. Although shortly after hearing the prophecy, Macbeth has no desire to kill Duncan and thinks the crown will come to him by fate, he soon starts thinking about killing Duncan to get the crown. Macbeth’s desire to become king is definitely a tremendous factor in killing Duncan, however a bigger factor may be Lady Macbeth …show more content…
When Macbeth starts to think about killing his king, he decides that he will not go through with the plan because this is a terrible crime and the king has treated him extremely well. When he decides this he tells his wife, “We will proceed no further in this business”(i vii 34). This shows that Macbeth does not want to go through with the plan to kill Duncan. After saying this to Lady Macbeth she says to him, “And live a coward in thine own esteem,/ letting I dare not wait upon I would,/ Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?”(i vii 47- 49) In these lines Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth a coward and accuses him of being able to want something but never having enough courage to get what he wants. Without Lady Macbeth saying this, Macbeth would have decided not to kill Duncan. Although Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to go through with the murder, the most influential people are the weird