Macbeth's Soliloquy

William Shakespeare liked soliloquies because they helped to show the character’s personality. Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act I, Scene 7 of ‘Macbeth’ reflects Macbeths’ insecurity and is a battle for the answer to his question: “Is it worth killing the king?” Macbeth finds himself questioning the possible effects, tries to find reasons not to do it and even fantasized about consequences ending as soon as the action is done. It’s an interesting moment of self reflection to read because through Shakespeare’s beautiful words, comes ugly motives and dark thoughts. This soliloquy demonstrates Macbeth’s insecurity, Duncan’s rightfulness, how Macbeth feels about his motives and Duncan, and leads us thinking into what Macbeth could possibly do next.

Up to this point in the book, William Shakespeare has made us think that Macbeth was quite a warrior. In Act I Scene II, the captain describes Macbeth as ‘brave’ and talked about how he fought, fearless of death. King Duncan decides to award Macbeth for his heroic actions and gives him the title of ‘Thane of Cawdor.’ Of course, it’s extremely ironic to find Macbeth wanting to kill the king a couple of scenes later. It’s this irony that’s interesting to follow through the book. In this soliloquy, we noticed his insecurity. He first starts of being uncertain about the murder, he starts wondering “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it done quickly.” Act I, Scene VII, Macbeth, William Shakespeare. He is thinking, well fantasizing: If this action’s consequences were done, finished as soon as the action was done. Macbeth was exploring the idea of things having no consequences, but of course, he still keeps in mind they do. This just shows his insecurity and reflects on his dark, extrav...

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...t to kill Duncan, we realize more reasons settle in. A climax starts to build up with his insecurity, dark thoughts and it falls flat to his motive: Why does he want to do this? Why is he even thinking about such things? It is all down to his vaulting ambition. He wants to be king, very badly and obviously it hurts him and changes him. I mean, we went from Macbeth the fearless warrior, to Macbeth the insecure coward. However we can foreshadow he won’t do it. Macbeth can’t do it; he realizes his motive is not enough to kill such a great king.

We can learn a lot from this soliloquy. We see things like Macbeth’s insecurity and Duncan’s superiority. It’s easy to follow and understand the play due to this alone time with Macbeth. We can understand why he doesn’t want to do it. We can easily put ourselves in his shoes and think the same way thanks to this soliloquy. /