The Destruction Of Duncan's Death In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more.” (5.5 27-29) Throughout Macbeth, Macbeth becomes more heartless as the play progresses, ultimately leading to his death. This quote demonstrates this by showing Macbeth’s view of life; one acts, leaveIn Act 2, Macbeth begins to fall from grace when he killed his king, Duncan. However, Macbeth was pressured into murdering him, and would not have committed the act if his wife was not there. By the middle of the play, Macbeth starts hiring murderers to kill his enemies for him, showing that Macbeth is valuing life less and less. At the very end of the play, Lady Macbeth commits suicide, but Macbeth is not emotionally moved by this event; he continues to fight as though nothing was wrong.

However, Lady Macbeth desires queenship and pressures Macbeth to do the deed and take the throne. To do this, she tells Macbeth that if she had to kill her child to become queen, she would without any hesitation. Lady Macbeth also says Macbeth is not being a man if he does not follow through with her plan and fails to kill Duncan. (1.7 55-67) Even though Macbeth has a choice to do the correct thing and not commit the crime, he makes the wrong choice. However, Macbeth does not murder Duncan, his king and cousin, willingly; Macbeth regrets the decision almost as soon as he makes it. When Macbeth hears knocking on the gate mere minutes after the murder, he says, “Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.”(2.2 94-95) This means that Macbeth wishes the knocking on the door could wake Duncan and undo his evil