follows up with their plan. On the eve of the murder, Macbeth sees a floating dagger. He reaches for it, but is unable to touch it. The dagger is covered with the image of blood as Macbeth slowly approaches Duncan’s room. He thinks that his conscience is telling him that the bloody dagger has appeared to show him the horror of the act that he is about to commit. Although, Macbeth also believes that it appears to beckon him forward. As Macbeth is in this trance, Lady Macbeth’s signal of the ringing of the bell occurs and it provides Macbeth with the courage to continue on with the kill. Duncan is murdered. Lady Macbeth knows that if all goes well, they will not be discovered. Yet, the act of murder and the guilty conscience cause her to jump at the screeching of an owl. Even if Macbeth is not caught, the murder of Duncan is a sin that already condemns Macbeth’s soul. Lady Macbeth is as guilty as Macbeth even though she did not commit the crime physically. She was unable to kill the king herself because she thought that the king looked too much like her father. In Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare, Norman N. Holland states, “Because Duncan resembled her father, she embodies, Sadger said, Shakespeare’s love for his father, but also his resentment and his unconscious impulse to get rid of him. (On the theory that John Shakespeare was a butcher, Sadger suggested that the poet would often have seen his father sticking animals with a knife-as Macbeth, in a way, does.)”. (96). Macbeth is unable to face the crime again, so Lady Macbeth takes the dagger back. She returns with her hands now covered with the blood of Duncan. This image of Lady Macbeth’s bloody hands shows that she is as guilty as her husband is even though she never committed the act of murder. Her thoughts and actions depict the kind of person that she is. The king’s body is discovered the next day by Macduff and he...
