At the banquet, Duncan proclaims that his son Malcolm is next in line to the throne. Macbeth then acquires the understanding that to become King, he has to overcome an even larger task now- to kill the King and his two sons. You can already tell that Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, hold no secrets from each other, and that they share a loving and affectionate relationship. This relationship is gradually destroyed by the consequences of both their actions to promote Macbeth to King of Scotland. By the end of act 1 you can tell that Lady Macbeth is the more dominant partner in the relationship. This is indicated by the fact that she takes no less than full control of the situation, and Macbeth is happy to let her have the responsibility. It is clear by now that Lady Macbeth’s desire to become Queen is just as strong as her spouse’s are to become King. She even went to the limits and called evil spirits upon herself, and gave up all the tender, gentle qualities of a woman to become a sexless pitiless fiend. One of her motives for doing this is likely to be the fact that she would become Queen of Scotland if Macbeth became King. Her only problem is that she knows Macbeth would need a lot of persuasion to complete the task at hand, but she also knows that Macbeth is too loyal to kill the King and his two sons. In act 1 scene 7, when Macbeth is alone after dinner, he seriously thinks about murdering his King, how he is going to do it, and if he is going to do it. His conscience counter-acts these terrible thoughts by making him think about his duties as a kinsman, a subject of the King, and a host to his guest. He also thinks about the fact that all crime is punished, whether it be in this life or the next. One of Macbeth’s most justified reasons against murdering the King, is that his death would be mourned throughout Scotland, and regarded as a tragedy in the extreme. Macbeth also begins to think ...
