This excerpt is early on in the play – Macbeth has heard the witches’ prophecy that he will kill the king, and King Duncan has just arrived to Macbeth’s house as his guest. In this soliloquy, Macbeth considers killing Duncan, but ultimately tentatively decides not to in fear of unpredictable consequences, “judgment” in the form of imprisonment or beheading, or that his bloody actions will return to plague him in the end.
Macbeth ponders assassinating the King of Scotland, whose shoes he intends to fill. If killing the king would finish the task, he would have no objections. Macbeth is not worried about committing murder itself; he wonders if there will be anything else he must do to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. He wonders if killing Duncan will be all that is required …show more content…
He predicts that this will come back to haunt him – that perhaps people will view killing him as King acceptable as he had been done to virtuous Duncan and the deed gone unpunished. Macbeth knows that justice, being equal to everyone, will force him to drink from the poisoned cup that he serves to others. This is also foreshadowing – foreshadowing of Macbeth’s death during his reign.
This soliloquy has dark imagery: “bloody instructions,” “deep damnation,” and a “poisoned chalice.” It suggests that Macbeth is aware of how the murder would open the door to a dark and sinful world. At the same time, he admits that his only reason for committing murder, “ambition,” suddenly seems an insufficient justification for the act; he asserts that ambition only leads to failure, or “o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.” Macbeth appears to have come to a tentative decision not to carry out this plot, or at least that it is a monumentally bad
Macbeth ponders assassinating the King of Scotland, whose shoes he intends to fill. If killing the king would finish the task, he would have no objections. Macbeth is not worried about committing murder itself; he wonders if there will be anything else he must do to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. He wonders if killing Duncan will be all that is required …show more content…
He predicts that this will come back to haunt him – that perhaps people will view killing him as King acceptable as he had been done to virtuous Duncan and the deed gone unpunished. Macbeth knows that justice, being equal to everyone, will force him to drink from the poisoned cup that he serves to others. This is also foreshadowing – foreshadowing of Macbeth’s death during his reign.
This soliloquy has dark imagery: “bloody instructions,” “deep damnation,” and a “poisoned chalice.” It suggests that Macbeth is aware of how the murder would open the door to a dark and sinful world. At the same time, he admits that his only reason for committing murder, “ambition,” suddenly seems an insufficient justification for the act; he asserts that ambition only leads to failure, or “o’erleaps itself and falls on the other.” Macbeth appears to have come to a tentative decision not to carry out this plot, or at least that it is a monumentally bad