Macbeth Group

Question:

charlotte123
charlotte123
Student
High School - 12th Grade

Which lines in "Macbeth" suggest that he is planning to kill King Duncan?

Rate question:

Posted by charlotte123 on Tuesday January 6, 2009 at 3:15 AM and tagged with act one, duncan, fantastical, horrid image, macbeth, murder, shakespeare, witches.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    eNotes Editor

    When the witches prophecy that Macbeth will be king, he desperately wants to know how it will happen:

    The Thane of Cawdor lives,
    A prosperous gentleman; and to be King
    Stands not within the prospect of belief,
    No more than to be Cawdor.
                       (Act One, Scene Three)

    And then, in the soliloquy at the end of the same scene, he talks about the "horrid image", which - I think - refers to murdering Duncan:

    Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
    And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
    Against the use of nature?

    The same speech continues with an admission that he has a fantastic murder in his mind already:

    My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical...

    Lady Macbeth has exactly the same thought when she reads the letter: and this is where Macbeth and Lady M openly admit what they plan to do:

    MACBETH:
    Duncan comes here tonight.

    LADY M:
    And when goes hence?

    MACBETH:
    Tomorrow, as he purposes.

    LADY M:
    O, never
    Shall sun that morrow see!

    Hope it helps!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text/act-i-scene-iii
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text/act-i-scene-v

    Rate answer:

    Posted by robertwilliam on Tuesday January 6, 2009 at 3:32 AM