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Contribution Of The Witches And Lady Macbeth's Resolve To Murder Duncan

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Contribution Of The Witches And Lady Macbeth's Resolve To Murder Duncan
How influential are the witches and Lady Macbeth on Macbeth's resolve to murder Duncan and achieve the Kingship of Scotland?

In William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth', undoubtably the three witches and Lady Macbeth played an important role in influencing Macbeth's resolve to murder King Duncan. However Macbeth's own ambition had also helped him to become the King of Scotland.

Macbeth's own ambition was deeply influenced by the three witches. When the three witches first met Macbeth, they enlightened Macbeth with three prophecies: "All hail Macbeth, Thane of Glamis;Thane of Cawdor; That shalt be king hereafter." Macbeth didn't believe them in the beginning, as to why he would be the Thane of Cawdor and the King. However as the first two prophecies came true, Macbeth's ambition started to build up and he started to think of different ways to make the third prophecy come true, including to murder King Duncan. Macbeth thought "why do I yield to that suggestion" of murdering King Duncan, he was horrify by what he was imagining. It is doubtful that Macbeth would have murdered King Duncan without the push given by the witches’ predictions.
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When Lady Macbeth revealed her thoughts of Macbeth, she stated that "Art nor without ambition, but without the illness to attend to it..." Lady Macbeth knew that Macbeth was too kind and she was worried that he might miss a chance of being the King of Scotland. So later on, Lady Macbeth convinced Macbeth to murder King Duncan by challenging his manhood and telling him that what would she do if she was his position. At the end, Macbeth listened to his wife, he murdered King Duncan and framed the two guards. Lady Macbeth acted as a catalyst for Macbeth and without her influences on Macbeth, the third prophecy would never come

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