The downfall of Macbeth was a great tragedy. He knew it was not right to kill
the king, but he felt he had no other choice. He was trapped into doing wrong.
Lady Macbeth gave him the evil ideas throughout the play. She was his driving
force. Without her, Macbeth wouldn’t have done what he did. Therefore, Lady
Macbeth is as much of a main character as Macbeth is. Macbeth says, “Stars,
hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires”(1.4.57-58). Here
he is expressing that while he does want to become king and may have a few evil
thoughts of how to achieve that dream, he does not plan to act on them. It is
not until Lady Macbeth talks to him that he is a bit more convinced. Speaking of
King Duncan, she states, “O, never shall sun that morrow see!” (1.5.71-72),
basically ordering Macbeth to murder him in their own house. Lady Macbeth is
obviously the evil one. That is apparent when she gets Macbeth’s letter and
responds by saying, “Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full of the milk of
human kindness”(1.5.16-17). This shows that she knows Macbeth will not murder
Duncan on his own. She takes matters into her own hands and decides to convince
him. Macbeth opens scene seven by giving a long list of reasons not to kill King
Duncan. He is his ruler and kinsman, his guest, and a virtuous king. With this
list of reasons Macbeth slowly convinces himself not to commit the murder. He
then informs Lady Macbeth of his decision to “proceed no further in this
business”(1.7.34). Lady Macbeth challenges that and calls him a coward, not a
man. She accuses him of going back on his sworn word to her, and with very
violent language declares that she would dash out the brains of her own baby,
had she promised to as Macbeth had promised to kill Duncan. She then assures
Macbeth that failure is impossible, at which point Macbeth is convinced once
again to kill the king. Macbeth had resolved not to kill the king after much
thinking about it, but Lady Macbeth persuaded him to do it. Not only did Lady
Macbeth convince her husband to murder King Duncan, but she also made the
arrangements to make it possible. At the beginning of Act two, scene two Lady
Macbeth informs us that the guards are thoroughly intoxicated. She goes on to
say, “I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ‘em”(2.2.15-16). Lady
Macbeth made all the arrangements necessary for the murder of King Duncan, so
that all Macbeth had to do was perform the act. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth
convinced Macbeth to murder Duncan, convinced him again when he was unsure, and
made all the proper arrangements which is why Lady Macbeth is as much of a main
character of the play as Macbeth himself is. Macbeth did not want to murder
Duncan in the first place until his wife talked him into it. Then, when he
changed his mind, Lady Macbeth taunted him until he agreed once again to murder
the king. Finally, Lady Macbeth made sure that everything was set up for the
murder. On the surface it would appear that Macbeth was responsible for the
murder since he committed the crime, but when more is read into it, it becomes
clear that Lady Macbeth was more responsible.