Act 1, Scene 7

Summary

Macbeth talks himself out of killing Duncan (soliloquy)
Lady Macbeth enters and Macbeth expresses his concerns with the plan
She talks to him in fury, impatient due to his doubts and pressures him into committing to the murder

'If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly.'

If the murder has to be done, it will have to be done quickly to get it over and done with
Shows his reluctance and hesitation towards the murder
Shows Macbeth’s character isn’t malicious at all

'Could trammel up the consequence'

The murder will come with consequences after and may cause a chain of events that are out of his control
Foreshadowing the death of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (the consequences)
Macbeth is more worried about the things that come after the murder than the murder itself - exhibiting the fact that he is merciful and only had ambition to blame for even considering the murder in the first place.
‘trammel up’ - catch in a net (receiving consequences).

'return To plague the inventor'

'poison’d chalice'

'I am his kinsman’

Duncan trusts Macbeth and it is important to be a good host - ‘as his host’ also reflects this.
Showing that Macbeth is too kind to hurt someone who trusts him.
In Greek tragedy, it is worse to hurt a guest than to kill your own family - casts Macbeth as the hero rather than the villain, disregarding his future actions.

‘prick’

‘no spur’

He wants no influence to murder Duncan now as he has realised that it comes with terrible consequences.
However, he potentially secretly wants influence - which will be Lady Macbeth’s manipulation - showing his hamartia is his own desire to meet his fate rather than ambition, even though he sure it will lead to failure.

‘Vaulting ambition’

His ambition may be the only thing that is for him murdering Duncan, but it overcomes all the other reasons.
Macbeth compares his ambition to a horsemen who tries to vault on the saddle but falls - he knows his ambition and the murder will lead to a metaphorical fall, foreshadowing his death.
He will fail - has decided that he won’t go through with it.

'We will proceed no further in this business'

‘Golden opinions’

People like Macbeth and he doesn’t want to ruin his reputation that he has earned.

‘valour’

The word used by Lady Macbeth to pick on his bravery and make him seem less masculine due to the fact that he is apprehensive.

‘What beast was‘t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me?’

She strips away all of his status and suggest that if he doesn’t fulfil his promise to her, then it makes him less of a human.

‘you’

When Lady Macbeth finds out that Macbeth doesn’t want to go through with the murder, she switches from the pronoun ‘thou’ to ‘you’, showing that it makes him less of what he used to be.
The word thou is also used a lot in romantic poetry and stories, and is a lot less possessive than the pronoun ‘you’. This expresses her loss of love towards him if he doesn’t go through with the murder (manipulating him) and the fact that whilst she is overwhelmed with greed, she doesn’t love him at all and is focussed on manipulating him to murder. This is a manipulation tactic that she has planned to use prior - she shared with the audience that she planned to manipulate Macbeth in this way during her soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5.

‘dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn to you’

She is saying that she would have bashed her own child’s head against the wall if she had promised Macbeth to - that’s how much him and promises mean to her.
Manipulating Macbeth by saying that she would’ve kept a promise to him even if it was terrible, but he can’t keep his one promise to her, which is to murder Duncan.
Makes Macbeth feel bad for not keeping the promise, and pressures him into going through with it.
The audience would be shocked at the lengths Lady Macbeth is going to for the crown - she is willing to make Macbeth feel bad in the process and completely disregard his emotions.
The promise is serious.

‘put upon His spongy officers’

Blame the murder on his drunk chamberlains.
As Lady Macbeth is overwhelmed with greed, she is selfish and willing to blame the murder on others.
The audience will now loathe Lady Macbeth as she has brought more innocents into the situation, and doesn’t care to think about the consequences they will face.

‘daggers’

Uses a lot of language connected with alchemy - alchemists never succeed therefore showing that her story won’t have a good ending.
She rejects her femininity and tries to show how remorseless and evil she is.

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