I would describe my overall experience in reading Macbeth as fascinating. I was fascinated to read how a man of such high standing and courage could turn into a wimp and rely on his wife to clean the blood and to take control both after he killed Duncan and then again at the banquet when he hallucinates and believes Banquo is sitting in his chair. I was also interested in how Lady Macbeth was able to control Macbeth in the beginning, but once he had the taste of killing his friends, she lost control.

Destiny: How much it played a role in this play! I think fate played a tremendous role in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s lives. Meeting the witches on the heath was fate and then Macbeth’s willingness to believe what they predict led to his destiny of falling from grace and becoming a cold-blooded killer. I think that Lady Macbeth’s destiny was decided once she became determined to kill Duncan, and then her conscience would not let her rest and she could not get the blood off her hands so she killed herself.

Lady Macbeth versus Macbeth. I think that Lady Macbeth was the force behind Macbeth’s fall from grace as she is the one who goaded him and pushed him to kill Duncan. Many times Macbeth protested because he respected Duncan and Duncan was also his cousin, but Lady Macbeth forced him to do the deed. She even tried to kill Duncan herself as he slept, but she could not do it because he reminded her of her own father. Macbeth, who was supposedly a courageous and loyal warrior lost everything by being too ambitious and taking the easy way to the crown. I think that Macbeth was not as strong a character as his wife because he relied on her too much in the beginning, and then he got completely out of control and relied on the witches.

 One setting in the play that made me uneasy was when Lady Macduff and her son were left alone in the castle and the murderers came. This was quite shocking and it was different to the other murders as Lady Macduff and her son were innocent victims that Macbeth chose to destroy in a bid to hurt Macduff. It is particularly disturbing when the murderer says, “What you egg!/Young fry of treachery! (stabbing him) and the son replying, “He has killed my mother: Run away. I pray you! (dies)” (IVII. Line 81-83).  Changes I would make to the play would be I would add something about Fleance and how grew up and became a strong and good warrior like his father, Banquo. I would even like to add where Felance becomes King of Scotland because Malcolm is killed in battle.