"We will proceed no further in this business. / He hath honored me of late, and I have bought / golden opinions from all sorts of people."
~Macbeth on The Murder of Duncan
When Macbeth is first confronted by his wife about murdering Duncan so he may become king, he is tentative yet agrees. While Duncan is having dinner at Macbeth's table, Lady Macbeth finds Macbeth and he says that they are not to go through with it. It seems as though Macbeth's conscience has taken over and he has realized that killing Duncan is wrong and immoral. However, after the peristance and persuasion of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth gives in and follows through with the plan. So the question is: Is Macbeth fully responsible for the killing of Duncan? Macbeth was feeling qualms when he was fully confronted with the deed he was about to commit, as exemplified in the quote above. Macbeth discusses how can not go through with it because Duncan was so good to him. Macbeth most likely was under an unimaginable amount of stress and guilt, and decided to call it off. In the beginning, his guilty conscience was a godsend, it almost kept him from doing something that would haunt him throughout the rest of the play. Except, Macbeth chose to ignore his original feelings of guilt, and had it not been for his persistent, power-hungry, misleading wife none of this would have happened. There is a clear connection between guilt and repsonsibility, a guilty conscience will normally lead one in the right direction, thus removing them from repsonsibility. However, in this case with his wife as a catalyst, guilt only drives Macbeth to make rash decisions. Therefore, for Macbeth guilt is a harmful emotion, and leads him in the wrong direction. Giving guilt and guilty conscience a completely new meaning.
ACT I-The Beginning of Corruption
The Murder of King Duncan
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