Macbeth LRJ 1

Macbeth is an honorable man with good intentions. However, his great love for his wife blinds him from her not-so-honorable actions and he allows himself to be led into an awful situation that might possibly lead to his downfall. “Yet I do fear thy [Macbeth’s] nature;/ it is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” (Shakespeare 31). Lady Macbeth is not an evil woman, but she has enormous ambition for herself and for her husband. She won’t allow anything to get in her way, and even asks the spirits to make her less gentle and more ruthless. “Come, your spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/ And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty…” (Shakespeare 33). Banquo, the commander of the king’s army, seems like an upstanding, moral man who puts his duty before all else. He is loyal to the king and to Macbeth. “Noble Banquo,/ That hast no less deserved nor must be known/ No less to have done so, let me enfold thee/ And hold thee to my heart” (Shakespeare 27).
There are several important themes in Act I. Mystery and danger play a large part, especially in the first scene with the witches. They all chant “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,/ Hover through the fog and filthy air” (Shakespeare 7). Macbeth and Banquo stumble upon them and hear their prophecies, which introduces the next theme of betrayal. When Macbeth hears “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (Shakespeare 17) the idea to murder the king is planted in his and his wife’s minds.
One of the most striking images in Act I is when Lady Macbeth declares “I would, while it was smiling in my face,/ Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/ And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn to you” (Shakespeare 43). This reference to smashing a baby’s head is important because it both expresses Lady Macbeth’s utter devotion to her husband, and the suggestion of the beginnings of insanity.