Macbeth’s long journey towards possessing the throne travels through many high hurdles. The first hurdle, which is a sign for further hurdles, is the murder of Duncan the king. The build-up to the killing of Duncan begins with the witches prophesying that Macbeth will be king. Macbeth wants to fulfil this prophecy due to his high ambitions. However, the prophecy is fulfilled only because Lady Macbeth leads her husband through the barriers. It is Macbeth’s wife who causes the death of Duncan.

Lady Macbeth acts as Macbeth’s superior while the murder of Duncan occurs. Lady Macbeth has high ambitions for her husband. She understands that Macbeth has a lust for the throne. However, she fears that her husband would have trouble when attempting to murder Duncan and covet the throne because she regards Macbeth as “full o’ the milk of human kindness”. Since Lady Macbeth knows that her husband would never be able to perform such a task, she decides to control the procedures of the murdering of Duncan. She demands that “direst cruelty” contaminate her. She congregates everything that is evil inside her body in order to perform the evil deed of murdering Duncan. If Lady Macbeth is absent from the story, the murder of Duncan would not take place. This is so because during many parts of the story, Macbeth possesses uncertainty of whether it is righteous to take the life of such a great king in order to feed his hunger for power. Despite Macbeth doubting whether or not he should accept the murder of Duncan, he is always convinced by his wife that murdering Duncan is appropriate. Lady Macbeth even sees her husband’s weaknesses and uses his weaknesses to harass him into killing Duncan. This can be observed when, at one stage, Macbeth criticises the idea of killing a good king and believes that the killing should not proceed, his wife forces him to kill by saying offensive words. She questions Macbeth’s love for her, she questions Macbeth’s masculinity and she criticises Macbeth’s desire to be king. These three statements offend Macbeth. Because Macbeth wants to prove his manhood, his love for his wife and his desire to be king, he agrees to murder Duncan. Also, after the murder, Macbeth is worried and conscious of his guilt. On the contrary, Lady Macbeth is calm about the murder. She orders Macbeth to “wash this filthy guilt” from his hands. Lady Macbeth is portrayed as the dominant one out of the couple as Macbeth’s actions are responses to Lady Macbeth’s orders. Macbeth is unaware of his behaviour during the murder of Duncan. It is Lady Macbeth who gives him the instructions. Therefore, it is obvious that Lady Macbeth acts as Macbeth’s superior during the murder of Duncan.

In committing the murder of Duncan, Macbeth is somewhat influenced by the witches. The motivation to become king originates from the prophecies of the witches. The concept of having a good chance to covet the throne is brought to Macbeth when the witches address Macbeth as “Thane of Glamis”, “Thane of Cawdor” and “King hereafter”. The final address is the prophecy that Macbeth will be king. The witches’ prophecies are also the beginning of Macbeth’s long journey towards possessing the throne. Macbeth believes in the prophecies of the witches. This is so because the witches are supernatural characters that have special powers. These special powers allow them to perform deeds that humans cannot perform. The members of the audience learn about the witches’ powers when they send wind to force a woman’s sailor husband to face a tough journey because the woman has upset the witches. Because the witches possess unnatural powers, it is rational to believe that they can see the future. Hence, it is logical for Macbeth to have absolute trust in the witches’ prophecies. Due to the fact that Macbeth believes in the witches’ prophecies, his motive to become king is brought up by the witches. He may have thought of taking over Duncan’s throne, but it is the witches that give him the concept that he has the chance obtain the throne. Therefore, the witches somewhat influence Macbeth’s murder of Duncan.

Macbeth’s ambitions do not drive him a significant distance towards committing the murder of Duncan. His “Vaulting ambition” to become king contributes a little to his murder of Duncan because he needs a “spur” to push him into murdering Duncan. His ambitions alone do not get him to kill Duncan because at one stage, Macbeth decides that his ambition to be king is to be achieved by luck. He even gathers that chance may crown him without his efforts. Without the support of other stimulants, it would be difficult for Macbeth to murder Duncan. Macbeth’s ambitions only put him on the road towards getting the throne. His ambitions also indicate the direction that he will be travelling towards. However, his ambitions take him nowhere. Hence, it is true that his ambitions do not drive him a significant distance.

In committing the murder of Duncan, influential factors including Lady Macbeth, the witches and Macbeth’s own ambitions each have different amounts of influence on Macbeth. The dominance of Lady Macbeth is the most influential factor of Macbeth’s murder of Duncan, followed by the witches and Macbeth’s ambitions. This is so because Macbeth’s ambitions only give him the idea of becoming king, while the witches’ prophecies notify Macbeth that there is a large probability for him to become king. Lady Macbeth’s dominance over her husband is the most influential factor for Duncan’s murder because she is the one who gets Macbeth up and working, without his lady, it seems unlikely that Macbeth would kill Duncan.

Macbeth’s murder of Duncan is influenced by the dominance of his wife, the witches and his own ambitions.