How do the husband and wife react to the murder of their royal

How do the husband and wife react to the murder of their royal guest, Duncan ?

Ans.

Macbeth is horror-stricken

When Macbeth returns from the chamber in which he murdered king Duncan in sleep he speaks like one who feels that he is damned. The horror of the deed unsettles his mind and he hears voices and sees visions, all associated with his ghastly deed. He hears someone saying, ‘Sleep no more’ and that is exactly what he feels. He feels he has killed not so much a person called Duncan as his own sleep, physical rest and peace of mind. He becomes a victim of strange fears and horrors. He feels he cannot pray and say ‘Amen’. He is obsessed and overwhelmed with the feeling of sin which is irremediable. He grows eloquent upon the blessing of sleep which is not going to be enjoyed by him any longer, since only the innocent sleep well. He is so thoroughly upset that when his wife askes to go in and smear the grooms with blood, he refuses to do so and says,

I will go no more:

I am afraid to think what I have done

Look on it again I dare not.

Macbeth finally sums up his reaction in the words, “I would better forget myself if I were to know that I have done”, that is Macbeth’s reaction to his first crime of murdering king Duncan. It unsettles him because he looks back on it with fear. This is due to his rich imagination which points before him the ghastly picture of murder and the dangers of detection and exposure.

Lady Macbeth remains unmoved

Lady Macbeth, however, reacts very differently, He looks at the deed rationality and realistically. No sentiments disturb her placid, practical attitude. For her what is done is done; there is no use in weeping over it or getting nervous and afraid of it. Her outlook is confined to the present. The murder is done and the ways for sidetracking public opinion must be found out. Others must be suspected of having killed Duncan. And so she goes and smears the grooms with blood of Duncan spread over the dagger so that they will be suspected of murdering their master. And then the blood on the hands must be washed. And she says that a little water will clear their hands. And when her husband talks of the multitudinous seas being incarnadine, she dismisses it as stuff and nonsense. She tells her husband that the deed of ghastly murder must not be thought of in this sentimental manner. She is wholly practical, cool minded” and level-headed in this matter. She tries to hide the signs of guilt. tells her husband to get in and wear his night gown so that people will not know that they are keeping themselves awake at night. In short, Lady Macbeth is not at all afraid of the deed, nor does she sentimentalize over it. She will have to pay the price of such suppression and tension. But she is superb and sublime in her cool, calculating and fearless nivd for facing the ghastly deed viz, murder of noble King Duncan in her own cost.

Conclusion

The difference in the reactions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the murder of their guest, King Duncan is the difference of their characters; Macbeth is imaginative, nervous, irresolute while his wife is resolute, strong-willed and leaved headed.