Macbeth
Prompt #3 · Macbeth
Prompt Type: Scene Analysis
In Act I, Scene 7, Macbeth delivers a soliloquy weighing the consequences of murdering Duncan, recognizing that he violates sacred bonds as Duncan's kinsman, subject, and host. Analyze how Shakespeare uses this moment to reveal the conflict between ambition and conscience that defines Macbeth's character. Explain how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.
Quote 1
Act I, Scene 7
Argument
This opening line of the soliloquy uses parallelism and conditional syntax to expose Macbeth's attempt to rationalize murder through speed and efficiency, revealing how ambition seeks to bypass moral deliberation even as conscience forces him to weigh consequences.
Quote 2
“Besides, this Duncan / Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been / So clear in his great office, that his virtues / Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against / The deep damnation of his taking-off;”
Act I, Scene 7
Argument
The personification of Duncan's virtues as 'angels, trumpet-tongued' against 'deep damnation' dramatizes the conscience side of Macbeth's internal conflict, showing his acute awareness of the sacred bonds he violates as kinsman, subject, and host.
Quote 3
Act I, Scene 7
Argument
Lady Macbeth's response to Macbeth's soliloquy uses metaphor to externalize the ambition that ultimately overrides his conscience, demonstrating how the scene functions as the pivotal moment where external pressure tips the balance against Macbeth's moral reasoning.
Quote 4
“I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’ other—”
Act I, Scene 7
Argument
This quote from the same soliloquy uses the metaphor of 'vaulting ambition' that 'o'erleaps itself' to crystallize the central conflict—Macbeth recognizes ambition as his only motive, yet the image of overleaping and falling reveals his awareness that unchecked ambition leads to self-destruction, showing conscience still operating even as he names what will override it.
Quote 5
“Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:— / I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.”
Act II, Scene 1
Argument
The dagger vision immediately precedes the soliloquy in the same act, using supernatural imagery to externalize the psychological conflict between ambition (the dagger beckoning him forward) and conscience (his recognition that 'I have thee not' reveals the murder as illusory, not inevitable), establishing the mental state that the soliloquy will articulate in moral terms.