ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Lady Macbeth enters and tells her husband that the king has dined and that he has been asking for Macbeth. Macbeth declares that he no longer intends to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth, outraged, calls him a coward and questions his manhood: “When you durst do it, ” she says, “then you were a man” (1.7.49).

Detailed explanation-2: -Although Macbeth himself is responsible for King Duncan’s death, Lady Macbeth is an accessory to this murder. It was Lady Macbeth who had drugged the guards, put out the daggers, rang the bell to alert her husband, and most of all influenced Macbeth and fed him the plan.

Detailed explanation-3: -Lady Macbeth waits in agitation for Macbeth to kill Duncan. She comments that had the sleeping Duncan not looked like her father she would have killed him herself.

Detailed explanation-4: -Lady Macbeth is satisfied that Duncan was killed. She does not feel sorry for his death. She thinks that Macbeth is a coward and she went back and wiped the daggers on the clothes of the guards. She wanted the guards to look as if they killed Duncan.