ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

FAMOUS PLAYWRIGHT POET AND OTHERS

MACBETH

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
Why didn’t Lady Macbeth murder King Duncan herself?
A
She isn’t heartless enough
B
He looked too much like her father
C
She couldn’t find a weapon
D
Macbeth got to him first
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -According to Lady Macbeth, Duncan looked like her own father. For instance, in the play, she says, “Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done’t” (2.2. 16-17). Thus, she didn’t want to kill Duncan because killing him would seem as if she killed her own father and that decision would give her nightmares.

Detailed explanation-2: -Lady Macbeth didn’t kill Duncan herself because he reminded her too much of her father.

Detailed explanation-3: -This short speech from Lady Macbeth in Act 2, scene 2 reveals two important facts: first, that Lady Macbeth has not helped kill Duncan after all, and second, that Duncan’s resemblance to her father prevented her from killing him.

Detailed explanation-4: -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. Macbeth enters. He’s killed Duncan and Duncan’s attendants.

Detailed explanation-5: -In lines 12 and 13, she says of Duncan, ‘’Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done’t. ‘’ The plan all along has been for Macbeth to murder Duncan, but here, Lady Macbeth indicates that she would have killed Duncan herself if he had not looked so much like her father.

There is 1 question to complete.