The influence of the witches and Lady Macbeth The last person you would expect to encourage you to commit a crime would be your wife. Macbeth is motivated by his wife and three witches and gradually becomes more ruthless, evil, and murderous as the play progresses. Lady Macbeth is first introduced in Act 1, scene 5: reading a letter received from Macbeth describing his meeting with the witches, and the prophecies they had given him. Lady Macbeth is very ambitious; he believes that Macbeth is too kind and loyal to take the steps necessary to become king. "Yet I fear your nature; it is too full of the milk of human kindness to take the nearest road." Lady Macbeth exploits Macbeth's weaknesses to convince him to kill King Duncan: she challenges his manhood "When you dared to do it, then you were a man." “You esteem the ornament of life, and live cowardly in self-esteem.” He tries to make him feel guilty: Macbeth promised to kill Duncan but he changes his mind. “What beast was not, then made me fail this undertaking” In Macbeth the witches are shown as evil, devious and cruel. “Here I have a pilot's thumb, destroyed, on his way home.” The witches play an important role in convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan. They give Macbeth and Bonquo ​​three prophecies: "all hail Macbeth, hail to thee, lord of Cawdor" "all hail, Macbeth who shall be king henceforth" "thou shalt obtain king, though not be." Bonquo ​​does not take these prophecies seriously, but Macbeth shows some ambition for power. "If chance wants me to be king, well, chance will crown me." Macbeth becomes increasingly dependent on the witches. In Act 4 Scene 1 Macbeth returns to the strange sisters, asking what the future will bring. The witches gave him three prophecies: "Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware of Macduff, beware of the lord of Fife." “None born of woman shall harm Macbeth” “Macbeth shall never be defeated till Great Birnam Wood unto the high hill of Dunsinane.” As the play progresses, Macbeth gets worse. He becomes more ruthless, evil and murderous. After killing Duncan, Macbeth feels remorse and guilt. "To know my deeds, it would be better not to know myself. Wake Duncan with your knocking! I wish you could." Not being able to return to Duncan's room and place the knives is a demonstration of weakness and remorse.