Shakespeare created the character Lady Macbeth, arguably his most evil female character. Throughout the years there have been many adaptations of the text. Lady Macbeth is a central figure to the play. The courageous, ambitious and premeditated woman is driven to a deed that leads to the destruction of the ‘Divine Right of kings’ and alternatively her own destruction. As the play unfolds we see many different aspects of Lady Macbeth’s character. In act 1 scene 5 Lady Macbeth is reading a letter, which she received from her husband, the letter contains information about Macbeth becoming Thane of Cawdor. Lady Macbeth knows that her husband “is too full o ' th ' milk of human kindness ” this quotation is a metaphor which suggests that Macbeth …show more content…
One of the main techniques she uses is emotional blackmail. “Was the hope drunk wherein you dress’d yourself” she is emasculating Macbeth and speaking to him like a naughty child. We can infer that lady Macbeth is a courageous woman that will stop at nothing to get what she may please. Lady Macbeth provokes her husband and eventually convinces him to take on the “horrid deed.” A Jacobean audience would see their relationship as unusual because in those days men were always superior to women but in this situation Lady Macbeth is being the more dominant figure in their …show more content…
We notice that Macbeth is very distressed because of what he has done but Lady Macbeth tells him to stop bemoaning over the deed he has carried out “I shame to wear a heart so white” suggests Macbeth is cowardly. In this sense we can see that Lady Macbeth is heartless. “What hath quench’d them hath given me fire” from this we can imply that Lady Macbeth feels unbeatable at this point in the play. Lady Macbeth does not understand the gravity of the situation, to her it is all a game. She feels a tiny bit of tenderness as we find out that Duncan is actually her uncle, she was going to kill Duncan but never could because he looked too much like her father, we notice this through the euphemisms that her and Macbeth use. The euphemisms such as “deed” show that they cannot bring themselves to admit they have killed the king. They have both realised that they have committed a sin against God. Macbeth is mentally scarred, he believes that he has “murdered sleep” his emotions make him acknowledge the fact that he will never be able to rest easy in his own bed again “Glams hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more” this is ironic because later on in the play Lady Macbeth is the one who “shall sleep no more” as the power of guilt finally breaks her
In Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the third murderers identity is unknown and it is never revealed at the end of the play. But there are some clues throughout the story that suggests Lady Macbeth could be the unknown third murderer. Lady Macbeth could be the third murderer in Macbeth because she shows signs of wanting to be like a man, she is the one that influenced Macbeth to kill Duncan, and because she shows signs of extreme guilt later in the story. With these three pieces of evidence, Lady Macbeth is shown to be the third murderer in Macbeth.
After Lady Macbeth reads his letter and Macbeth arrives home, she is excited about becoming queen. She asks Macbeth when King Duncan is to be arriving and tells Macbeth to leave the plan up to her, his only job being that he has to look innocent and hide their true intentions. Macbeth seems to be stunned and nervous, telling his wife that they will talk later when she begins to tell him of her plan. In the seventh scene, at the castle, Macbeth speaks of the intense guilt he is feeling even before he is to kill Duncan; “… this even-handed justice/ Commends the ingredients of our poisoned/ Chalice to our own lips…” (1. 7. 10-12) (Shakespeare), “… He’s here in double trust…” (1. 7. 12) (Shakespeare), “… Besides, this Duncan/ Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/ So clear in his great office…” (1. 7. 17-19)(Shakespeare) all express Macbeth’s discomfort with murdering Duncan to steal the throne. Not only does he convey these emotions during this monologue, but he does so when Lady Macbeth enters the room, saying “We will proceed no further in this business./ He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people…” (1. 7. 32-34) (Shakespeare). To respond to this, Lady Macbeth does what she does best: emasculating her husband. She first articulates her questioning of his manhood after she reads Macbeth’s letter in the first act when she says “Yet do I fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness…” (1. 5. 2-3) (Shakespeare), which contrasts with the heroic description the dying Captain gives of Macbeth in the opening scene. After Macbeth tells his wife that he is calling off the plan to kill King Duncan, she
Macbeth rejects conformation to traditional gender roles in its portrayal of Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband, her morals and their effect on her actions, and her hunger for power. Her regard for Macbeth is one of low respect and beratement, an uncommon and most likely socially unacceptable attitude for a wife to have towards her spouse at the time. She often ignores morality and acts for the benefit of her husband, and subsequently herself. She is also very power-hungry and lets nothing stand in the way of her success. Lady Macbeth was a character which challenged expectations of women and feminism when it was written in the seventeenth century.
Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime.
Lady Macbeth thinks that being gentle is a weakness. When she says Macbeth is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness,” she means that he is too gentle and weak to murder Duncan (Scott 37). For example, in Act II, Scene 2, Lines 57-74, Macbeth has trouble dealing with the guilt of committing such a crime. He immediately wishes Duncan were alive again.
As Macbeth becomes less dependent on his wife, she loses more control. She loses control of her husband, but mostly, of herself, proving her vacillating truth. Lady Macbeth’s character gradually disintegrates through a false portrayal of unyielding strength, an unsteady control of her husband and shifting involvement with supernatural powers.Throughout the duration of play Lady Macbeth’s truly decrepit and vulnerable nature is revealed. Lady Macbeth has been the iron fist and authority icon for Macbeth, yet deep down, she never carried such traits to begin with. This duality in Lady Macbeth’s character plays a huge role in planting the seed for Macbeth’s downfall and eventual demise.
On the level of human evil, Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth is about the character Macbeth's bloody rise to power, including the murder of the Scottish king, Duncan, and the guilt-ridden pathology of evil deeds generating still more evil deeds. Perhaps, the play's most memorable character is Lady Macbeth. Like her husband, Lady Macbeth's ambition for power leads her into an unnatural, phantasmagoric realm of witchcraft, insomnia and madness. But while Macbeth responds to the prophecies of the play's famous trio of witches, Lady Macbeth goes even further by figuratively transforming herself into an unnatural, desexualized evil spirit.
William Shakespeare's Macbeth has been a theatrical favorite since Elizabethan times. Its timeless themes of ambition, fate, violence, and insanity collaborate to produce a captivating plot. The audience traces the disintegration of a tragic hero and his willful wife. Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, plays an important role in the play Macbeth. She has a profound influence over the action of the play, and her character accentuates many of the themes. It seems evident that Lady Macbeth is motivated by repressed emotional complexes which lead to her insanity.
The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. It artfully takes its audience to a place that allows one to examine what a human being is truly capable of once tempted by the allure of power. In the play, Scottish noble Macbeth and his wife inevitably fall prey to their own self corruption. Initiated by prophesies made by three mysterious witches, the Macbeths set their sights on the throne. When the curtains open on the plot to murder King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is the driving force. Her criminal mind and desire for ruthlessness have led many a critic to define her as evil. Closer examination, however, reveals that she is a multifaceted character; other sides to her persona include: genuine good will towards her husband, coy manipulation, and feminine tenderness.
Initially, Lady Macbeth is introduced as a dominant, controlling, heartless wife with the ambition to achieve kingship for her husband. These words are characteristics of today’s woman. She does not let her husband run her life, but instead, a modern woman seeks the best for both herself and her husband. This weak, unsure, and unstable condition of Lady Macbeth, which is only revealed towards the end of the play, displays the characteristics of a woman from the Elizabethan times. However, the audience begins to see hints of this hidden nature by the way Macbeth addresses her.
So far, in the play, Lady Macbeth has been shown to be a very powerful and ambitious character. After reading Macbeth's letter, she says, "Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness that should attend it"(I.v 17-19), here, she is saying that he needs more evil or "illness" in him to become King, and therefore implies that she will "poison" him and give him the illness he needs to increase his ambition. Here she is also undermining her husband's authority (which is very unusual for a woman in the Elizabethan era) by saying he is unable to become a King, and is undermining his masculinity as she is thinking about things that a man would usually take charge of. To try to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan when the audience first see them meet on stage, she is very bold, "Your hand, you tongue, look like th'innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" (I.v 65-66), she shows her strong female identity, whose ambitions speak for her obsession with power.
Lady Macbeth’s wicked character has an extreme impact towards her husband. Lady Macbeth is responsible for influencing her husband to commit both crimes; she unleashes the dark side of him and motivates him to become an evil and horrendous man. In various parts throughout the story we find that Lady Macbeth strives beyond limits to be converted into a bitter and sour women. The audience is revolted by her horrific actions and although she may seem repugnant, she is an extremely talented actor. In her role, having a deceitful and convincing character is important
Lady Macbeth’s Feelings In William Shakespeare’s, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to become king, but in order to achieve this, she has to overcome the feeling of guilt and pain that she predicts to encounter. As they prepare for their plan to enact? Lady Macbeth braces herself: “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.
An analysis of Lady Macbeth reveals that she is a powerful character who adds complexity and depth to the play of murder, insanity and revenge. Due to Lady Macbeth’s ambition to become queen, she persuades her husband to murder king Duncan. She calls Macbeth a coward, believing that he is not worthy enough to match his actions with his wishes, telling him “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?”(I.vii.39-40). Lady Macbeth is trying to reveal the evil within her husband; she wants to provoke him into committing a murder so that Macbeth will be devoted to gaining control of Scotland. She is aware that she has control over her husband, which she is using against him.
Once she sets her aims/ambition high she knows in some way she can reach it, it also shows where her position in the relationship It shows that she is forcing/ordering Macbeth to be what she and the witches want him to be, which also says she is in touch with the supernatural side. Now we can see how manipulative this woman can be because she manipulates her husband into killing a king, which is treachery and could result in Macbeth being killed.