The Third Murderer 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. The first piece of evidence that proves Lady Macbeth is the third murderer is that she showed signs of her wanting to be more masculine. Men were more related to being …show more content…
When she is seen sleep walking she says, “What will these hands ne’er be clean? […} Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave” (70). This quote shows that her hands are not clean which means that she has blood on her hands. This could mean that she just feels guilty for persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan. But she does end up killing herself later on in the book because of this guilt, which leads me to make the assumption that her guilt was from the murders that she committed when she was the third murderer. She does also make the motion of washing her hands but her hands cannot be cleaned which shows that she has more guilt. This evidence shows that she is the third murderer because it is unlikely that the guilt of convincing Macbeth to kill is enough to make her kill herself. Which is why I believe that she was third murderer because that would have given her even more guilt which would ultimately lead to her killing herself. Lady Macbeth is a strong character in this play and with these pieces of evidence she is shown to be an even stronger character. She is the third murderer because she wants to cruel like a man, she convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan, and she shows signs of extreme guilt which ultimately leads to her death. This makes Lady Macbeth a stronger character and shows why she committed
There is much speculation as to who the third murderer is who assisted in the slaying of Banquo. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and one of the Weird sisters are a few of the best candidates as to filling this role. Each of these three main characters has their own motive as to why they would want to join in on the assassination. Out of these three possibilities of filling this third murderer's role, all have reasons as to why they could or could not fill the position.
She also asks them to give her the strength to kill Duncan, she just wants to get on and do it without feeling guilty. At the end of the scene she takes full control of the situation, and Macbeth seems glad to let her have the responsibility.
In regards to Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth demonstrates her tragic flaw in her conscious suppression of her muliebrity and her subconscious support of it. In Act I scene 5, she receives a letter from Macbeth. When she hears about the prophecy, she considers killing Duncan to gain power for the first time. Lady Macbeth is too gentle Lady Macbeth has a glorified idea of what it means to be masculine, so she thinks that she could achieve more without her femininity. Consciously, she wishes to be, “top-full/of direst cruelty,” (I.v.48-50).
After the death of King Duncan, Macbeth becomes the more controlling one, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually becomes too much for her to handle which leads to her death. Lady Macbeth is in fact the one that performs the preparations for the murder of King Duncan, but still shows some signs of humanity by not committing the murder herself because he resembles "My father as he slept". After the murder has been committed, she also shows signs of being a strong person because she calms Macbeth down in order to keep him from going insane.
Lady Macbeth was a small but very important part of the play Macbeth. She is always on the side of Macbeth telling him what she thinks he should do. When Macbeth was off at war, and told lady Macbeth that the witches greeted him as Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland before he received those titles, she was probably scheming no how to fulfill those before he returned home. Once home, they had King Duncan stay at Dunsinane. Lady Macbeth then b-tches at her husband and ridicules his masculinity in order to make him commit murder (Friedlander). Macbeth reluctantly murders Duncan, even though he wanted to wait and have it all play out without killing anyone. When he went to the well to wash off his hands he speaks of his remorse, and lady Macbeth finds out that he did not implicate the guards, so she tells him to go do it. But he wont, so she insults him more, and goes to do it herself.
The first person to come to mind when the identity of the Third Murderer is discussed, is Macbeth himself. Who better to carry out the murder Macbeth ordered than by he himself? As stated by an anonymous author on a newsgroup, "I believe it was Macbeth because of the visions he saw of the ghost of Banquo. Without being told of what they had done to Banquo, Macbeth pictured almost the exact things in which they killed him by. How could he have know this if he weren't there?" (mason from Australia). However, there are contradictions that rule out Macbeth as the possible Third Murderer. First, the very first line said by the First Murderer is, "But who did bid thee join with us?" (III, iii, 79) and the response by the Third Murderer is simply, "Macbeth" (III, iii, 79). This implies that the Murderer was recognized, but it was not Macbeth himself. If it were Macbeth, the First killer would not have asked, "who bid thee join us?" If it were Macbeth, they would have asked, "Why?" not, "Who?" The First Murderer goes on to ask the Third Murderer to stand with them, but if the Murderer were Macbeth, the First Murderer wo...
To conclude, Lady Macbeth is a multifaceted character, her persona having many sides; notably: genuine goodness towards her husband, coy manipulation, and femininity. It is therefore inaccurate to define her as purely evil; despite the means by which she desires to accomplish her fantastical end. For all Lady Macbeth’s drive and determination, she eventually loses her dominant role, captive until her demise to her inescapable femininity.
William Shakespeare's play Macbeth is a five-act drama that shows a clear example of how pride, greed, and power can alter a man's actions and personality. The taste of power blinds the story's main character, Macbeth. Sparked by Lady Macbeth, he becomes heartless and cruel as he kills anyone who is a threat to his power due to his paranoia of losing the throne. This fear ironically leads to his downfall and loss of the throne. The theme of the story is deceit and evil and how they affect a man's decisions. Critics pose interesting views concerning the identity and significance of the mysterious third murderer.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth tells the story of a general who commits regicide in order to become king. Early in the play, Macbeth is conflicted as to weather or not he wants to kill his kinsman the king. In the first two acts Macbeth is not portrayed as a ruthless killer; he is a sympathetic character who succumbs to the provocation of his wife and a prophecy foretold by three mysterious witches. In contrast, Lady Macbeth is a manipulative, immoral woman. Her ambition is so strong that she is willing to do anything to see her husband succeed. However, in the third act things begin to change. The death of the king and lord and lady Macbeth’s rise to power catalyze profound transformation in their personalities.
“When you first do it, then you were a man, And to be more than what you were, you would, be so much more the man” (I. VII, 54-56). After struggling with the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth is reprimanded by Lady Macbeth for his lack of courage. She informs him that killing the king will make him a man, insinuating that he isn’t a man if he doesn’t go through with the murder. This develops Lady Macbeth as a merciless, nasty, and selfish woman. She will say, or do anything to get what she desires, even if it means harming others.
The story of Lady Macbeth throughout Macbeth is one unlike those of its time in its unusually forward-thinking portrayal of a woman with thoughts and actions which would have been considered indecent. This is seen through the representation of her relationship with Macbeth and how they interact. It is also illustrated through Lady Macbeth’s morals and their effect on how she acts and reacts in situations which would weigh heavily on most peoples’ conscious. Her power-hungry attitude is one often reserved for men, especially in this era of literature. All of these factors create a character in Lady Macbeth which is dissimilar to the classic portrayal of women in the seventeenth century.
Even though Lady Macbeth helped to plot Duncan's murder, stereotypes of men and women in the time period make the men not expect and act of murder from a woman.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a dark, conniving force, hindering Macbeth’s wishes to do well by the king and influencing his malicious conspiracies and actions taken towards King Duncan and his comrades. Lady Macbeth as the lady of Dunsinane is entitled to many things. This often gives her an unfair advantage on her actions that others would not have, it does not help that when Lady Macbeth is given the title of queen she is given more power to affect the life of the others around her. Whether Lady Macbeth is manipulating Macbeth into a murder plot of feeding into his sadistic killing spree there is no doubt about Lady Macbeth is an evil character.
Characters in Macbeth frequently dwell on issues of gender. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be ?unsexed,? and does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her should give birth only to boys. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to murder, Mac...
I will examine to what extent Lady Mcbeth is to blame for her husband 's downfall. I believe she is the one to blame for Mcbeths downfall .Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and scary female characters. 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 horribly 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. .