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Shakespeare macbeth literary criticism
Critical review of macbeth
Shakespeare macbeth literary criticism
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Make a Macbeth Out of You
In Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, the viewer explores the inner workings of the human mind. Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s closest friend and wife, is a controversial character due to her ruthlessness, in some parts, and gentleness, in others. Through the juxtaposition of Lady Macbeth’s conscious and subconscious thoughts, Shakespeare highlights her tragic flaw, her suppression of her femininity.
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). Right after this, she tries to turn into a less feminine person on her own. Taking control, she manipulates Macbeth and calls him a coward, and really pushes the envelope on murdering Duncan. Lady Macbeth even tells Macbeth the plan and then says, “Leave all the rest to me,” (I. vi. 86). This is a clear gender role reversal and is the first time she tries to force herself into a non-feminine role. Lady Macbeth shows that she can take charge, but her business-like tone shows that she isn’t allowing her womanly side come out. In fact, while Lady Macbeth is ready to take charge, she has subconscious reservations. She is not able to kill Duncan herself, claiming that “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done’t,” (II.ii.16-17). While Macbeth isn’t questioning her ability, Lady Macbeth’s tone is defensive, showing that she is trying to convince herself of the same thing. This suggests that perhaps, subconsciously, she isn’t sure about killing Duncan. Outwardly, she is confident and determined, making a
During Duncan’s murder, she consciously suppresses her femininity, only to have it crop up in her sleepwalking. Right after Macbeth reemerges from the bedroom after killing Duncan, he talked about regretting his actions, and feeling as if he couldn’t right the wrongs he did. He even says that, “This my hand will rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine,” (II.ii.79-80). Macbeth is saying that his hand couldn’t be washed clean with all of the oceans, and if he tried, he would stain them red with blood. Clearly, he feels guilty about killing Duncan and believes that he will never do enough penance for it. His hand is a metaphor for his soul, and the seas represent small good deeds. No matter what he does, his soul will never be clean again. Lady Macbeth belittles his worries, seeming unbothered by the fact that she helped kill the king. Right after Macbeth finishes his tirade on his sins, she insists that, “A little water clear us of this deed.”(II.ii.86). Lady Macbeth appears to think that the murder wasn’t something to feel guilty about, and even if it was, a few good deeds would fix the mark of their souls. However, in her sleepwalking episode, her true feelings appear. She mindlessly rubs her hands and cries in her haze, “Here’s the smell of blood still. All/ the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little /hand.”(V.i.53-55). When she isn’t alert
In act 1, Lady Macbeth feels like she has to take the role being the “man” in the relationship and confidently tell Macbeth what to do constantly. She quotes, “Only look up clear. To alter favour ever is to fear. Leave all the rest to me ( Act 1 scene 5 line 78-80).” She pretty much hints that she will do everything and all Macbeth has to actually do is do it and follow through with her plan. She was the one to tell Macbeth to kill Duncan, and wanted for them to take her femininity away so she can play part in the murderous scene. While, Macbeth is very unsure about her decision; Lady Macbeth feels very confident and devoted in her course of action.
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 takes the role of the dominant partner in the beginning of the play, by acting as the real power behind the throne. For example, it is easily recognized that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are opposite in many ways (Scott 236). He is weak, indecisive, and takes on the traditional female role of the marriage; she is strong, decisive, and takes on the traditional male role. One place in the play where Macbeth’s character is shown is Act I, Scene 5, Lines 15-17. She says, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promis’d : yet do I fear thy nature / Is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.” This is just after Lady Macbeth receives the letter from Macbeth. It is also important to notice that when Macbeth’s first thoughts of killing Duncan appear, he is scared. After he commits the murder, Macbeth says, “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself ” ( 2. 2. 72 ). Knowing that he has committed such a vile act makes him uncomfortable. It will be difficult to act innocent and deal with his guilt.
Not much further in the play, we see that Macbeth decides not to murder Duncan but rather, carry on serving as his Thane. However, Lady Macbeth starts her persuasion again, but this time she questions his manhood, saying "When you durst do it, then you were a man: And to be more then what you were you would be so much more the man." (1.7.49-51). Had she not challenged his manhood and his love for her, he would not have usurped the throne and she would not have become a Queen. Not only did she get him to think about the murder, she even knew what to say after he had started thinking about the murder.
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.
Shakespeare leads use to think that with traditional gender roles in place between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, Macbeth would have never descended into murderous insanity. When we are first introduced to Lady Macbeth, it is evident that she holds the more dominant role in the relationship. An example of the this is act 1 scene 7, which is directly after Lady Macbeth has read Macbeth’s letter describing the witch’s prophecies. The first effort she makes to convince him to kill Duncan is to taunt him, “Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valor/ As thou art in desire?”(1.7.43-45). She then continues to questions his manhood, “ What beast was’t/ then, / That made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were man”(1.7.53-56). Meanwhile, Macbeth does not want to kill Duncan, “We will proceed no further in this business”(1.7.34). But, in the end, his resistance is no match for Lady Macbeth’s domineering jabs. However, if the conventional gender roles were in place, then Macbeth would have ended the conversation with the aforementioned statement. Moreover, he would not kill Duncan, and would not die a horrible and tragic death. Also, Lady Macbeth would not commit suicide do to the extreme guilt sh...
While speaking to herself, Lady Macbeth contemplates how she will convince Macbeth to agree to kill King Duncan. She urges Macbeth to hurry home so that she can “pour [her] spirits in [his] ear/And chastise with the valor of [her] tongue” (1.5.29-30). Lady Macbeth implies that her speech is honorable and just, and that she will be able to hold persuasive power over Macbeth and use it to their collective advantage in their rise to power. Her confidence in both the high caliber of her words and being able to convince Macbeth to follow through with her plan underscores her cruel ability to lure someone to murder another, as well as her bold resolve to successfully murder Duncan. Later, after a messenger arrives and tells Lady Macbeth that King Duncan will be arriving soon at the castle, she speaks of Duncan’s foreboding future; a “the fatal entrance…under [her] battlements” (Act, Page number, Line). The tone of finality in which Lady Macbeth describes the king’s arrival implies not only that Lady Macbeth already has full confidence that her deadly scheme will succeed,but also in the case that her strategic plan fails, she will persevere to ensure that Duncan does not leave her castle walls alive. Lastly, at the conclusion of her soliloquy, Lady Macbeth claims once she sees Macbeth that she “feel(s) now/The future in the instant” (1.6.64-65).
After receiving prophecies from the witches about his future to come, he is forced into an ambition-fuelled madness. As previously mentioned, Macbeth was persuaded to kill King Duncan by his wife due to his debatable manliness. This presented Macbeth’s need to prove to his wife he was manly by being valiant and strong and partaking in violent acts. He responds to his wife’s forceful directives by telling her, “Please stop! I dare do all that may become a man;/ Who dares do more is none” (1.7.46-47). This quote indicates how Macbeth believes a “real” man would not murder, and only due to Lady Macbeth explicitly attempting to manipulate him into action, does he succumb to do so. Macbeth endeavours the heinous crime of murdering the King, all owing to Lady Macbeth’s commands. On more than one occasion Macbeth is seen becoming mad, being overtaken by guilt and concern, highlighting that his manhood does not in fact give him any power, but only draws attention to his lack thereof. The inferiority he has within his relationship, also makes evident that Lady Macbeth’s pressure causes the transpiration of Macbeth’s powerful future. It is clear that Macbeth’s power was affected by his gender, as seen through his desperate need to prove his masculinity. Without the questioning of his manhood, Macbeth would have still been the
Gender roles in Macbeths society automatically expect men to be physically and emotionally stronger than women, however, lady Macbeth plays as a juxtaposition to Macbeth; encapsulating the emasculating woman prototype. She wants to abandon all her feminine qualities as she recognises that the characteristics she wants are not acceptable for females. She asks the spirits to "unsex" (1.5 46) her and to fill her "from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty" (1.5 46). It is in gaining these ‘masculine’ characteristics in Lady Macbeth ultimately attacks Macbeths biggest insecurity- his masculinity. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious and power hungry than Macbeth, and uses him as a vice for her own power conquests. It is at times when he doubts what is right and wrong for his own ambition, that Lady Macbeth uses her power of manipulation to call his manhood into question. At first, Macbeth suggests that killing the King would make him less a man and would cause him too loose his humanity, however, he changes his mind as Lady Macbeth proposes that a real man keeps promises and acts on his ambitions: "When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And, to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man" (1.7 54-56). Macbeth therefore murders Duncan to prove that he would be defeated neither by his fear
“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.
On the other hand, Lady Macbeth views on manhood are much different from her husband's and the other characters in the play. Unlike Macbeth, Lady Macbeth envisions a man to be opportunist, cruel and ruthless instead of honorable and loyal. When she receives the letter from Macbeth and learns of her chance to be queen, she prays that the spirits "that tend on mortal thoughts [would] unsex [her]", and that she will be "fill[ed] from the crown to the toe of direst cruelty", so that she would have the strength to murder Duncan. Believing the spirits would "unsex" her, she hopes that she wouldn't be bothered by a woman's kindness or remorse and thus would become a cruel killer, like a man.
Shakespeare is known for strong male heroes, but they are not laying around in this play, not that Macbeth is full of strong female heroines, either. The women in the play, Lady Macbeth and the witches have very uncommon gender belief, and act as inhumane as the men. While the men engage in direct violence, the women use manipulation to achieve their desires. As Lady Macbeth impels Macbeth to kill King Duncan, she indicated that she must take on some sort of masculine characteristic in order to process the murder. “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.” (i v 31-34) This speech is made after she reads Macbeth’s letter. Macbeth, she has shown her desire to lose her feminine qualities and gain masculine ones. Lady Macbeth's seizure of the dominant role in the Macbeth's marriage, on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions. Her speeches in the first part of the book give the readers a clear impression. “You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch, which shall […] gi...
Lady Macbeth represents all the stereotypical qualities of manhood, such as unrelenting determination, cruelty, and lack of emotions. Her interpretation of masculinity is made clear from the very first scene she appears in. When Lady Macbeth realizes that she must kill Duncan in her own home, she states, "Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (I. iv. 43-44). Her request shows that she believes a woman is not capable of such cruel and evil acts, and that only a man is. Furthermore, she wants to be filled up from the "crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!" with the "access and passage to remorse", completely blocked off, implying that a man is without remorse and feelings, and full of cruelty (I. iv. 45-47). Lady Macbeth then imposes her idea of Manhood on Macbeth. When Macbeth decides not to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth quickly challenges his manliness by c...
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is presented as an evil, cold-hearted person, but, when it comes to the actual act of committing the murder, Lady Macbeth does not commit murder. In the end, it is Macbeth who plunges the knife into Duncan’s heart. Lady Macbeth had planned the whole murder, brought the daggers, and even intoxicated the guards, but it is Macbeth who ultimately killed Duncan. After the crime is committed, it is Macbeth who collapses and Lady Macbeth who smears blood on the guards to complete their plan. From Lady Macbeth actions, it is readily apparent that she is physiologically and physical capable of committing murder, but why does she not? Lady Macbeth is unable to kill Duncan because of the 1600s notion of how a woman should be, Macbeth, being a man should, be the one to seek power, and Lady Macbeth’s feminine qualities forbid her to commit such a crime.