Malevolent Deeds
Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth showed many tendencies of a bully. The definition of bullying according to Stop Bullying.gov is “is unwanted, aggressive behavior…. that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time.” In several ways the Macbeths fit into the bullying mold. Lady Macbeth exercised control over Macbeth and bullied him into doing what she thought best. Macbeth overtime, gradually became a bully.
Lady Macbeth was overall the biggest bully in the Macbeth play. She exerted control over her husband. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth made a plan to kill King Duncan following The Three Witches prophecy where they foretold he would be king. In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth decides not to King Duncan because he was “his kinsman and his subject” and because Duncan “Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been...So clear in his great office”. When Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he won’t kill King Duncan, she calls him a coward saying "When you durst do it, then you were a man". By calling him a coward and questioning his manliness she pushed him to murder King Duncan.
According to the power and control wheel, name calling and playing mind games are some examples of a bullying. Even though Macbeth fears the consequences of murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth calls him names
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At the beginning of the play he was a well respected Thane who was loyal to King Duncan. But Macbeth was full of ambition and it drove him to murder King Duncan to take his throne. Soon after Duncan’s murder Macbeth becomes full of fear and guilt. Macbeth specialized in physical violence. The CSA report states, defined bullying as “behavior that involves a pattern of repeated aggression”. Macbeth throughout the play, commits several murders and hires murderers to do his dirty work. Towards the end of the play, he becomes an evil dictator and is killed by
In the beginning of the drama Lady Macbeth dramatically influenced Macbeth. Macbeth would always second guess his decisions. Macbeth seemed inclined to listen to his wife. Throughout the story, Lady Macbeth would find a way to twist Macbeth’s emotion. “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you where, you would be so much more the man” (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1.7 49-51). In this quote Lady Macbeth was insulting Macbeth, she was telling her husband he wasn’t man enough to kill King Duncan. “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling…dashed its brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this” (Shakespeare, Macbeth 1.7 54-58). Lady Macbeth brings up the baby that they had together. The baby died long before she says this. She explains that she would “smash” its head for him. This became the turning point in Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan. At first he was hesitant to kill him, but Lady Macbeth angered and then saddened Macbeth. She twisted his emotions and provided the motivation Macbeth needed to kill Duncan. This is the start to Macbeth reign as King.
... filled with achievements, Macbeth blanked out.All he thought about was killing the king.When he tried to console his wife, she encouraged him to kill and take the power said to be his. Lady Macbeth called her husband a coward for not standing for what is his.She claims that he is not man enough. Lady Macbeth is commonly seen as being the reason that Macbeth changed his mind to actually kill Duncan.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a trusted soldier, who is honest and noble. Unfortunately, he meets three witches who tell him three prophecies; that he will become thane of Cawdor, that he will become king and that Banquo’s sons will become kings. These three prophecies slowly change his opinions on life and turn him into a greedy, dishonest, tyrant, full of ambition. Lady Macbeth’s thoughts change as well when she is told about the three prophecies that were told to Macbeth. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is ambitious, controlling and domineering. She is the one who encourages him to kill the king, she not only encourages him, she makes all the plans herself, which shows her determination and persistence."Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way thou wouldst be great. Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it." (Act 1, scene 5). Lady Macbeth is the force behind Macbeth’s sudden ambition and she tries to manipulate him into feeling guilty and unmanly for not following through with the murder, by using her husbands emotions, she manages to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan.
Lady Macbeth is an evil, insane, and ruthless character. She definitely tops Macbeth’s brutality and horrific actions in this play. She is very selfish and manipulative as shown throughout the story. She shows the power of her will over her husband, especially when they meet for the second time after his return. He hesitates about committing the suggested crime, but at the end is completely overcome by her lofty determination.
After a long and hard battle, the Sergeant says to King Duncan, “For brave Macbeth,-well he deserves that name,- disdaining fortune, with his brandish’d steel, which smok’d with bloody execution , like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage till he fac’d the slave;” (1.2.16) . This quote shows that Macbeth is viewed as a valiant soldier and a capable leader. However, it does not take long for the real Macbeth to be revealed- a blindly ambitious man, easily manipulated by the prospect of a higher status. His quest for power is what drives his insanity, and after having been deemed the Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth’s ambition can immediately be seen. In a soliloquy, Macbeth says, “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings; my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastica, shakes so my single state of man that function is smother’d in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.140). Macbeth has just gained more power, and his immediate thought is of how to gain an even higher status as king. He imagines how to kill Duncan, and then is troubled by his thoughts, telling himself it is wrong. This inner struggle between Macbeth’s ambition and his hesitation to kill Duncan is the first sure sign of his mental deterioration. Although Macbeth does kill Duncan, he questions whether or not he should to do so, which is far different from how Macbeth feels about murder later in the play. Macbeth becomes king, and this power leads
Macbeth's desire to become king is strongly supported by his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a highly ambitious woman who, like her husband, is willing to do anything to obtain power. Shakespeare uses a series of imagery to vividly portray the desire for power in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy: “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!” To achieve her ambition, Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth “to catch the nearest way.” This means she wants him to kill Duncan so that he can become king. However, she fears that Macbeth is “too full o' th' milk of human kindness” to “catch the nearest way.” When Macbeth is reluctant to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth starts attacking his masculinity. “Then you were a man,” she said. Lady Macbeth also uses the power of emotional blackmail to manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan.
Macbeth’s provocative or violent actions on the challenges placed before him cause him to build an effect of downfall and dismay throughout the play. Originally, Macbeth handles his challenges in different ways and manners and is constantly changing his procedure. From handling situations carefully to not caring, Macbeth and his violence resulted in guilt and selfishness which he had to overcome. By the end of the play, Macbeth had become a selfish, greedy king and the challenges as well as experiences he encountered shaped him into who he is. He was shaped by the guilt of killing Banquo and Duncan, just to become powerful and a king. For example, in Act 3 Scene 4, Macbeth faces adversity when his mind creates a ghost of Banquo, who he just found out was killed. In Macbeth, the uprising of adversity was often handled in various manners. By dealing with his own challenges, Macbeth transforms his handling of adversity from being cautious to thoughtless, which reflected his character and the transformation he portrayed throughout the
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. It is this selfishness that makes it hard for the reader to be empathetic towards her later in the play, as it is evident in this scene that her hardships were brought on by herself. If she hadn’t insisted on the murder, she would not be driven in...
Humans are always fascinated by power. Sadly, they do not realize the danger of it until it is too late. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare's underscores how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both consumed by power. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth dominates Macbeth, manipulating him to kill Duncan. After the death of Duncan, Macbeth becomes ambitious, and hires murderers to kill Banquo without notifying Lady Macbeth. Even though he is a decorated soldier, when Macbeth rises to power, he becomes ruthless. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth becomes weak, and insane. Shakespeare illustrates how Macbeth’s obsession with power undermines his moral judgement, leads to his mental deterioration, and ultimately results in his death.
Lady Macbeth is a very loving wife to Macbeth and she wants to do anything she can for him to achieve his goals. She just takes it a little too far, and she puts too much pressure on Macbeth to commit crimes that he is not sure he wants to do. After Macbeth sends her a letter about the witches’ premonitions, Lady Macbeth is no longer the sweet innocent lady we expect her to be. She turns into a person who is just as ambitious as her husband and she wants to do whatever it takes to help him get Duncan out of the way. She even goes to the point of calling Macbeth a coward, and mocking his bravery when he fails to complete the job. She is even willing to do it herself (plant the bloody knife with the guard). Lady Macbeth is constantly putting the pressure on Macbeth to do things that he is not sure about. She almost turns into a bully who dares Macbeth to go out and do evil things. She even says in a soliloquy that she wants to be released of all her morals and values so that she can help him commit these crimes.
The Power of Violence in Macbeth Violence is a crime, let alone, an action that comes with man and power. Violence is linked to power in this play just like it is now in present time, like the war in the Middle East or the troubles in Syria. In Macbeth, there are different types of violence that can be portrayed, varying between physical violence to psychological as well as a violent setting. The middle ages were ruthless as the play illustrated, with people raiding Great Britain and Ireland. The more power there is, the higher the chances of succeeding in life.
The begin with, the Captain praises Macbeth for “carv[ing] out his passage” with “his brandish’d steel, / which smoked with bloody execution” (1.2.ll.9,17-18). Duncan calls Macbeth a “valiant cousin” and a “worthy gentleman” for “fac[ing] the slave” and “unseam[ing] him from the nave to th’chaps” (1.2.ll.24,20,22). These specific praises and references to violence demonstrate how men were supposed to be warlike. Macbeth had followed these expectations, and society accepted him. Secondly, Lady Macbeth is able to break Macbeth’s rational mind and make him kill Duncan by taunting his masculinity. She challenges him by stating that “when [he] durst” kill Duncan, “then [he] [is] a man” (1.7.ll.49). Macbeth wishes to remain praised, so he agrees to kill king Duncan. Lady Macbeth is able to emphasize how weak Macbeth is through violence and by claiming she would “dash the brains out” of the “babe that milks [her]”, showing that she is a stronger man than
Lady Macbeth is the first to strategize a way to kill Duncan. As a character foil to Macbeth she juxtaposes their possession of guilt and ruthlessness, which creates irony and excitement to the play. Originally, she is very power hungry and wants to utilize her husband’s position in status to become queen. Macbeth objects to the plan to kill Duncan because he believes Duncan is Macbeth’s kinsman, host, and an overall virtuous ruler (Act. 1 Scene. 7) and thus feels very guilty for taking advantage of Duncan’s trusting quality towards the Macbeth family. She refers to Macbeth as weak and rebukes his manhood (Act 1. Scene 7.) . As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a character role reversal of their possession of guilt and ruthlessness. The character foil is extant, however Macbeth’s ruthlessness overcomes his guilt, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt vanquishes her drive for power. In addition to an alteration in character foils, Shakespeare introduces situational irony because now Lady Macbeth succumbs to the weakness Macbeth once possessed and Macbeth is the one who is formidable and ambitious. Macbeth’s ability to transcend his guilt exemplifies his struggle for power and reinforces the theme of evil ambition because Macbeth is able to secure the throne and power only by mass
In the famous play, MacBeth, by William Shakespeare, the main themes are abuse of power and bullying. Bullying is seen in MacBeth many times throughout. A bully is someone who is someone who takes advantage of others who the assume can be pertained as vulnerable, (Against Bullies). The MacBeths can be considered bullies because they take advantage of others using threats and harmful language. They abuse the little bit of power that they get to receive more by doing unrightful murders.
The struggle for power and control in Macbeth is present from the very beginning, as Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as a ruthless, overpowering woman who dominates her husband and his actions. She makes Macbeth's decisions for him without giving him any say in his own actions, and she orders her husband to do what she determines to be best for him. It is Lady Macbeth who contrives the plan to kill King Duncan, because she knows that Macbeth would never commit such an act on his own without her prodding. She develops the plan and organizes the details while expecting Macbeth to merely follow her orders. This becomes evident when she says to him, "Only look up clear,"(1.5.70) and "leave the rest to me"(1.5.72). She intends to keep him under her control by making decisions for him and not allowing him to think for himself.