How Does Lady Macbeth Influence Her Husband's Downfall

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Lady Macbeth and Her Husband’s Downfall
In the play, Lady Macbeth had a way of manipulating Macbeth to commit acts of crime. In The Tragedy of Evil, J. Lyndon Shanley argues, “The spur of ambition did not drive Macbeth too hard toward his great opportunity, but her goading taunts he could not withstand, though they drove him onto horrors.” In order to usurp the throne, Lady Macbeth was able to use dialogue to influence her spouse to demonstrate acts of terror. Therefore, by questioning Macbeth’s manhood, Lady Macbeth plays on her husband’s insecurities to force him to act on her behalf to achieve her evil desires.
Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to commit homicide. Shakespeare states, “Your face, my thane is as a book where men / May read strange matters. To beguile the time, / Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye. / Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t…” (1.5 64-65) Lady Macbeth is executing her role as the architect of her evil plan and is teaching Macbeth on how to be evil. In The Tragedy of Evil, he argues, “She could sway him because she understood him and loved …show more content…

Well aware that her husband’s sincerity towards Duncan might prevent him from completing the task at hand, she tries to convince him to murder Duncan. Shakespeare states, “Yet do I fear thy nature. It is too full / O’the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.” (1.5 15-17) Lady Macbeth notices that Macbeth’s integrity towards Duncan is the cause of the delay and is educating him on how to be evil. Shakespeare says, “Infirm of purpose! / Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead / Are but as pictures: ‘tis the eye of childhood / That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt.”(2.2 53-55) Macbeth is unable to finish the assignment because he is overwhelmed of the crime in which he

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