How Is Lady Macbeth Hungry For Power

Although it is not completely fair for members in a society to judge one’s character based on impressions and actions, there are instances where it seems logical to do so. In a similar sense, Lady Macbeth, at first glance, does not seem like someone that brings much to the table. But as time passes by, she reveals her true nature from a seemingly dull individual to a spirited yet menacing character. However, the surprises do not end there because the play also suggests, through her dialogue, that Lady Macbeth is very “hungry for power.” Thus, throughout Act I of “Macbeth” (2010), Goold focuses on showcasing Lady Macbeth’s greedy thirst through the manipulation of her husband, her desire to feel as much emotion as a robot would, and the disclosing of her corrupted morals.

When Lady Macbeth first learns about the prophecy of her husband becoming the next King of Scotland, she tries to convince Macbeth to speed up the process by eliminating the current monarch.

Motivated from his wife’s support, Macbeth decides to go through with the plan to kill Duncan. However, at the last minute, he hesitates and decides to fall through with the murder and to instead, continue serving as a loyal thane to the king. But, when he announces this to his wife, Lady Macbeth drives him into a corner by cunningly asserting “when [he] durst do it, then [he was] a man/And to be more than what [he was], [he] would be so much more the man.” During these times, men were very self conscious about their image and desired not to be seen less than fierce. In this particular instance, Lady Macbeth takes advantage of this fact by questioning Macbeth’s title as a man, which puts him in a predicament between having to choose either loyalty or dignity. He eventually chooses the latter which is what Lady Macbeth subtly expects so that she easily claim the throne without any

work.
The first impressions of a main character is especially important to a film because it essentially gives the viewer a general idea of how that particular individual will act for the remainder of the production. Thus, when Lady Macbeth first appears in the play, manically proclaiming that she has to be the driving force in her husband’s plan to kill the king, it is clear that she is not right in the head. Thus, it does as a surprise when she calls upon the spirits to “make thick [her] blood/Stop up the access and passage to remorse/That no compunctious visitings of nature” can shake her from murdering Duncan. Although it is common for people to long for something that they do not have, Lady Macbeth’s desire to become of greater importance substantially blocks her instinct of knowing what is right and what is wrong. At this point, her true colors start to spill out where she is so eager for power that she sacrifice one’s life in order to get what she wants.
Through another instance in the film, Lady Macbeth exhibits her deteriorated morals with another speech about her overpowering yearning of the throne while her husband is having second thoughts about slaughtering the king. Worried that things will not go as planned, Lady Macbeth coaxes Macbeth into reconsidering his decision by convincing him that killing someone is like second nature. To further her claim, she makes up a scenario that if she could choose between domination and a child, she would have taken the kid and “... while it was smiling in [her] face/Have plucked out [her] nipples from his boneless gums/And dashed [its] brains out.” Although Lady Macbeth is simply just throwing out an example to make Macbeth feel less guilty about the upcoming murder, she unintentionally reveals a small part of her atrocious behavior when she stated that a human life would surely be worth less than a pile of riches and a magnificent title. Thus, through her short yet revealing remark, it can be concluded that in moments of opportunity, Lady Macbeth will exchange anything in return for control.
Although there are not many situations in which an individual willingly unveils their true self, it can be assumed that, even with her short appearances in the movie, Lady Macbeth is a heartless character who only cares about rising up in status. Although it may be too early to judge her based on a small portion of the film, her words in Act I alone, implies that she does not care too much for other people. If she did, however, she would have never hinted that throughout Goold’s production of “Macbeth,” she would gladly disrupt the natural course of one’s life if it were not for her own self gain.