Lady Macbeth Manipulation Quotes

Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth is all about power, manipulation, violence and greed. The main character is Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth is his wife. Lady Macbeth has a major role in the manipulation and violence part of it. Even though Macbeth is the person who does the killings, Lady Macbeth plays the role of a malefactor along with him. She underestimates Macbeth’s manhood (III. IV.60-62, I. VII.48-49), and if he refuses or overthinks a command that she says to him, Lady Macbeth’s trick to manipulate is to deride and tease Macbeth (I. VII.36-45). She says: “Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat i' the adage?” (I. VII.45). Lady Macbeth knows that in order for her to become queen and for Macbeth to become king,

they have to kill King Duncan. She is the one who encourages Macbeth to eliminate King Duncan (I. V.53-62) and illustrates how to murder him (I. VII.60-70). Lady Macbeth’s role in the play is so important that if she was not in the play Macbeth probably was not going to be a tragic hero.
Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth is not strong enough to do evil things, and she questions Macbeth’s manhood many times. For instance, when they are planning to Kill king Duncan, Macbeth refuses to commit such atrocities. Lady Macbeth manipulates him into doing it, by questioning his manhood, she says: “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.” (I. VII.9,10) When Macbeth is too scared to put the daggers in the chamberlains room when he Kills king Duncan, Lady Macbeth makes fun of him by saying: “ 'Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil.” (II. II.54), meaning that only children are afraid of fearsome pictures. After king Duncan’s death, they have a feast. At the feast Macbeth hallucinates that he sees king Duncan’s ghost. (III. IV.40-75) Lady Macbeth starts to fix this disaster that he made (III. IV.56-70), but then she says to him: “He will again be well: If much you note him, you shall offend him and extend his passion: feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?” (III. IV.60-62) She questions his manhood and maturity, and proves that she is one who is stronger and has to rectify everything. Lady Macbeth’s method to achieve what she wants is a very a egotistic and brutal one, a method that anyone who has a segment of humanity and kindness would not even consider these manipulative acts.
Lady Macbeth’s role in King Duncan’s death is the most important role in this incident. She is the one who prepared the daggers for killing Duncan, and gave the chamberlain alcohol so that they would be drunk. Her plan was to put the chamberlains in a heavy sleep. Once they would not understand what is happing and they were unconscious, she could blame them after the murder instead of the true villains. She says: ”…is two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume…”(I. VII.63-65). Lady Macbeth was so dedicated and eager to be queen and have power, that if King Duncan did not resemble his father, she would have put him to death herself.”…Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done ’t.” (II. II.13,14) she says. However, either way she still is the first murderer in this crime. In view of the fact that if she did not manipulate her husband dishonorably, the murder would not have taken place at all. Lady Macbeth is an insincere woman. When King Duncan arrived at the castle, she welcomes him with great hospitality, (I. VI.15-20, 26-28) but deep down she is arranging for his death. When Macbeth kills King Duncan and comes back with his hands smeared with blood and the daggers in his hand, frightened to go back, “I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; look on ’t again I dare not.” he says. Once again this is lady Macbeth that shows her humanity is completely lost. She returns to King Duncan’s lifeless body, and soaking the daggers with his blood. Without any regret, she goes to the chamberlains and settles the daggers beside them, rubbed the blood on them to show that they were guilty. This apathetic behavior proclaims that Lady Macbeth is sacrificing everything to become queen, even her natural femininity. Before this incident she asked the god spirits to remove her emotions so she can do monstrous deeds, “ . . . 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!” she says (I. V.30-34). When the play continues, we see that Lady Macbeth is trying to prevent herself and Macbeth from being suspected. For evidence when Macbeth rings the alarm bells Lady Macbeth comes in horrified, asking what has happened. Dissimulating that she doesn’t know anything and has no idea what occurred, she says: “What’s the business, that such a hideous trumpet calls to parley the sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!” (II. III.56-58). As the play continues, Macbeth is fearful and nervous of being caught and captured. This feeling so forceful that Lady Macbeth cries for help and pretends to faint,” Help me hence, ho!” she cries out (II. III.98) and distract the people from Macbeth and King Duncan’s death. In the middle of the play we see that she is rather guilty of this evil deed that she did. When she sleepwalks and talks in her sleep, she demonstrates a guilt that represents how she feels about the act that she did. She rubs her hands stressfully, As if she wants to get rid of dirt and blood on her hand and she cannot. “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t “(V. I.25) she says. The act of rubbing her hands shows that she wants to get rid of king Duncan’s blood that are on her hand, but it actually means she wants to get rid of the fear of getting caught and the guilt of this death that is on her neck.
At the very beginning of the play, we see that Macbeth and Banquo successfully return to Scotland from the war between Norwegians and the Scottish to Scotland (I.

II.15-20). Here, we see that Macbeth is a hero for his braveness and that he has fought with the enemies. Early after that the three witches tell him and Banquo prophesies that makes him curios,” All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” (I. III.50) is what the witch says. He doesn’t believe in them and their sayings, but afterwards when Ross comes and says that he is going to be thane of Cawdor (I. III,105-107), Macbeth is shocked. He sends a letter to Lady Macbeth, and she becomes aware of what has happened (I. IV.54-48, I.V.1-3). This is when the true story began. Lady Macbeth is the one who is anxious to become queen, and this desire is so much that she asks the gods take away her feminine emotions, and manipulates Macbeth to do what he doesn’t want to do. If Lady Macbeth was not so greedy and was satisfied with what she had, Macbeth would most likely have not killed King Duncan and he would not be a tragic hero. Macbeth let lady Macbeth to lead everything and did not stop her evil deeds, and what ended up happening is the death of himself and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth was a tragic hero because he was good at first and then his bad deeds ended up killing him, but lady Macbeth is not the tragic hero because she was not good at the first place. The minute she reads Macbeth’s letter she started planning to kill King Duncan to become queen, and was not contentment with being the wife of thane of Cawdor. She has a dark spirit, and does not care about people, not even her own husband. Lady Macbeth is not the tragic hero of Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth. And Macbeth would not be a tragic hero if he either could have controlled Lady Macbeth’s greed or if she was not there at there at the first

place.
In Shakespeare’s tragedy of the story also shows that the influence of a woman can become so strong that, she can force her husband to kill someone. If only Lady Macbeth would have not been selfish and Macbeth was not weak willed to the extent that she had control over him, to let her have control over him, perhaps the outcome may have been more fortunate.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth. New York: Dover Publications, 1993. Print.