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Discuss the role of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
Analysis of Macbeth by Shakespeare
Discuss the role of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth
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Macbeth VS Lady Macbeth William Shakespeare was an amazing English poet and playwright. He wrote a lot of astonishing poems and plays, Macbeth is one of his famous tragedies. Shakespearian tragedies represent the fall of a man of high state where he must have a tragic flaw which leads to his eventual death at the end. Macbeth is a man of high state. He is the leader of king Duncan's army, but he has a tragic flaw which is his ambition to be a king which leads to his death at the end of the play. Macbeth murdered a lot of people with the help of his wife Lady Macbeth in order to get the crown. In the story line, Lady Macbeth is the one who initiates murder and therefor seems to be more evil. Lady Macbeth initiates murder by questioning …show more content…
After she convinced her husband to commit murder she starts with her major plan of killing king Duncan: "When Duncan is asleep, his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince, That memory, the warder of the brain shall be fume…" (Shakespeare 39). Lady Macbeth does not only make Macbeth murder Duncan but she also puts the blame in the hands of the chamberlains by making them drunk. She clearly has an evil mind. While Macbeth is completely nervous about the crime and that it might fail, she is not nervous at all because she is confident in her abilities of making the perfect plan which shows that she is more evil than him. According to Sarkar, Lady Macbeth's ambition to take the throne is different than Macbeth's. Her ambition is evil while his ambition is not. Lady Macbeth wants the throne no matter what path she takes and she chose the path of evil because it is faster (P.59). The fact that Macbeth is doubting about doing the plan or not, he shows that his ambition is not evil unlike Lady Macbeth's ambition. Macbeth wants the crown so bad but he does not want to murder the king because he feels guilty which shows that he has kindness. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth does not care about anyone who comes in her way of getting the
From the beginning of act 1 scene 5 till the murder of Duncan in act 2 scene 2, it is evident that Lady Macbeth manipulates and convinces Macbeth into murdering Duncan. This is basically the only part of the play where Lady Macbeth has control over Macbeth. After Duncan’s murder, Macbeth is partly driven by evil powers. Proof of Lady Macbeth understanding Macbeth’s thoughts and feelings are visible in her thoughts "Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend to it." (1.5.19-21). From the very same speech and small implications from the letter, we can tell that Macbeth was ambitious enough to want to be the King, but would not think of murdering Duncan.
Lady Macbeth was a small but very important part of the play Macbeth. She is always on the side of Macbeth telling him what she thinks he should do. When Macbeth was off at war, and told lady Macbeth that the witches greeted him as Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland before he received those titles, she was probably scheming no how to fulfill those before he returned home. Once home, they had King Duncan stay at Dunsinane. Lady Macbeth then b-tches at her husband and ridicules his masculinity in order to make him commit murder (Friedlander). Macbeth reluctantly murders Duncan, even though he wanted to wait and have it all play out without killing anyone. When he went to the well to wash off his hands he speaks of his remorse, and lady Macbeth finds out that he did not implicate the guards, so she tells him to go do it. But he wont, so she insults him more, and goes to do it herself.
Secondly Lady Macbeth shows more ambition then Macbeth does in terms of gaining power regarding kingship. When Macbeth does not want to murder Duncan anymore, for he recognizes that he is a kind man, good king and thinks Duncan should remain the king. Lady Macbeth however shows more ambition for power, becomes very upset upon learning how Macbeth feels how he doesn’t want to kill King Duncan anymore, she says “And Live a coward in thine own esteem” (1.7.46) meaning she’s calling him a coward for not wanting to kill Duncan and thereby gaining power. She convinces him to change his mind to want the power of kingship now, which can only be achieved by killing Duncan.
William Shakespeare had tragedy in Macbeth. Macbeth had been a Thane, which is a noble. Lady Macbeth wants to be Queen of Scotland in Macbeth wants to be king no matter what it takes Macbeth was going be king and Lady Macbeth was going to be queen. Lady Macbeth was a very strong mind person. Lady Macbeth suffered from the effect of bipolar and schizophrenia.
Before the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth was a brave, noble warrior. “For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name… Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chop and fixed his head upon our battlements” (Act I, Scene 2, lines 2). He was one of the last people anyone would expect to kill King Duncan. Shakespeare chooses a noble character such as Macbeth, to emphasize how greed and power can alter a person’s good morals. In Act one we start to see Macbeth’s desire for more power rise. “Stars, hide your fires; Let no light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hond yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done to see” (Act I, Scene 4, lines 52- 55). His desire for power is at war with his good morals. He wants to become king but does not want to kill Duncan.
Lady Macbeth is depicted as being much worse than her husband in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Although they both think of murdering King Duncan as soon as they hear the witches' prophecies, Macbeth thinks more about what he may or may not do, whereas Lady Macbeth immediately appeals to evil spirits to give her the strength to kill Duncan.
In order for somebody to commit such a heinous act as murder, the conspirators must be ruthless, and this is what Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were, ruthless. Lady Macbeth’s is more ruthless than her spouse, and her ruthlessness is what fueled Duncan’s murder. However, some may claim that this is not so and that Macbeth is more ruthless than his wife. “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder is yet but fantastical, shakes so that my single state of man that function is smoldered I surmise and nothing is but what is not.” Macbeth as you can see is thinking about the witches’ prophecy of him becoming king.
...rs life without power worse than death and would even prefer the latter. It was an atypical character trait at the time for a woman to desire power as greedily as Lady Macbeth does.
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
The role of a tragic hero is a familiar literary element in many of William Shakespeare’s works. Macbeth, as a character, is a prime example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. There are a vast number of factors that contribute to Macbeth being labeled as a “tragic hero.” Typically a tragic hero, according to Aristotle, is an individual of high stature, often of noble background: a king, a prince or an officer of high rank. This individual is good-natured, however, not perfect.
Besides the witches, Lady Macbeth also influences Macbeth’s actions. She humiliates him to a point where she has no option but to kill
Lady Macbeth is by far the most evil spirited lady shakespeare has ever wrote about. She is very aggressive,inhuman and very manipulative in the play Macbeth. In the shakespeare's work she was very addicted to the idea of becoming a queen that she did not care about anyone or anything else Lady macbeth has a very aggressive personality in the play. She acts more like a man then she does a women. Instead of being like most women at that time they didn't make many hdecisions due to the man being the superior in the relationship.
Does a tragic hero function as an instrument of the suffering of others? In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare portrays how a tragic hero leads to his own self destruction. In this play, Macbeth for many reasons, is the tragic hero. He shows how his choices are going to influence the suffering of his or her surroundings. Macbeth’s ambitions to become king causes agony and death to the people who were close to this tragic hero.
The influence and power Lady Macbeth has over her husband initiates Macbeth’s evil inside of him (Boyce). Though the power somewhat dissolves throughout the play, Lady Macbeth strives for her husband’s throne and power until it is achieved. Contrary to her character, Lady Macbeth reverts back to her maternal instinct and proclaims she cannot kill Duncan herself. Instead, she orders Macbeth and makes him feel cowardly and weak until he agrees to her request of the killing (Chamberlain). This confirms the influence and extreme power Lady Macbeth has over the naive Macbeth; his lady is essentially his mental strength in the beginning of the play.
Lady Macbeth is a strong and independent within the play the roles of men and women are reversed with Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was in control over herself, seduced the opposite sex to do what she wanted, and used men as a clutch to gain power. While Macbeth was more submissive, easily persuasive, and needed Lady Macbeth to gain what he wanted. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wanted to gain the crown but Macbeth was too submissive of how to achieve it while Lady Macbeth knew what she wanted and did what was to achieve it although she has her husband do it. After Macbeth has murdered Banquo he goes to his wife horrified with what he has done while Lady Macbeth brushes off his fears.