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Macbeth character analysis
Lady macbeth and the witches influence on macbeths actions
Macbeth character analysis
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Lady Macbeth suffered from many consequences as she chose to be involved with Duncan’s death. Lady Macbeth hallucinates because of the blood that is on her hands. “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” This line indicates the guilt of killing King Duncan has not settled with Lady Macbeth. When she sleepwalks, she sees a hallucination of bloody spots on her hands; ‘Yet here’s a spot’ (5.131). By rubbing her hands, she tries to wash away the guilt and free herself from from feeling guilty but is not successful. Her sickness leads to hallucinating as she starts revealing her secrets with Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has become overwhelmed with guilt that she has gone crazy. "Out, dammed spot! Out, I say! One- two- why then tis’ time to do ’t. Hell …show more content…
is murky.- Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?" (5.1.34-39) Lady MacBeth is in fear that someone will accuse MacBeth and herself for the murder of Duncan. She attempts to get rid of the evidence, the blood stains on her hands which holds her guilty for the death of Duncan. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth learned her lesson as she should not have done the wrongdoing in persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan. The guilt will stay with her forever, as she knows her wrongdoing and the blood will always remain on her hands. Your actions always catch up to you as consequences, in this case Macbeth’s wrong doing of killing King Duncan.
Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 1 gives us an understanding and description of how Duncan will be murdered. “I see thee still ; And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood.” (2.1.45-46) Macbeth is talking about what he will see when he murders Duncan. This gives a clear image of a sharp dagger covered in blood from the tip to the dudgeon. The wounds of Duncan being deep and how his body will look after being stabbed multiple times that his blood will emerge from his body. When Macbeth achieves and kills King Duncan he feels guilty for it “What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? (2.2. 59-60) Macbeth has recognized that his guilt can never be washed off, even if the blood washes off his hands. His guilt will affect the world around him, he compares it to an ocean. Macbeth begins to hallucinate, he imagines his hands plucking out his eyes in reward for murdering Duncan. This is because he realized what he has done will be with him forever, Duncan’s blood may wash away but they will always remain as a memory of what he has done. His actions costed him severe consequences as the play pursues he gets his head chopped off. Overall, this shows that we must think before we do anything as it can affect us forever and sometimes it becomes unbearable to live with. Macbeth will always live with
the guilt of murdering Duncan, this was proven as the blood on his hands will always remain there and the dagger that was full of blood. Consequences can be severe or can serve as a warning, moreover it shows that our actions will always have consequences. Macduff had hatred against Macbeth as he suspected that he was behind the death of Duncan. Macduff became furious and he wanted justice to be served by having Macbeth feel the pain himself. When Macduff enters Ross asks him, "Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?" (2.4.22). The deed that was committed was "more than bloody" because it was unnatural. This is because natural death is not someone murdering another individual. King Duncan was an exceptional and a compassionate man and Macduff believes everyone should cherish his life. Macduff and Macbeth were not on good terms after Macduff heard about King Duncan’s death. “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff ; Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.” ( 4.1.71-72) This tells Macbeth to beware of Macduff as he is a threat. It implies that Macduff will be the one to end all of this with consequences. He will be the one to kill Macbeth and end his misled position on the throne and the wrongdoings he committed. Macduff will try to kill Macbeth, so Macbeth must be aware of him and find a way to protect himself. Macbeth will finally receive what he deserves for his wrongdoing and murdering Duncan. Since that was something he committed this is a consequence he will have to deal with as he took someone’s life away. Macbeth does not have the right to be king as he was selfish and gained the throne in a dishonest way. He murdered and endangered many individuals to protect his own status and have people respect him. Moreover, this shows that justice will be served to Macbeth for his wrongdoings, his misleading conceptions and false status which led him to being prosecuted.
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 soliloquy in Act 2 scene 1 gives the reader a description of how Duncan will be murdered. "I see thee still, and on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, which was not so before." MacBeth is talking about what he will see when he will have murdered Duncan. The image given is a sharp dagger covered in thick blood from the tip to the dudgeon. Dudgeon is the tilt of the dagger. You can just imagine how deep the wounds of Duncan are, how Duncan’s body will resemble after multiple stabs, his blood emerging from his body.
He says, “Better be with the dead, whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace, than on the torture of the mind”(III.2.46). This quote takes place just before he does the daring deed and shows the reader that he knows it is not the right thing to do before he even goes to do it. His conscience tries to stay strong but he wants all the power as soon as possible so his conscience gives out and he decides that he will kill Duncan. He states before the domino effect of murders starts that he would rather be dead, than to be a guilty murderer. As the character gives into his dream of being the king he goes to do the deed and murder King Duncan. After he commits the murder, Macbeth feels immediate guilt. This is shown in a conversation with his wife yet again. He says, “I am afraid to think what I have done. Look on’t again I dare not”(II.2.56-57). This quote takes place right after the murder of King Duncan but he accidentally left the daggers in the bedroom with the corpse of Duncan. He immediately feels the guilt which is good for his conscience because he realizes he did something he should not have. He says to Lady Macbeth that he can not stand to even see what he has done anymore. Soon after Macbeth’s daring act his guilt begins to haunt him
He no longer is the innocent soldier he once way, he now has “unclean hands”. Lady Macbeth however, assumes his innocence. She claims she cannot murder Duncan herself because Duncan looks to much like her sleeping father. She is all words and no actions. Macbeth is devoid of any human emotions as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth assumes the emotional role. Lady Macbeth begins to have dreams in which she cannot get the blood off her hands, and ultimately commits suicide from guilt of her actions. This breakdown of Lady Macbeth really highlights how inhuman the murder of Duncan has made Macbeth.
Macbeth feels a great deal of remorse after he has killed the king. He understands that he has committed a sin and will be punished. He is so terrified that he hears voices telling him:“ Macbeth does murder sleep, … , Macbeth shall sleep no more”(Act 2, Sc.2 p. 57). Macbeth is very upset with himself and wishes that he never killed Duncan. “To know my deed it were best not know myself.” When he hears strange knocking at the gate he wishes that it wakes up Duncan, “wake Duncan with thy knocking”, however it is too late (Act 2, Sc.3 p. 61).
The last stage of schizophrenia contains hallucinations. When lady Macbeth was sleep walking, she replayed her washing her hands when Macbeth killed the king. “Out damned spot! I say!” (Act 5 scenes 2) This could be a sign of guilt along with her mental illness that starts to control her.
To begin, Macbeth experiences an internal downfall due to his ambition where he battle between his desires and moralistic values. Initially, the idea of attaining power over Scotland by killing King Duncan sparks a sense of fear and paranoia in Macbeth, however, his conscience struggles to take over his ambition: "that we but teach/ Bloody instructions, which being taught, return/ To plague the inventor. [...] I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Valuing ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And falls on th' other-" (1.7.8-28). At this moment, Macbeth contemplates on killing King Duncan as he visualizes the long term consequences of committing the crime. The reader can grasp his moral judgement as he understands that by proceeding with the murder, he is only causing his own demise and punishing himself. With that b...
them made a storm to try and kill him, then have a wax statue of him
In a world where murder is seen as a way to check if the prophecies of the witches are real, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth get caught by greed, the only escape seems to be a murder that will stop the nightmare of the killings. Once the murder has been committed, the revolt against it becomes very absurd and very illegitimate, making Macbeth a tragedy of the dark that develops in the night. In Act II scene II, Shakespeare uses tension and dramatic interest along with stage effects and language techniques to illustrate how Macbeth, with the help of Lady Macbeth influencing him to do so, commit the dreadful murder of King Duncan, and the after effects of this deed.
Throughout history women have fought for the same rights of men. In the time of William Shakespeare they were seen in society as weak and vulnerable. They were seen to be good, caring and not as powerful as men. Men were the superior and ruled the land. Shakespeare has taken the stereotypical image of the women of the time and turned it on its head in ‘Macbeth’. Lady Macbeth is shown as a very powerful, strong woman. She has an evil about her that Shakespeare has used to make ‘Macbeth’ a supernatural play. Women were seen to be good and not as powerful as men, in ‘Macbeth’ Lady Macbeth is the dominate character and commands and persuades Macbeth to commit the murders and crimes that he does.
Who truly was responsible for King Duncan’s death in William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”? While yes we do know that Macbeth was the one who killed the king, had he not talked to the witches he would have never learned about the prophecies that would impact his life. On the other hand, it is said that these prophecies were destined to happen, so at some point in time fate “kicks in” at some point in the beginning of the story, I believe it happens when Duncan learns of the former thane’s treachery. After Macbeth learns of these prophecies he writes his wife, Lady Macbeth, telling her of the three sisters and what they told him. Ecstatic that she will become queen based off what Macbeth told her, she was the one to implant the idea of murder in
Macbeth throughout the play slowly becomes overtaken by his mental state. One reason for this is the jealousy he gets towards those whom he has been in contact with. After killing Banquo, Macbeth feels as if he wishes he were Banquo. By him being dead it would give him the chance be released from all harm and fears; “But now I am cabined, cribbed, bound in/To saucy doubts and fears- But Banquo’s safe”. This takes over his view on reality and how Macbeth portrays himself. Coming back from the murder of Duncan Macbeth cracks and does not see clearly. His hands “pluck out [his] eyes.” and goes on to say that could “all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from [his] hand?” (2.2.77-79). To Macbeth if he cleans his hands it would clean the blood and make him closed off to what actually is happening. The magnitude of Macbeth’s actions catch up to him with full force, which leads to him not to make the right decisions about who to trust and what it right.
In the play, the idea of nature turning up side down if the King is
Firstly, an important characteristic of a Shakespearean tragic hero is that one must suffer outwardly and inwardly which is something that occurs for Lady Macbeth throughout the majority of the play. The first incident in which Lady Macbeth displays acts of suffering is the constant referencing to the removal of blood from her hands. For example, after taking part in the killing of the king, Lady Macbeth begins to go mentally ill in the sense that she is constantly thinking that Duncan's blood is still on her hands from that night. This is a clear example of how she suffers inwardly and outwardly as it is said that she is constantly washing her hands to try to remove the blood from her body. As Lady Macbeth said, "Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (Macbeth 5.1.54-56) This is showing that her brain suffering and showing signs of mental illness as well as obsessive compulsive disorder to which is making her believe that Duncan's blood is unable to be removed from her hands. On the same note, Lady Macbeth is showing signs of outward and inward suffering is when she sleepwalks because of her guilty conscience as well as doing and saying things due to
Macbeth believes that the murder of King Duncan is life-altering and thus does not deal with his guilt in a rational way. While trying to cleanse himself of the dead Macbeth says, “Will all of great Neptune's oceans wash this blood clean from my hands” (2.2.78). Macbeth is being very dramatic and irrational. It is very well known that water can easily cleanse blood from hands, but Macbeth is doubtful that all the water in the world could help him. This shows Macbeth is innocent and scared about what the future may hold. He clearly believes nothing can help him. Whiles Macbeth is panicking Lady Macbeth believes that the murder of King Duncan is no big deal. She states, “A little water will cleanse us this crime” (2.2.68). Lady Macbeth remains thoroughly composed, level-headed, and rational when dealing with her own feelings as well as Macbeth's feelings after King Duncan is killed. She acts as if she doesn’t care that she took part in murdering someone. Although Lady Macbeth responds logically to the idea of cleaning the blood, it shows how little culpability she feels. Henceforth, Macbeth believes he will never be resolved of this crime, but Lady Macbeth is not concerned in the