Satisfaction is something that everybody chases; it’s a yearning that is built into us. Whether it be through working hard to reach our goals or helping others out, humans are always trying to seek satisfaction in our daily lives. It’s something that gives us meaning and happiness. However, we aren’t just focused on our own survival and satisfaction, but also those around us. This is why we consider the feelings of others and their satisfaction when seeking our own. We are social people and empathy is something naturally built into us. It’s what makes us human. So when an individual starts to disregard the people around them for their own desires, it leads to greed and corruption. This greed eventually leads to regret. Shakespeare perfectly …show more content…
When she receives the letter from Macbeth about the prophecy, she immediately starts to plot about how to get the throne. Lady Macbeth is already trying to seek her personal satisfaction by becoming a queen, and she doesn’t care what she’ll have to do to get it. She starts to worry about Macbeth and how his kindness will get in the way of her plan, saying: “Yet I do fear thy nature;/It is too full o’ th’ the milk of human kindness/To catch the nearest way”. Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth’s consideration towards others will cause him to never gain power. This demonstrates a big trait in Lady Macbeth’s character. She believes that you have to be selfish in order to get what you want. However, she still can’t get rid of the natural instinct in her to care for others. She views the natural urge to care as weak and feminine and pleads to “unsex me here”. When Lady Macbeth starts to suppress her empathy, that’s when she starts to become corrupt. Her disregard for others helps her focus on her sole satisfaction and it makes her cruel and cunning. This leads her to coerce Macbeth into murdering Duncan. She manipulates him by mocking his manhood and tricks the people around her by acting innocent. At this point, Lady Macbeth has lost her moral compass because of her
In regards to Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth demonstrates her tragic flaw in her conscious suppression of her muliebrity and her subconscious support of it. In Act I scene 5, she receives a letter from Macbeth. When she hears about the prophecy, she considers killing Duncan to gain power for the first time. Lady Macbeth is too gentle Lady Macbeth has a glorified idea of what it means to be masculine, so she thinks that she could achieve more without her femininity. Consciously, she wishes to be, “top-full/of direst cruelty,” (I.v.48-50).
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a trusted soldier, who is honest and noble. Unfortunately, he meets three witches who tell him three prophecies; that he will become thane of Cawdor, that he will become king and that Banquo’s sons will become kings. These three prophecies slowly change his opinions on life and turn him into a greedy, dishonest, tyrant, full of ambition. Lady Macbeth’s thoughts change as well when she is told about the three prophecies that were told to Macbeth. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is ambitious, controlling and domineering. She is the one who encourages him to kill the king, she not only encourages him, she makes all the plans herself, which shows her determination and persistence."Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way thou wouldst be great. Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it." (Act 1, scene 5). Lady Macbeth is the force behind Macbeth’s sudden ambition and she tries to manipulate him into feeling guilty and unmanly for not following through with the murder, by using her husbands emotions, she manages to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan.
So far, in the play, Lady Macbeth has been shown to be a very powerful and ambitious character. After reading Macbeth's letter, she says, "Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness that should attend it"(I.v 17-19), here, she is saying that he needs more evil or "illness" in him to become King, and therefore implies that she will "poison" him and give him the illness he needs to increase his ambition. Here she is also undermining her husband's authority (which is very unusual for a woman in the Elizabethan era) by saying he is unable to become a King, and is undermining his masculinity as she is thinking about things that a man would usually take charge of. To try to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan when the audience first see them meet on stage, she is very bold, "Your hand, you tongue, look like th'innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't" (I.v 65-66), she shows her strong female identity, whose ambitions speak for her obsession with power.
After Lady Macbeth reads his letter and Macbeth arrives home, she is excited about becoming queen. She asks Macbeth when King Duncan is to be arriving and tells Macbeth to leave the plan up to her, his only job being that he has to look innocent and hide their true intentions. Macbeth seems to be stunned and nervous, telling his wife that they will talk later when she begins to tell him of her plan. In the seventh scene, at the castle, Macbeth speaks of the intense guilt he is feeling even before he is to kill Duncan; “… this even-handed justice/ Commends the ingredients of our poisoned/ Chalice to our own lips…” (1. 7. 10-12) (Shakespeare), “… He’s here in double trust…” (1. 7. 12) (Shakespeare), “… Besides, this Duncan/ Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/ So clear in his great office…” (1. 7. 17-19)(Shakespeare) all express Macbeth’s discomfort with murdering Duncan to steal the throne. Not only does he convey these emotions during this monologue, but he does so when Lady Macbeth enters the room, saying “We will proceed no further in this business./ He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people…” (1. 7. 32-34) (Shakespeare). To respond to this, Lady Macbeth does what she does best: emasculating her husband. She first articulates her questioning of his manhood after she reads Macbeth’s letter in the first act when she says “Yet do I fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness…” (1. 5. 2-3) (Shakespeare), which contrasts with the heroic description the dying Captain gives of Macbeth in the opening scene. After Macbeth tells his wife that he is calling off the plan to kill King Duncan, she
When Macbeth finds out about the witches prophecies, he quickly sends a letter to Lady Macbeth explaining the situation. She rapidly sees that she must help Macbeth become king, so she says “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness /To catch the nearest way. /Thou wouldst be great,/ Art not without ambition, but without/ The illness should attend it. (1.5.15-20). Right away, Lady Macbeth is going to do everything she possibly can to ensure he becomes king which proves her ambition. Later on in the play, Lady Macbeth makes another decision which shows that her ambition is quickly getting the worst out of her. When King Duncan arrives, Lady Macbeth sees a perfect opportunity to kill Duncan. She is worried that Macbeth will not go through with the plan so she says ¨When Duncan is asleep—/Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey/ Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains/Will I with wine and wassail so convince¨ (1.7.61-65). Lady Macbeth reveals that her need for power is taking a turn. She plots to get the “two chamberlains” drunk so she can blame the murder of Duncan on them. The fact that she plots out an entire plan to kill Duncan and that she is willing to blame it on someone else reveals that her ambition has brought out the worst in her.. All in all, Lady Macbeth is a character who does not second
Lady Macbeth negatively guides lots of Macbeth’s behaviour, for instance, when Macbeth hesitates to commit murder, she repeatedly questions his manhood until he feels that he has to do it to prove himself as the man that Lady Macbeth always mentioned; it is also one of the reasons that lead to Macbeth’s downfall, as well as the deaths of the other innocent characters in the text. “[Macbeth does] Like the poor cat i' th' adage? ”(1.7.46) says Lady Macbeth, when Macbeth is hesitating whether kill Duncan or not while he’s in Macbeth’s castle. Lady Macbeth describes Macbeth as a poor cat from old stories to satire Macbeth’s indecision. She degrades Macbeth’s manhood as he doesn’t have the dare to act the way he desires, to pursue the power and glory that he wants. Macbeth replies that he only dares to do what is proper for a man to do. However later in the text, Macbeth’s actions go crazy, he cares his family no more, as well as his friends and subordinates. Lady Macbeth seems to know that she needs to push Macbeth into committing murder, or Macbeth will just let nature take its course. At some points, she wishes that she was not a woman so that she could do the things that man could do by herself, such as the murder, so she won’t see Macbeth lacks in the power of decision and his overtaken by misgivings and fear. In addition, Julia encourages
“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. Macbeth knows that Duncan must be killed if he wants to acquire the throne, and the thought of Duncan’s murder is very disturbing to him. Macbeth desires to become king, but his ambition is halted when he thinks of the consequences that follow if he were to get his wish. However when Malcolm is chosen to become Prince of Cumberland Macbeth knew that if he did not take any actions then he wouldn’t be king. The reader can see that the ruthlessness that lied in Macbeth is coming out when he says “The Prince of Cumberland – that is a step On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Despite the fact that Macbeth is a ruthless individual Lady Macbeth makes him look like a saint. After Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter she sees an opportunity to become queen that she probably never thought about. Lady Macbeth’s desire for her husband to become king is stronger than Macbeth’s own desire for the throne. After Lady Macbeth learns that Duncan is going to visit Inverness she begins plotting to kill him even though her husband does show hesitation to kill Duncan.
Lady Macbeth is a very loving wife to Macbeth and she wants to do anything she can for him to achieve his goals. She just takes it a little too far, and she puts too much pressure on Macbeth to commit crimes that he is not sure he wants to do. After Macbeth sends her a letter about the witches’ premonitions, Lady Macbeth is no longer the sweet innocent lady we expect her to be. She turns into a person who is just as ambitious as her husband and she wants to do whatever it takes to help him get Duncan out of the way. She even goes to the point of calling Macbeth a coward, and mocking his bravery when he fails to complete the job. She is even willing to do it herself (plant the bloody knife with the guard). Lady Macbeth is constantly putting the pressure on Macbeth to do things that he is not sure about. She almost turns into a bully who dares Macbeth to go out and do evil things. She even says in a soliloquy that she wants to be released of all her morals and values so that she can help him commit these crimes.
After struggling with the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth is reprimanded by Lady Macbeth for his lack of courage. She informs him that killing the king will make him a man, insinuating that he isn’t a man if he doesn’t go through with the murder. This develops Lady Macbeth as a merciless, nasty, and selfish woman. She will say, or do anything to get what she desires, even if it means harming others. It is this selfishness that makes it hard for the reader to be empathetic towards her later in the play, as it is evident in this scene that her hardships were brought on by herself. If she hadn’t insisted on the murder, she would not be driven in...
At the end of the play this character feels guilt for what she has done and has taken the personality, which was that of her husband in the beginning.At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth speaks and shows her shows how cruel and heartless she really is; "And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty". This shows she has no good in her, what so ever. Macbeth on the other hand, began as a good respectable character. When Lady Macbeth speaks of killing Duncan, he gives many reasons for reasons that he could not do so. Some of the reasons he gives in that speech are, that Duncan respects him, and trusts Macbeth. Duncan is also related to him by blood, and if he were to kill him he would never be able to rid himself of the guilt; wash the blood from his hands.At the climax of the play Macbeth makes plans to kill Banquo, with out Lady Macbeth, without anyone.
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
On the other hand, Lady Macbeth's views on manhood are much different from her husband's and the other characters in the play. Unlike Macbeth, Lady Macbeth envisions a man to be opportunist, cruel and ruthless instead of honorable and loyal. When she receives the letter from Macbeth and learns of her chance to be queen, she prays that the spirits "that tend on mortal thoughts [would] unsex [her]", and that she will be "fill[ed] from the crown to the toe of direst cruelty", so that she would have the strength to murder Duncan. Believing the spirits would "unsex" her, she hopes that she wouldn't be bothered by a woman's kindness or remorse and thus would become a cruel killer, like a man.
To begin with, Lady Macbeth is an antagonist wife that forces her husband, Macbeth, to kill King Duncan so she can satisfy her own greediness and become queen. Her greedy desire to become queen makes her lose all morality. For example, when she hears that King Duncan is staying at her castle for the night, she says, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; stop the access and passage to remorse.” (Act 1, Scene 5).
In the beginning of the play, when Lady Macbeth is first introduced she is already plotting Duncan's murder. She even wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself saying in Act I, Scene 5, "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here." Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with astonishing success, overruling all his objections. When he does not wish to murder, she frequently questions his manhood until he feels that he must kill King Duncan in order to prove himself. They are both blinded by ambition; nothing will stop them from gaining the throne. Macbeth feels remorse immediately following the murder, but Lady Macbeth assures him that everything will be fine. When he worries over his blood stained hands she tells him in Act II, Scene 2 that "A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then!" Lady Macbeth also logically explains to her husband that as long as he is the new king, he can never be punished for the murder of Duncan, for no one possesses more power than he. She seems completely unaffected by the murder they two have conspired to commit. This apathy does not last for long however.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s desire and ambition leads to her eventual downfall. When Lady Macbeth hears of Macbeth’s prophecy she dreams of the glory and high-standing that awaits being queen. She cannot withhold her ambitions and she is willing to manipulate fate to bring about Macbeth’s prophecy. She invokes evil spirits to be filled from head to toe with cruelty to do the evil actions necessary to make Macbeth king and to remove all remorse and pity for her action from her heart. She is initially able to be involved in the treacherous deeds that are needed to bring about the prophecy quickly, but as the play progresses the weight of the merciless deeds fill her with remorse. The remorse and pain she feels for her wicked ways cause Lady Macbeth to lose control of her life and wither away until the weight of her deeds causes her to die. Lady Macbeth’s wish is partially granted, her mind becomes evil and enables her to do horrific things, but her soul remains pure and unsure of her actions and her remorse for her wicked ways leads to her destruction.