In this passage taken from Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth delivers her famous soliloquy about wanting to commit murder with her husband, Macbeth, in order to dethrone the current king and ultimately gain power. Prior to this passage, in Act 1, Scene 6, Macbeth encountered three witches who provided him with three prophecies that would continue to guide and motivate his actions throughout the play. In the selected passage, Lady Macbeth has received a letter from Macbeth describing his fate; determined by a power-hungry driving force, Lady Macbeth concludes that the only way Macbeth will be ruled as king is if he assassinates the current king, Duncan. In this excerpt, Shakespeare uses diction, characterization, symbols, metaphors, …show more content…
and similes to expose Lady Macbeth’s true identity and contrast it to Macbeth’s character, furthering the plot. The passage contains a conversation between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
The two characters’ diction reveal much about their intentions, feelings, and attitudes towards dethroning King Duncan. As Lady Macbeth speaks, Macbeth responds briefly and in a dismissive way, postponing their discussion on the murder—stating that they “will speak further” (37). Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, discloses her wicked traits and thirst for the crown through dark diction that includes references to death, blood, and darkness. She calls upon spirits to “tend on mortal thoughts,” suggesting that she is mentally prepared to commit murder. Consequently, she requests the spirits to “fill [her], from the crown to the toe” with “mortal thoughts,” a reference to becoming a queen, no matter what it takes (2-3). These lines suggest that Lady Macbeth is willing to do anything, even commit murder, in order to sit with a crown upon her head. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth differ in their diction used, exposing the more powerful, manly features of Lady Macbeth, stripping away the femininity, delicateness, and poise she once had. Macbeth inherits the role of being afraid and skeptical of the extent to which Lady Macbeth will …show more content…
go. The character development of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth proceeds in this scene. As Macbeth requests to postpone their discussion on murder by claiming they “will speak further” (37), Lady Macbeth takes on a leadership role, commanding Macbeth to “leave all the rest to” her (40), putting “this night’s great business into [her] dispatch” (34). Lady Macbeth knows her place in their relationship by taking matters into her own hands, even fearing that Macbeth does not have the strength it takes to commit murder. Though Macbeth attempts to distract Lady Macbeth and not uncover the issue, she pushes to continue the discussion until she realizes that the only way progress will be made is if she executes the murder. She tells Macbeth, assertively, that “to alter favor ever is to fear,” essentially calling him fearful and unmanly (39). Throughout this passage, the audience watches Lady Macbeth develop a dark and evil personality, foreshadowing what is to come: murder. In this infamous passage, a variety of metaphors, similes, and symbols are present, adding deeper meaning and interest to the plot and intentions of Lady Macbeth.
She calls for the spirits to “make thick [her] blood,” a metaphor for her determination and a way of poetically explaining how she needs to put on a tough front in order to commit murder without feeling emotions or weakness, detaching herself from her femininity (4). Lady Macbeth calls for the “thick night” to come in the “dunnest smoke of hell” foreshadowing the tragic death of Duncan and others (11-12). The thick night and hell symbolize her and Macbeth’s destiny: death in hell. When speaking with Macbeth, she compares his face to a book “where men may read strange matters,” suggesting that people are able to read his emotions and weakness (28-29). To then encourage him, Lady Macbeth directs him to “look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under't,” a beautiful, intricate way of telling Macbeth to overtly portray himself as a nice, quality man, but within be unafraid to use deceit and betrayal in order to fulfil his ambitions
(31-32). This famous passage reveals several truths about Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, allowing the plot to further develop. By showcasing their character development through the use of symbols, metaphors, similes, and diction, the audience gains a greater perspective into what lies within each character: greed and ambition vs. fear and doubtfulness. Without this passage and characterization, the motivation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would be foreign to the audience.
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.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth focuses mainly on becoming king. He is influenced by his wife, Lady Macbeth throughout the story. Lady Macbeth says; “Shall be,” (1.5.11) stating that she will have something to do with the fulfillment of the deed. Lady Macbeth also greets her husband using same words of the three witches by saying, “all hail” and hereafter (1.5.10). Macbeth becomes apprehensive of the deed that he is about to perform. Lady Macbeth continuously helps lead Macbeth into an evil spiral. At this point in the play Macbeth is confused and lacks the ability to make his own decision. He feels that killing king Duncan would be a horrid deed because Duncan his cousin. He is also concerned about his soul after life. "This even-handed justice commends the ingredients ...
just wants to get it over and done with. The use of 'it' shows Macbeth
Macbeth's desire to become king is strongly supported by his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a highly ambitious woman who, like her husband, is willing to do anything to obtain power. Shakespeare uses a series of imagery to vividly portray the desire for power in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy: “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!” To achieve her ambition, Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth “to catch the nearest way.” This means she wants him to kill Duncan so that he can become king. However, she fears that Macbeth is “too full o' th' milk of human kindness” to “catch the nearest way.” When Macbeth is reluctant to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth starts attacking his masculinity. “Then you were a man,” she said. Lady Macbeth also uses the power of emotional blackmail to manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan.
Throughout Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy she echoes the idea of stripping human nature from herself. Although Human nature is debated, Lady Macbeth’s view is of human kindness, unobtrusiveness, and meekness. Lady Macbeth has just received a letter from her husband disclosing to her that he had been named Thane of cawdor and following this will be king. She delivers this soliloquy in order to prepare herself for the act of killing Duncan, conducive to making her husband king, and consequently making herself queen. To achieve the stripping of human nature from herself she delivers the lines “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.” ( 1.5.47-50). This depicts the image of a supernatural power having to intervene in order to make her unwillingness to kill leave. She also claims that for her to become ruthless she must be unsexed, portraying the woman to be meek creature who is unable to murder. “Make thick my blood./Stop up the access and passage to
Once Macbeth is told his prophecy of being king by the witches, he soon writes a letter to his wife explaining his newly found future, hoping to find some advice in return. Instead, Lady Macbeth quickly begins to think how life could be greater if he were king now. She then persuades Macbeth into killing King Duncan. "And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man." says Lady Macbeth, trying to change her husbands mind. She shows Macbeth that if they follow her plan exactly and show remorse for the kings' death. They would not fail, "Who dares receive it other, As we shall make our greifs and clamor roar upon his death?"
Strange things begin happening in Macbeth's mind when he decides to go through with the murder of Duncan. He sees the image of the dagger floating in front of him(53). This is his inner thoughts warning him on how unnatural this act is. When he goes to Duncan's chamber, he hears warnings from his conscious. "Sleep no more!/Macbeth doth murdered sleep"- the innocent sleep."(57) This is Macbeth's first evil act. At this point he still hears the warnings. As he gets further into the darkness, all the other voices disappear. Instead he is haunted by evil dreams, images, and premonitions. Lady Macbeth is also warned of the trouble that is to come from this. When she goes to Duncan's chamber, she sees the image of her father, warning her not to murder Duncan. She strips herself of all good to gather the strength to go through with the act. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth give up their souls in pursuit of the kingship. It is this obvious disregard for the warnings by the conscience of the loss of innocence that causes them to be haunted by it later in the play.
“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 vicious and overly ambitious woman, her desire of having something over rules all the moral behaviors that one should follow. On the beginning of the novel, Macbeth receives the news that if Duncan, the current king, passed away he would be the next one to the throne. So, Lady Macbeth induces Macbeth into killing Duncan by filling his mind with ambition and planting cruel seeds into his head. After accomplishing his deed of killing the king, he brings out the daggers that were used during the murder, and says, “I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; look on’t again I dare not.” This is his first crime and Macbeth is already filled with guilt and regret. He shows the reader to be the weak one of the duo. Lady Macbeth as the cruel partner still has some sentiment and somewhat a weakness in her heart and mind. When talking about Duncan she says, “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” Weakness is still present and will always be there throughout the novel but this one change the fact that Lady Macbeth is still the stronger and cruel one.
Macbeth rejects conformation to traditional gender roles in its portrayal of Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband, her morals and their effect on her actions, and her hunger for power. Her regard for Macbeth is one of low respect and beratement, an uncommon and most likely socially unacceptable attitude for a wife to have towards her spouse at the time. She often ignores morality and acts for the benefit of her husband, and subsequently herself. She is also very power-hungry and lets nothing stand in the way of her success. Lady Macbeth was a character which challenged expectations of women and feminism when it was written in the seventeenth century.
Thesis: One of the most deceitful themes in Shakespeare's Macbeth is amongst individuals using deception in order to gain success. These individuals may endure infinite regret, deceived into experiencing an eventual downfall, resulting in tragedy. This is first introduced amongst the witches, as well as later on through both Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth himself. These two come to realize the power of deception; however, eventually fall victim by others all around them.
Macbeth says, “We will proceed no further in this business,” regarding his king who had honored him and his own reputation. Instead of telling him what to do in a forward manner, Lady Macbeth lures Macbeth toward murdering the king by prompting his mind to think about what his actions make of him: cowardly or courageous. Through manipulative, intriguing words, Lady Macbeth is able to make Macbeth question his own manhood and their love with rhetorical questions: “From this time/ Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valor/ As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that/ Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life,/ And live a coward in thine own esteem” (38-43). She questions their love and and asks what “made [him] break [this] enterprise to [her]”––their promise to get Macbeth’s throne as quickly as possible (55). Continuously asking Macbeth questions, Lady Macbeth wins Macbeth over and causes him to prove his manlihood and courage to follow through with murdering the king. Successfully, Lady Macbeth is able to persuade Macbeth, bring him to a decision, and inspire him with her fearlessness and “undaunted mettle” to “compose nothing but males” (73-74). Lady Macbeth’s driven yet destructive nature encouraged Macbeth’s By attacking Macbeth’s manhood, even to the point of saying that she was more or a man than he is, she convinces him
To begin, as soon as Lady Macbeth is informed of the prophecies, she immediately resorts to cruelty as the quickest route to achieve royalty and begins to urge Macbeth to murder Duncan through her persuasive, yet manipulative tactics: “But screw your courage to the sticking place,/ And we’ll not fail…” (1.7.67-68). Similar to how Macbeth addresses Lady Macbeth as his “partner of greatness” in his letter, Lady Macbeth continues to believe that she and her husband are still sharing the same mindset and are working together in the murder of Duncan, referring to the two as “we’ll.” Though, conflict is beginning to arise as Lady Macbeth is shown to be belittling her husband by questioning his manliness. She focuses on the definition of an ‘ideal’ man that is able to translate desire into action, which appeals to Macbeth’s warrior nature, and therefore convinces him to follow through with the murder. Little does she know that even though Macbeth eventually agrees to follow through with the plan, he does so reluctantly, and shows his disagreement by telling his wife “To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself” (2.2.92). The couples’ relationship is shown to be slowly declining as although Macbeth is still communicating his thoughts and emotions to his wife, he did not kill Duncan purely to accomplish his own goal, but rather through the persuasion and manipulation of his wife. Lady Macbeth orders the immediate murder of Duncan, whereas Macbeth is not convinced that the murder is the best option for gaining his royal status and therefore was hesitant to follow through with the plan. As a result of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s disagreement as to the best way to accomplish the prophecy, their marriage is slowly falling
The main theme of Macbeth-the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints-finds its most powerful expression in the play's two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one?s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throne?Banquo, Fleance, Macduff?and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.
During the excursion to become king, Macbeth successfully murders King Duncan, Macduff’s wife and children, and with the help of a group of murderers Banquo; a brave general who will inherit the Scottish throne. Throughout the whole play, while such darker occurrences are used to create deep moods, Shakespeare also uses strong language and words. Such as when Lady Macbeth calls upon the gods to make her man-like so she will have the fortitude to kill King Duncan herself in this quote, “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. Make my blood thick. Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark.”