The Downfall of Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

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The Downfall of Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

William Shakespeare's Macbeth has been a theatrical favorite since Elizabethan times. Its timeless themes of ambition, fate, violence, and insanity collaborate to produce a captivating plot. The audience traces the disintegration of a tragic hero and his willful wife. Lady Macbeth, one of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, plays an important role in the play Macbeth. She has a profound influence over the action of the play, and her character accentuates many of the themes. It seems evident that Lady Macbeth is motivated by repressed emotional complexes which lead to her insanity.

Lady Macbeth is introduced as she reads a letter from her husband regarding his new title and the prophesies of the three weird sisters. Macbeth is the first to contemplate killing King Duncan, but the notion immediately enters his desirous wife's mind as well. Macbeth is the medium through which the train of evil extends to his calculating companion. Once this evil is exposed, Lady Macbeth's strong and dominating ambition to become queen is born (Jameson 192).

There are two reasons why Lady Macbeth is ambitious. Her first motive, ardent affection for her husband, reveals a touch of womanhood. Because she loves Macbeth, she has an earnest desire to help him attain the throne. Upon reading his letter, the devoted Lady Macbeth does not once refer to herself; she thinks only of Macbeth (Jameson 191-2). On a deeper level, Lady Macbeth's ambition also stems from a sublimation of a repressed desire for children. This sublimation is based upon the memory of her long since dead child. The unconscious battle that this memory produces plagues Lady Macbeth's ...

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...that culminates in her insanity. The tragedy of Lady Macbeth's disintegration enhances the masterpiece, Macbeth.

Bibliography:

Coriat, Isador H. "The Hysteria of Lady Macbeth." Shakespearean Criticism. Eds. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Mark W. Scott. 12 vols. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986. 3: 219-223.

Freud, Sigmund. "Some Character-Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work." Shakespearean Criticism. Eds. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Mark W. Scott. 12 vols. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986. 3: 223-225.

Jameson, Anna Brownell. "Lady Macbeth." Shakespearean Criticism. Eds. Laurie Lanzen Harris and Mark W. Scott. 12 vols. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1986. 3: 191-193.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. English and Western Literature. Ed. George Kearnes. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1984. 112-187.

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