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Essay On Macbeth's Manipulation Of Lady Anne

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The manipulation of Lady Anne by Richard III, as well as Lady Macbeth’s corruption of her husband, both lean on tactics that target their victim's sense of self and sexuality to achieve the manipulator's goals.
Lady Anne is, against common sense, wooed into marrying Richard through his unwavering confident use of flattery. Not only did Richard murder Henry IV, Anne’s father in law, but his corpse is being processed as Richard begins to seduce the initially spiteful lady. As odd as it seems to attempt to seduce a woman who is currently grieving men who died by your own hand, in front of their funeral procession, Richard is aware of Anne’s ripe vulnerability, and exploits it. The root of his success could be tied to a number of sources. Her …show more content…
She directly questions the manhood of Macbeth in an attempt to prod him to action. She mocks him, regarding the murder of Duncan she challenges him that, “when you durst do it [the murder], then you are a man.” The attack on his masculinity is enough to move Macbeth to murder Duncan. It could be viewed that perhaps Lady Macbeth possesses more masculinity than her husband, the thirst for the murder of Duncan is hers, not Macbeth’s. She even goes so far as to lament her female birth, desiring to, “unsex me here… come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall” (1.5.31). She points to her own womanhood as a barrier to her becoming violent, the nature of which she associates with masculinity. This masculinity, or at least enough to carry out the murder of Duncan, is not possessed by her husband either, and she mocks him about this until he is rattled enough to do the deed. The implication here, and throughout Macbeth is the dangers of women holding too much influence over men. Gender roles are flipped on their heads in the play, and women are responsible for the motivations behind much of the violence seen. The prophecy of the witches in the first act is another example of women planting the seeds for violent action to occur. Macbeth was free to ignore the prophecy, but he does

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