...wrong. But when we ignore our feelings of guilt, it can lead to the destruction of our conscience. In his play Macbeth, Shakespeare incorporates his idea of guilt into images for the audience. Blood and water are two symbols in Macbeth that function as keys to unlock the hidden message of the effects of guilt. Blood is used to remind Macbeth and Lady Macbeth of their violent actions, while water represents a way to cleanse their minds of the remorse they feel. Shakespeare’s use of blood and water are a chilling reminder of the power that guilt may have on people or how a person might overcome guilt, but become emotionally dead. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are two characters that are responsible for the bloody actions that occur in Macbeth. Blood is a reoccurring image that travels with the characters, not only on their hands, but in their minds. Wherever violence takes place in the play, blood is shown on the characters immediately after the crime. When Macbeth is involved in one of these crimes and kills Duncan, he soon regrets what he has done. But the blood on his hands shows the evidence of the act and that it can’t be undone. Lady Macbeth suggests to get rid of the evidence by putting the blood on the guards so “it must seem their guilt” (2.2.73). The symbol of blood can be seen as “the image of death” (Holloway 108). It represents the violence, since Macbeth says, “blood will have blood” (3.4.153). The characters want to escape their feelings of guilt and forget the murder...
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...There are multiple ways on how and why Macbeth has shown us how his personality has changed from a noble and loyal man to a gullible and naive person after being told he was destined to be King. After hearing from the witches’ that he is destined to be thane of Cawdor and King, Macbeth let’s this idea take over his mind. Shortly after he hears this prophecy, Macbeth slowly starts making his change in character appear more, this is how. The one way that Macbeth shows that he is selfish is that he talks about how and what he must do to become King. For example, in the text Macbeth says, “If chance will have me King, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” Macbeth is saying that if he is destined to be King, it’s going to happen without him doing anything. On the other hand, later on in the text, Macbeth says “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature?” This quote shows how after Macbeth was crowned thane of Cawdor he starts to become gullible to the witches’ prophecy about...
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...Clayton Prescott Macbeth Final Essay Macbeth’s life was great in the beginning, but turned into a disaster in the end. Macbeth was in a situation of power and success and ended up throwing it away due to greed, envy and power hunger. One could call his story a success because he got the power he wanted and was respected and feared by many of his people. Macbeth also had controlled and manipulated people he thought could be of service to him, and he ruined their lives also. Lady Macbeth was changed completely and was the sole reason that they would not be able to keep their murders hidden. Lady Macbeth was sleepwalking and a worker had heard her talking of the tragedies that she and Macbeth had committed. Macbeth was very regretful of the...
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...mind, one has to overcome a lot powerful to be able to ignore the feeling of compassion and guilt and to destroy their visual image of a human being and to turn it into a monster. In one of Shakespeare's famous play, “Macbeth,” Macbeth strips away his heroic traits when his ambition comes into play and slowly dehumanizes into a non-empathic monster which causes his marriage downfall. In the early stages of the play, Macbeth is the one in the relationship to fear failure and to lose his sense of morals while, in contrast, Lady Macbeth prays to be “unsexed” and to lose her sense of guilt. After they murder Duncan, their attitudes slowly start to change throughout the play and now Macbeth is one to obtain the power and replaces...
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...relationships in the story’s Shakespeare's Macbeth and Bronte’s Wuthering Heights are presented through sexism, jealousy, and betrayal. Destructive love can make a possible prosperous relationship. Destructive love can ruin the trust that is needed to have a well structured relationship. Love can make people do very horrific and evil things as the story Macbeth reveals in a very dark and fearsome way. Macbeth’s actions out of love for Lady Macbeth caused him to lose his sanity. Evil has the power to corrupt everything it touches, and Macbeth has become evils servant. Women are manipulative to men, women always strive to get what they want by being evil and malicious. In ( Macbeth 7.1) lady macbeth wants to have King Duncan murdered but she claims she cannot come to kill Duncan herself because in sleep he looks to much like her father. Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth to commit the murder of King Duncan because she can not bring herself to do it. Lady Macbeth then calls Macbeth a “Coward”, Macbeth then replies “ I dare do all that to become a man”. (Macbeth 1.7.2). Macbeth loves her husband although now that she has control over him she has started to become very wicked. Lady Macbeth is very strategic when it comes to the murder of King Duncan....
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...In the tragic play script ‘Macbeth’ written by William Shakespeare, we follow Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as their ambition turns from good ambition like respecting their country and fighting for their King, to evil ambition, as they develop an evil flaw by performing evil acts like murder and deceitfulness. At the beginning of the play script, Macbeth is determined to do good works so that he will be well known and remembered. Then Lady Macbeth’s longing for the crown causes her to be very manipulative. She persuades her husband to do evil and once Macbeth does what she wants, they are caught in a spiral of evil doings. At the beginning of this play script, Macbeth does well in the war against the Norwegians. King Duncan orders the death of the...
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...the entirety of Macbeth, without them there would be little plot and the play would seem dry and repetitive. The women, especially Lady Macbeth and the witches, are definitely catalysts for some of the major issues in the play such as the murder of Duncan and starting Macbeth on the path of blood. Even though it was the witches who first told Macbeth the prophecy about him being the future king, they cannot control other people’s actions and fates, since every decision that someone makes ultimately changes their destiny. The witches merely planted the idea in Macbeth’s head and boosted his ego by praising him and saying, “all hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter”, giving Macbeth the push he needed to become obsessed with the power that being king grants (I.II.). If deep down Macbeth hadn’t had the ambition and urge to be king, the witches wouldn’t have had as much of an influence on Macbeth as they did. Lady Macbeth, however, has a less hands-off approach when it comes to putting the slew of murders into effect. It is her who talks Macbeth into killing Duncan when Macbeth first begins to show signs of weakness and cowardliness. Having second thoughts before committing a murder would seem humane and natural, but Lady Macbeth will have none of it when she says to Macbeth “when you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (I.VII). By questioning his manhood and bravery, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into carrying...
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...Lady Macbeth is a fascinating character in the famous play written by William Shakespeare entitled Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has a multi faceted personality because one side of her character is contemptible, determined and rude while the other side is extremely fearful and hesitant. One of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, Lady Macbeth is known for manipulating her husband to commit the murder of king Duncan and thereby making her an active participant in the crime. Ambition is one of her most prominent traits; She will do anything to become queen and eventually she does but the thing about Lady Macbeth is that she has a conscience, even though she regards it as a weakness. The regret she feels about convincing her husband kill the king, the representative of God on earth, is eventually her demise. The first appearance of Lady Macbeth is in Act 1 Scene 5. At the beginning of the play she is violent and ambitious. She wants King Duncan dead so she can be the Queen and her husband the king. She craves power and control. Lady Macbeth is extremely controlling and uses any means necessary to eventually achieving her goal of getting her husband to murder the king. She states“, “were you not a man when you broke this enterprise to me”(1,7,47-48). Her ability to manipulate her husband eventually changes his mind and he goes ahead and kills Duncan. Lady Macbeth is willing to lie and compromise her integrity if she can get what she wants. Lady Macbeth questions her husband’s masculinity...
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...From the beginning of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is viewed as very controlling, strong, and certain; saying that Macbeth ‘Shalt be what thou art promised’. This illustrates Lady Macbeth’s position in the relationship, she is ordering Macbeth to become what the witches have foreseen. We see just how powerful Lady Macbeth is, if she can command her husband to murder the king of Scotland. Her power is also shown in the way she taunts Macbeth, saying he is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’. This shows how cold Lady Macbeth is, as milk is the food of new born children, she is implying Macbeth is too much like a kind child to murder anyone, which is another method used to spur Macbeth on into killing Duncan. Her coldness and control is again shown when she begins to plot Duncan’s murder with Macbeth, she says he should ‘look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it’, more advice for the killing of his king, and ‘leave the rest to me’ shows her cool control over the matter. Lady Macbeth also shows a more helpful side, offering help. ‘I may pour my spirits in thine ear’, which although apparently providing a contrast to her cold hearted plotting earlier, is in fact another way in which she is convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan. Her words propose sweetness, but are in fact rooted in evil, and this perhaps shows an ‘innocent flower’ side to Lady Macbeth. Macbeth, however, is on the other end of the scale in their relationship, and this is seen once he plucks...
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...Evil in Macbeth In Macbeth, the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth undergo drastic changes as the play unfolds. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth regress from logical and human like people, into evil characters that would be found in a horror film. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem like two usual human beings, but after hearing about possibly becoming king and queen these characters turn to the dark side and resort to murdering the current king to take the thrown. Once the characters resort to murder, regret and guilt begin to consume their lives, resulting in death for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play Macbeth, the elements...
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...Lady Macbeth vs. Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth Often, the influences in one’s life alter his or her attitude and point of view of the surrounding world. Lady Macbeth plays this influential role in Macbeth’s life. Her seductive words convince Macbeth to kill King Duncan, which further leads to a change in Macbeth’s personality. These two contrasting characters set the stage for a perfect example of a complete 360 transformation. While it is Lady Macbeth who primarily leads to Macbeth’s transformation, her transformation is more of a self-triggered change. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s fearless, manipulative, and shameless qualities fade, as the once moral Macbeth gains these qualities and turns into an evil, life-taking ruler. Right from the start, it is easy to identify Lady Macbeth’s greedy and manipulative qualities. After finding out that her husband has been prophesized to be the...
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...Ambition – A Tragic Flaw Macbeth by William Shakespeare highlights the blinding powers of ambition demonstrated within its characters. Ambition has the potential to prompt a character to build determination and fulfill many achievements. On the other hand, ambition can also become a character’s leading tragic flaw. The main plot of the play displays the various acts Macbeth carries out in order to dismiss the threats between him and the throne. Although he implements the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is the intelligence behind his violent actions. Since she is the most influential individual in Macbeth’s life, Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband using belittlement and emotional blackmail in order to achieve her own ambition, to gain...
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...THEMES OF GUILT – MACBETH In the story of Macbeth, guilt is an important theme due to the fact that it unstiffens Macbeth’s ambition and coldness. His brutality is balanced by his guilt, a trait that enables the audience to identify with Macbeth throughout the play despite his oppressiveness. MACBETH AND LADY MACBETH: The two main characters who experience extreme feelings of guilt throughout the play are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s guilt is caused by the ghosts of those who he murdered and of the consequences that follow their murders. For example, Macbeth is visited by the ghost of Banquo, who he murdered to protect his secret. The apparition embodies Macbeth’s guilt and therefore causes Macbeth to nearly reveal the truth about King Duncan’s murder. Macbeth’s guilt prevents him from enjoying his gain of royalty but it does not stop him from committing more than 1 murders. This perhaps indicates a lack of morality, which is Macbeth’s key character flaw. Lady Macbeth on the overhand is driven crazy from the adrenaline of watching her husband commit such murders and is the force behind his actions. Unlike Macbeth’s...
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...see that Macbeth and Lad Macbeth’s relation ship is starting to deteriorate. At this point in the play we are told that Macbeth is meeting up with two assassins. He is asking them to do a terrible deed. this I made good to you In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments, Who wrought with them, and all things else that might To half a soul and to a notion craz'd Say, 'Thus did Banquo.'" This highlights that he has asked two murderers to kill his friend Banquo without telling his wife. As the play continues we are told that there is a banquet and Lady Macbeth almost finds out about Macbeths secret of the murderers. At this point in the play we are told that Macbeth is in his castle with different Lords and Noble men, Macbeth tells his wife. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck. Till thou applaud the deed This emphasises that Macbeth wants to keep the secret until he knows that the deed has been done. This shows that their important relationship is dramatically changed for the worse and we see that the relationship is still spiralling downwards. Later on in the play we are told that Macbeth has decided to kill Macduff’s family for fleeing to England which he has done without telling his wife Macbeth which shows us that the relationship between them has deteriorated quickly. At this point Macbeth has just been told by the witches that he has to beware Macduff’s so Macbeth says ...
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...the world lives under a corrupt government. Corruption is inevitable and in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he shows how even an honorable, loyal man can become a power-hungry tyrant. The corruption begins with the manipulation of others, who make Macbeth, a trustworthy general, doubt his loyalty and morals. By influencing him into thinking he should be king, they cause him to make irreparable actions. Macbeth’s example shows how manipulation can corrupt one’s mindset. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is approached by the witches proclaiming him as future king: “All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, thane of Glamis! / All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor! / All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! (1.3.17)....
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