...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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...Lady Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth illustrates one of Shakespeare’s most powerful female characters because of her role as both a driving and destructive force, which was uncommon of women during the Elizabethan Era. Women of this time (circa AD 1000) were not very influential and did not normally have meaningful input. Despite this social convention, Lady Macbeth is an unparalleled character Shakespeare creates to entertain his audience. Lady Macbeth’s passionate desire and ambition to murder Duncan in order to gain power is a characteristic developed by Shakespeare not seen in her historical counterparts. After learning of the prophecy telling that Macbeth will become King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth ferociously pushes Macbeth to murder Duncan and cleverly uses her words to manipulate Macbeth into action “through a meticulous process of cruel and piercing emasculation, purposefully designed to attack his warrior status” (Ancona and Thompson). This exemplifies how...
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...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 up the...
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...Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime. Lady Macbeth is a dominant character as soon as she is introduced into the play. A.C. Bradley wrote about her as “…the most commanding and perhaps the most awe-inspiring figure that Shakespeare drew” from his article titled Lecture X. She became a image known for her ambitious nature. Her thirst for power and disregard for life was shocking to the audience, as to her own husband. The moment she learns of the prophecies, she decides to stand behind Macbeth and see him to the throne. She is immediately set on her quest for more power. As it reads “Glamis thou art, and Cowador, and shalt be/ What thou art promised (1.5.13-14) This moment is...
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...Macbeths become accomplices in regicide, their relationship irretrievably falls apart.’ Discuss to what extend do you agree that the physical horror of King Duncan’s death kills the Macbeth’s marriage. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, King Duncan’s death caused a great turmoil in the minds of the Macbeths and left no space for love, hence, their relationship began to crumble, as they reacted to the murder in different ways: Lady Macbeth, entering insanity, and Macbeth, thirsting for more power. Nevertheless, even at the end, Macbeth’s love for his wife, however strained, did not completely perish. Lady Macbeth is a ruthless, ambitious wife and it is questionable that her love for Macbeth was truly real since the beginning of their marriage. Instead, she lusted over his status and wealth. Immediately when she received the letter from Macbeth, she began to plot the death of King Duncan, and steeled herself from her morals, asking that she is ‘unsexed’ so that she may have a mind of a man who is strong enough to handle the thoughts of murder, as she made known through her famous ‘Unsex me’ speech: ‘Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty…’ (p.15) As opposed to Macbeth, she was easily drawn to the possibility of power and had not a moment of indecision to do anything necessary to obtain the throne and to involve her husband in it. This gives a hint that Lady Macbeth may not have married Macbeth only...
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...he will become king. Filled with ambition and driven by the words of his wife, Macbeth killed King Duncan of Scotland and was crowned king.Eventually the guilt and paranoia of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth led to the murders of Banquo, members of the Macduff family and countless others to secure Macbeth’s power. More prophecies pushed Macbeth into a state of overconfidence, which ultimately resulted in the demise of Macbeth and his wife. Throughout the tragedy, Shakespeare used Macbeth and...
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...Annotated Bibliographies In Macbeth, the author William Shakespeare uses the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to present the idea that evil can separate and destroy even the strongest and most affectionate of relationships. Munro, Robert. “Lady Macbeth: A Psychological sketch.” The Journal of Speculative Philosophy. 21. 1 (1887): 30-36. JSTOR. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. Lady Macbeth first appears ‘fair, feminine, perhaps, even fragile,’ Munro quotes in his journal which is about the psychological factors behind Lady Macbeth. Munro first states how much Macbeth loves Lady Macbeth and quotes that Macbeth writes in a letter to her, calling her, ‘[his] dearest partner of greatness.’ After the encounter with the witches, Macbeth knows that...
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...Lady Macbeth found via Google - not my own work In typical Shakespearean tragedies, female main characters aren't always treated brilliantly. In Hamlet, Ophelia goes down the "I shall obey, my lord" route. In Othello, Desdemona goes down the "To you I am bound" route. Yet in Macbeth, this isn't quite the case. The most important female figure is Lady Macbeth, a cunning and manipulative woman who is associated with the supernatural. Instantly it can be argued that Lady Macbeth fits in with the later idea of certain Gothic women being 'sinister predators', or 'femme fatales'. | Dame Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth | Lady Macbeth has been the subject of much debate for hundreds of years. Her role in the play is incredibly important and she is the subject of various interpretations. Her first appearance in the play is in act one, scene five. She opens by reading Macbeth's letter; instantly this seems to present her as a typical Shakespearean woman (when I say typical, I mean typical in terms of main female characters in tragedies being passive), since her first words are that of her husband's, as though she is bound to him. Then she stops reading the letter, and we start to realise that she isn't at all typical. She instantly states that Macbeth will be "what thou art promised", which shows a determination and strength of will that we may not have been expecting. She goes on to criticise her husband's nature, since he is "too full o'th'milk of human kindness". A wife...
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...In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth experiences a dramatic change in character, leading to her demise. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is a powerful woman. She is able to manipulate and convince her husband into committing murder for the crown. Throughout Acts I and II, Lady Macbeth’s strength and evil nature overpowers Macbeth. She takes control and plans Macbeth’s first murder. The murder of King Duncan reveals Lady Macbeth’s ruthlessness and persuasive skills. However, by Act III, Lady Macbeth’s entire character changes; she becomes depressed due to her husband’s lack of attention and newly found confidence. He no longer needs her to make his decisions. Guilt starts to consume her, and her mental state weakens. In...
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...The Prison of Marriage Each morning that we wake up, life presents us with many choices. Some people are conscious of these choices, others are not. Whether one is a college student in search of a major or the man in line at a deli, the opportunity for decision seems solely one’s own. However, the surrounding factors of that person’s life will inevitably affect the decision at hand. Often, without knowing it, we are placed in a role that life, in general, expects us to fulfill. Once we find ourselves in a role, it is difficult to displace ourselves from it, and as a result, we rely on this role to aid us in our decisions. Professor of psychology Philip K. Zimbardo finds that people are obedient in accepting roles assigned by others. Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment” discusses male college students placed in a prison experiment and assigned the role of either “prisoner” of “guard.” Zimbardo claims to have “sought to understand more about the process by which people called ‘prisoners’ lose their liberty, civil rights, independence and privacy, while those called ‘guards’ gain social power by accepting the responsibility for controlling and managing the lives of their dependent charges” (365). Zimbardo concludes that the roles of guard and prisoner can be seen in many realms of life. Zimbardo suggests that sexism, racism, and shyness are, for many people, prisons of the mind. Furthermore, Zimbardo feels that marriage can be described as a prison: The physical institution...
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...Essay #1 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a very unstable relationship. At first, Lady Macbeth was the dominant and powerful leader in the relationship, while Macbeth was the one with less power and control. Lady Macbeth’s demeanor and power weakened drastically as Macbeth became King, where she was put aside and ignored. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to be very strong. Macbeth initiates this by referring to Lady Macbeth in his letter as “my dearest partner of greatness” when he was telling her about the prophecies (1.5, 13). By telling her of the witches it shows that he trusts her to the point of telling her anything. It also shows that he values her opinion. When Macbeth told her about the prophecy, Lady Macbeth immediately had ambition to be queen (1.4, 19-20). It is shown that she is willing to do anything to get the opportunity to become powerful. Their relationship shows a significant change after the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth was very hesitant on murdering the King but Lady Macbeth was very persistent on fulfilling the task. Lady Macbeth was the superior one towards the beginning with putting together the plans, while Macbeth just obeyed them. Lady Macbeth states "My hands are of your colour, but I shame, to wear a heart so white" (2.2,67-68). This shows that she is insulting Macbeth’s manliness. Macbeth had many doubts on whether or not he should complete the task, but he just followed the plans anyways to prove his manhood to his wife...
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...William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth highlights the life of a general as he attempts to become the King of Scotland. In order to achieve this he is forced to murder several characters, including the prior king, Duncan. Although on the surface it appears that Macbeth is a member of the human race, when clawing deeper it is obvious that this is not true. Through Macbeth’s diction and comments from other characters in the play, it is quite obvious that Macbeth is a dog. Beginning in the first act of the play, Lady Macbeth makes it clear that she is aware of her husband’s true identity. While discussing Macbeth’s doubts on whether to murder Duncan, Lady Macbeth asks him, “What beast was’t, / then,” essentially asking him what kind of animal...
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...The Fall of Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is seen as a calculating factor in Macbeth’s life. She is able to manipulate his action, which in turn affects the events in the drama. However, midway through the play, she loses control of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth played as the leader throughout the play. Lady Macbeth was the catalyst that lead Macbeth to do things he couldn’t of done on his own. Macbeth was highly ambitious, but Lady Macbeth was even more so. Without Lady Macbeth, the tragic downfall of Macbeth wouldn’t of happened. To begin, Lady Macbeth uses Macbeth as the stepping stool to the throne. Lady Macbeth wants the power, and she knows Macbeth would do anything for her because he loves her. Lady Macbeth makes it clear that she is the...
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...lust for power ultimately leads to their downfall. To begin, Macbeth’s thirst for power commences upon hearing the Witches’ prophecy. The Third Witch proclaims, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.51). Macbeth and his companion, Banquo, find this prophecy of being king absurd to the point of being funny. Yet Macbeth secretly...
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... The relationships an individual has in their life can often set the path to a battle with their own power, which then shapes the critical events...
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