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Character analysis in othello by shakespeare
Comparing and contrasting characters in shakespeare
Character analysis in othello by shakespeare
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Is Lady Macbeth evil or just crazy? I would argue she is completely crazy, while giving the illusion of being evil. Lady Macbeth, the loving wife of Macbeth, tries to further her husband’s political position by any means possible. She convinces Macbeth to commit murder, sending him down a spiral of villainy. While also acting crazy and attempting to let evil spirits fill her body. Which leads to her inevitably being driven into a guilt fueled state of madness.
To illustrate Lady Macbeth’s evilness, while she was reflecting to herself about Macbeth’s letter she said the following; “You want to be great; you’re not without ambition; but you lack the necessary wickedness”(Act I Scene V 16-18). She implies he needs wickedness to have ambition, usually a stereotypically evil thing to say. Still, we don’t know if she means she needs to act as the “necessary wickedness”. She then adds; “Hurry here quickly, so I can pour my thoughts in your ear and scold away with my bold tongue everything that stands between you and the crown”(23-26). This suggests she thinks her “bold tongue” will be the “necessary
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This is shown when she attempts to contact evil spirits. “Come, you spirits that watch over deadly thoughts; take away my womanliness and fill me to the brim, from head to toe, with the most dreadful cruelty!”(42-45). Wanting spirits to fill her with “dreadful cruelty” is something a crazy person would say. However, now that we know she is crazy, is she still evil? While she does convince Macbeth to kill Duncan, surely someone evil would have no problem doing it themselves? Lady Macbeth is simply a mentally deranged person. Her craziness is manifesting aggressively and causing her to crave power. Which explains why she wants Macbeth to become king and her over-controlling nature towards him during the first portion of the play. Although this may have appeared to be evil, it was merely
I believe that Lady Macbeth is training Macbeth to be evil, and she knows so much about being evil because Lady Macbeth herself is evil. I this next quote it proves that Macbeth did not want to commit any of the murders in the first place:
Lady Macbeth is inarguably a very strong, powerful woman with a lot of control, especially at the beginning of the play. This quote explains the extent of her control over her husband, “Lady Macbeth appears to be somehow in league with evil and Macbeth its victim, a fly in the spider’s web who struggles mightily but cannot escape” (Johnson). She manipulates her husband to get him to do what she wants. When she learns of his destiny to become king, she can’t just let him sit around waiting on it to happen; she knows he has to act. She tells Macbeth he has to kill king Duncan and overrides his objections. Lady Macbeth tries to commit the mu...
A quote which really defines Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambition regarding power is “Power does not corrupt men; fools; however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power” George Bernard Shaw. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious in terms of gaining power then Macbeth is and that Lady Macbeth will do almost anything to gain power, even evil things that she normally wouldn’t do. This is shown when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth learn about the witches’ predictions, then roles in the plans to murder king Duncan in order to gain power and then finally after the murder, Macbeth doesn’t want to finish the plan making Lady Macbeth angry and causing a chance they might get caught and gain no power at all.
When Macbeth finds out about the witches prophecies, he quickly sends a letter to Lady Macbeth explaining the situation. She rapidly sees that she must help Macbeth become king, so she says “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness /To catch the nearest way. /Thou wouldst be great,/ Art not without ambition, but without/ The illness should attend it. (1.5.15-20). Right away, Lady Macbeth is going to do everything she possibly can to ensure he becomes king which proves her ambition. Later on in the play, Lady Macbeth makes another decision which shows that her ambition is quickly getting the worst out of her. When King Duncan arrives, Lady Macbeth sees a perfect opportunity to kill Duncan. She is worried that Macbeth will not go through with the plan so she says ¨When Duncan is asleep—/Whereto the rather shall his day’s hard journey/ Soundly invite him—his two chamberlains/Will I with wine and wassail so convince¨ (1.7.61-65). Lady Macbeth reveals that her need for power is taking a turn. She plots to get the “two chamberlains” drunk so she can blame the murder of Duncan on them. The fact that she plots out an entire plan to kill Duncan and that she is willing to blame it on someone else reveals that her ambition has brought out the worst in her.. All in all, Lady Macbeth is a character who does not second
In the Shakespearian play 'Macbeth', it seems to be that every one thinks that Macbeth is the villain. But in actual fact Lady Macbeth is the villain. Lady Macbeth uses her cunning and deceptive skills to over power Macbeth into killing King Duncan. When Lady Macbeth receives the letter telling her about the witches' prophecies, she immediately thinks that she and Macbeth will have to kill King Duncan. She calls Macbeth to kind to kill King Duncan and saying that
Lady Macbeth is really quite insane“Out damned spot! Out, I say!...Yet who would have thought the old man have had so much blood in him?”(Scene 1, act 5)But she isn’t the only one with an unstable mental state .In Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth’s mental state quickly deteriorates. We can trace Macbeth's mental deterioration by his actions leading up to his death at the end of scene V, such as when he saw the floating dagger, or when Macbeth sends the three murders to murder his best friend Banquo,and when he started to talk to somebody that nobody else could see at the banquet.
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.
The evil in Macbeth initially stems from the three weird sisters and their message: “‘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’” (I. iii. 48-50)! The sisters serve Hecate, the goddess of dark magic. There is no obvious motive, just the pernicious act. Their message is initially rebuffed by Macbeth, but he is tempted with the idea of power and after he is declared thane of Cawdor, he becomes susceptible to their insidious ideas. “Why do I yield to that suggestion / whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / …against the use of nature” (I. iii. 48-50)? Macbeth writes to his wife and when she receives the letter, she initiates the plot for the death of the King of Scotland, Duncan. “Come, you spirits… / unsex me here… / and fill me… / of direst cruelty” (I. v. 135-137)! Lady Macbeth becomes obsessed with the plot and begins the fall into madness as she meditates murder. When she informs Macbeth of her decision, his loyalty to Duncan will not allow him to act upon Lady Macbeth’s wishes, but her madness tempts him and charms ...
Lady Macbeth continues to be a frightening and vicious figure as she becomes full of evil thoughts. This is evident by the context in which she states that she would sacrifice the life of her own infant, if it were her wish or order to do so: "…Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done this…" [I.vii.57-59]. So enraged and overpowered by evil, that her purity and innocence (which is part of a woman) had all but depleted, and consequently she also lost her will to control herself and her sanity (sanity-later on in the deterioration of Lady Macbeth's character). She came to a point where evil pushed her to certain lengths such as committing the heinous act of regicide; killing her loyal and innocent king, king Duncan.
The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. It artfully takes its audience to a place that allows one to examine what a human being is truly capable of once tempted by the allure of power. In the play, Scottish noble Macbeth and his wife inevitably fall prey to their own self corruption. Initiated by prophesies made by three mysterious witches, the Macbeths set their sights on the throne. When the curtains open on the plot to murder King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is the driving force. Her criminal mind and desire for ruthlessness have led many a critic to define her as evil. Closer examination, however, reveals that she is a multifaceted character; other sides to her persona include: genuine good will towards her husband, coy manipulation, and feminine tenderness.
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 the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is overly whelmed by the letter she receives about Macbeth. This pushes her to the extreme and causes her to react outrageously. " Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…make thick my blood…take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers…come thick night." (I;v;40-50) All these images of darkness and horror reveal the true character of Lady Macbeth; she feels the need to become wicked. Her attitude is even more horrific when she calls on evil spirits to come and possess her, taking control of her actions. This sort of behavior causes the audience and reader to assume Lady Macbeth is a psychopath, and therefore would have reason to hold her responsible for having a major impact on her husband and driving him off, enlightening a twisted sinister and threatening dark side of him.
To begin with, Lady Macbeth is an antagonist wife that forces her husband, Macbeth, to kill King Duncan so she can satisfy her own greediness and become queen. Her greedy desire to become queen makes her lose all morality. For example, when she hears that King Duncan is staying at her castle for the night, she says, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; stop the access and passage to remorse.” (Act 1, Scene 5).
She believes that Macbeth is full of ambition and desire, but she also believes he is too reserved to attack when given a golden opportunity. She does not want to wait and let the prophecy unfold, rather she wants to take control of it. When she hears of Duncan’s plans to spend the night at the Macbeth’s castle, Lady Macbeth sees her chance to call upon the evil spirits asking for the cruelty necessary to bring about the prophecy, “fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.” (1.5 49-50).... ... middle of paper ...
She has the largest influence on Macbeth and causes him to act on his lingering thoughts about murder. She overtakes Macbeth’s thoughts completely, focusing all of her time and energy on the murder of the king. Lady Macbeth sides with evil forces and says, “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! (Shakespeare 1.5.440) The path she goes down is one that neither her nor her husband could survive. Macbeth is driven to insanity early on in the play, and the blame for his insanity is Lady Macbeth. In the play, his insanity becomes a problem when they invite guests over for dinner. Lady Macbeth hides his ridiculous behavior by saying, “Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus, And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat; The fit is momentary; upon a thought He will again be well: if much you note him, You shall offend him and extend his passion: Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?” (Shakespeare 3.4.1339-1344) She pushes her husband to commit a crime that she wanted more than Macbeth. In the end, she causes her own self-destruction and murder,