Shakespeare’s Macbeth is not the first play we’ve read where women are portrayed as malicious. Starting from Lady Macbeth to the witches and their prophecies. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife, but she acts as though she was the man in the relationship. However, Lady Macbeth is a leading ambitious woman that we are not used to seeing who really wants her husband to become king, and in order to obtain she think it’s fine for him to commit murder.
After Macbeth informs her of the witches’ prophecy, which was that he would eventually become king of Scotland she doesn’t hesitate to persuade him to kill Duncan. Macbeth puts his doubts aside, and stabs Duncan during the night while he’s sleeping. This immediately makes Macbeth assume that he’s king. Macbeth starts to see everyone as an enemy and so he plans to kill anyone who could possibly be a threat for his possession of the kingship. Lady Macbeth’s hunger for power led her to commit suicide even though she was not afraid. She sees bloodstains on her hands.
In the article, “The Witches and the Witch: Verdi’s Macbeth” the author agrees with Stephen Greenblatt point of view “As Stephen Greenblatt points out, the witches ‘account for nothing . . . it is in fact extremely difficult to specify what, if anything, they do or even what, if anything, they are.” I agree with this point because the perspective that people had towards witches were that they had supernatural powers, such as the ability to move fast and see into the future, or depending on the situation change it. Nowadays there are some cultures that still practice witchcraft, and even still believe in black magic. Taken into consideration that there’s a heaven and a hell, existence of God and Satan. Macbeth is described ...
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...chological disorder who becomes weak after all, feeling vulnerable to guilt, almost immediately after the murder “The crown was placed on her head, but it weighed upon her heavier than lead. Among all her gettings there were some things she did not count upon, and of these were remorse and its black train of crushing years”. I agree with the author because Lady Macbeth was unable to avoid the situation she has created “she had no way of escaping from her own thoughts, no way of plunging into such a course of action as might help to keep away the remembrance of the past or to relieve the present. It was hers to suffer silently and alone” Lady Macbeth: A Psychological Schetch.pg33. Based on Lady Macbeth’s character I believe Shakespeare wants his audience to know that any wrong you do, it will always hunt you no matter how clear you think your conscience may be.
Macbeth by William Shakespeare has three characters that appear to be the best developed. The first is Macbeth, the main character of the story. The second most developed character is Lady Macbeth, Macbeth’s wife. The third most well developed is Banquo, Macbeth’s friend. Banquo and Lady Macbeth play very important roles in Macbeth’s life.
Through the chronicles of history there have always been heroes. Men and women that stand up and take charge and are moral leaders of countries. Joan of Arc, Napoleon, Genghis Khan and Churchill are only a few examples of people that are remember eternally for what they have done. There are also other leaders that people would like to forget because they are moral cowards killing their subject and causing evil. Stalin, Fidel Castro, and the Character of Macbeth are all examples of this. Macbeth is a moral coward. During the play Macbeth often shows that he is morale coward. For instance, when he is planning Duncan’s murder. Likewise he also shows cowardice by killing Banquo. Lastly he shows how spineless he is when he orders Macduffs family to be murdered.
The songs that I will be dedicating in this play are for the character Macbeth. He is the most unique entity who is constantly changing his personality and developing more evil traits. These songs will represent all of the Macbeth’s major characteristics and the events that led to demonstrating and revealing what kind of person he is. Every crime he committed had a big consequence on his conscience. The lyrics or the mood of the song will, in some way, describe Macbeth and his behavior in this play.
The Elizabethan Concept of the King Intro: Our actions define who we are. Who we are, defines our actions. This concept has been common to man throughout history, and the Elizabethans are no exception. They applied this statement to their kings in an attempt to classify them as good or bad, strong or weak. In the play Macbeth, we notice many references to the characteristics of a good king.
Within the pages of the play Macbeth, one can find the five distinct literary devices of symbolism, allusion, alliteration, personification, and repetition used throughout. These three devices aid the story along and help develop the plot and characters each in a different way.
Macbeth If it hadn’t been for the three witches, Macbeth would never have killed Duncan nor Banquo. Macbeth, also would not have been killed my Macduff. The three witches are the reason that everything happened the way the they did. In the beginning of the play, the three witches prophecized that Macbeth would become Thane of Cawdor adn the King of Scotland.
William Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, was based on the life of Macbeth. However, Shakespeare made up or changed many things in his play to make the idea of Macbeth more interesting. Many of Shakespeare's characters, settings, and events differ from the facts of Macbeth in history.
There are many types of supernatural phenomena in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. No matter which form each phenomena took, such as a witch or ghost, they all acted as a type of catalyst. When Macbeth first met the witches, they told him he would be a king and when Macbeth saw his friend Banquo's ghost, it set him off on a downward spiral. The Supernatural phenomena all influenced Macbeth and his wife to do things that they would never have thought of doing such as killing King Duncan. All of the projected outcomes came true, however the eventual outcomes that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth predicted did not.
The passing of decade’s, centuries and a millennium, man in some aspects, has not changed. With this passing of time, man remains gullible and optimistic. These two characteristics are essential in the development in the play Macbeth. This is evident in that Macbeth’s fate is influenced, by the witches’ predictions.
One thing leads to another. This is a statement most people are familiar with, especially if they read William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It tells what happens to the tragic protagonist, Macbeth. At the start of the play, Macbeth is a highly praised and loyal nobleman admired by all until he becomes a victim of the witches. Their promises evoke his unrestrained ambition. From then on, Macbeth’s actions snowball out of his control and under the witches’ power. His unholy deeds trouble his sleep, and the innocent victims return to haunt him. Evil spirits take over his every move and thought. The luring prophecies, sleepless nights, hallucinations, and deceptive apparitions are all products of sorcery used to cloud Macbeth’s moral judgment and lead him to further degradation.
The witches and Lady Macbeth appear to dominate Macbeth's will, but in reality Macbeth is always in control. The confusion is created because, unlike these one dimensional, aggravating characters, he understands the complexity of the problem and must wrestle with his conscience. However, his action is based primarily upon his own desires. Ironically, given his understanding of the issues, he is horrified by the immensity of his crime once it has been committed and his terrified of the consequences.
We are first introduced to Lady Macbeth at the beginning of Act 1, scene 5, through the letter that Macbeth sends her. This shows her to be his, ‘dearest partner of greatness’ and that he has no secrets from her. The witches’ prophecies intensify her ambitions for her husband, to be the King of Scotland. Lady Macbeth is the one who encourages him to kill the king and she not only encourages him, she makes all the plans herself. We see how clever she is and how she understands her husband well, she knows he has great ambitions, but she also knows that he is honourable and mentally weak:
Lady Macbeth is a vicious and overly ambitious woman, her desire of having something over rules all the moral behaviors that one should follow. On the beginning of the novel, Macbeth receives the news that if Duncan, the current king, passed away he would be the next one to the throne. So, Lady Macbeth induces Macbeth into killing Duncan by filling his mind with ambition and planting cruel seeds into his head. After accomplishing his deed of killing the king, he brings out the daggers that were used during the murder, and says, “I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done; look on’t again I dare not.” This is his first crime and Macbeth is already filled with guilt and regret. He shows the reader to be the weak one of the duo. Lady Macbeth as the cruel partner still has some sentiment and somewhat a weakness in her heart and mind. When talking about Duncan she says, “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” Weakness is still present and will always be there throughout the novel but this one change the fact that Lady Macbeth is still the stronger and cruel one.
Shakespeare wanted to conceive Lady Macbeth in being a strong, more powerful wife than any other. Her behaviour shows that women can be cruel to men. It doesn’t have to be the other way round. Lady Macbeth uses words such as “foolish woman” or “coward” to show that Macbeth is edgy.