Shakespeare's Macbeth - Persuasiveness of Lady Macbeth

Worried that Macbeth would not be capable of walking the quickest path to the throne, killing the current King Duncan, Lady Macbeth calls forth evil spirits to strip her of her weaker, feminine qualities. She says: [U]nsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between The effect and it! (I... ... middle of paper ... ...ay sees a complete transformation in her disposition. Her inescapable femininity, coupled with unbearable remorse for Duncan’s murder as well as several other indirect killings, torments her.

After he kills the King and Banquo (separately) he is distraught with shame and guilt, while Lady Macbeth holds herself together and covers for his strange behavior. In Act V, we see Lady Macbeth falling apart, a downfall we later learn leads her to suicide. Macbeth, on the other hand, has forgotten his guilt, and is even willing to fight in the face of certain death when he learns of Macduff's unmotherly birth. While both characters may be viewed as foul, the theme still applies. One would expect, stereotypically, that Macbeth would be the one trying to convince his queasy wife that killing the King would be a blessing.

Besides, it is Lady Macbeth who persuades Macbeth to commit the crime and later on constantly reprimands him for feeling remorse and not being man enough to deal with the consequences. The paradox is that Shakespeare, through Lady Macbeth, presents the fatal consequences of achievements obtained due to evil. These consequences are completely deceiving since Lady Macbeth uses evil as a way to achieve happiness and it is evil what finally devours her. Lady Macbeth is a character that travels in a downward spiral in which she suffers a transformation from a m... ... middle of paper ... ...er continually. `Tis her command (Macbeth V. i.

This idea goes awry when Duncan names Malcom his heir. Macbeth then, still believing in the witches, goes on with his plan to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth is a very loving wife to Macbeth and she wants to do anything she can for him to achieve his goals. She just takes it a little too far, and she puts too much pressure on Macbeth to commit crimes that he is not sure he wants to do. After Macbeth sends her a letter about the witches’ premonitions, Lady Macbeth is no longer the sweet innocent lady we expect her to be.

Character Study of Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth comes into the play in act 1 scene 5, when Lady Macbeth is reading the letter from Macbeth. Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth’s heart “is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”. She knows that her husband has is “not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it”. Lady Macbeth’s immediate response to the letter is the thought of killing the king. “Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits into thine ear” she wants her husband to hurry back so she can talk to him about killing the king.

Already the audience can see she has evil plans. “Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valour of my tongue.” (Act 1 scene 5) This exhibits that she wants Macbeth to come back home so she can persuade him to do the evil deed. Later in the scene, Lady Macbeth is afraid that Macbeth is too weak and too compassionate to be a murderer, therefore she asks the gods to replace all her goodness and femininity with cold haunted evilness. This is clear when she calls the evil spirits; “...Unsex me here, Make thick my blood, Stop up th’access and passage to remorse... Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall...” (Act 1 scene 5) So that she can poison her husband’s mind. The audience’s first impression of her is as a remorseless, cold evil wife.

He asks “If we should fail”, and she responds “we fail?”- this is an indication of her devotion to the murder and attempts to convince Macbeth it is inevitable. These quotes also tell us that Lady Macbeth has fated Macbeth to become a sinful murderer. There is other evidence that Lady Macbeth is po... ... middle of paper ... ...ess” is a weakness, which explains her condemnation of remorselessness. Macbeth is a dramatic melodrama play, which is famously known for its conventions of tragedy. We see it greatly in the eyes of Lady Macbeth, because her ambitions for her husband to kill the King for the throne were a doomed fate that was inevitable.

She is initially able to be involved in the treacherous deeds that are needed to bring about the prophecy quickly, but as the play progresses the weight of the merciless deeds fill her with remorse. The remorse and pain she feels for her wicked ways cause Lady Macbeth to lose control of her life and wither away until the weight of her deeds causes her to die. Lady Macbeth’s wish is partially granted, her mind becomes evil and enables her to do horrific things, but her soul remains pure and unsure of her actions and her remorse for her wicked ways leads to her destruction. Lady Macbeth invokes evil spirits asking them to grant her extreme cruelty and to feel no remorse or pity for her victims. She asks the evil spirits to grant her these ills so she can take over Macbeth’s prophecy to prevent him from backing out, “Yet do I fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way.” (1.5 16-18).

If it were only the witches' prophecies, then Macbeth would surely not have murdered Duncan. It was because Lady Macbeth constantly harassed her husband, that he was driven to commit all this evil. "... her blood thickened, her milk changed to gaul - into the inhuman, the distortion of nature..." (Ludwyk 233). This illustrates the complete metamorphosis of Lady Macbeth from a loving, beautiful, caring, kind wife to a ruthless, nasty, shrew of a woman. The women in this play distort Macbeth's intuition so much that he thinks he is doing the right thing.

Lady MacBeth thinks that MacBeth will be King, and at this point in the play we start to see the evil side of her begin to come out. She decides that he is too kind and must be changed, "That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue" she means she will persuade him to do what she wants. In her plan MacBeth must be ruthless, "the illness should attend" (a touch of evil) .She knows MacBeth would rather do it the right way rather than cheat to get what he wants. As the act continues the audience experiences exactly how evil Lady MacBeth can be. After hearing the news that Duncan the King is coming to stay at the castle, Lady MacBeth prepares herself for what her and her husband must do.