The Guilt of Lady Macbeth
Shakespeare's "Macbeth" holds many hidden themes within its already exuberant plot. The first of these surrounds the murder of Duncan and the role that both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself played. However, the true guilt of the murder can fall on either character. Although Macbeth physically committed the crime, it was Lady Macbeth that pushed him to his limits of rational thought and essentially made fun of him to lower his esteem. With Macbeth's defenses down, it was an easy task for Lady Macbeth to influence Duncan's murder and make up an excuse as to why she could not do it herself. The guilt of Duncan's murder can be placed firmly on the head on Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth wants the murder of Duncan for her own gains. Given the present situation, she is power hungry. The wyrd sisters predicted that Macbeth would be king. This means that the obvious result would be Lady Macbeth as queen. Instead of waiting for Duncan to die naturally or to be killed by someone else, she ushers the task to Macbeth. She forces it upon him, which is unfortunate, for he starts a moral character. It is the methods she uses to convince Macbeth that murder is the answer that are extremely cruel and manipulative, sending no doubt that she is the chief culprit in the murder of Duncan, and his death may be put squarely in her hands.
Sex roles in the 1600s were very strict; women were forbidden from acting in theatrical works. Shakespeare seems to play off this in his casting and dialect. The masculinity of Macbeth is questionable in itself, with the provocative language used in the play. He himself is unsure of his "abilities" as a member of the male sex....
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...tions, the use of her "womanly" features, and her attacks on the manliness of Macbeth all put more guilt on her shoulders than Macbeth by far. She deserves no pity either. Her eventual trip to insanity was her own fault, as well as the final battle where Macduff kills Macbeth. Had she shown patience, fate may have eventually worked in Macbeth and her's favor.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Epstein, Norrie. The Friendly Shakepeare, New York, Viking Publishing, 1993.
Schlegel, August Wilhelm. Criticism on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.
Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992.
Wills, Gary. Lady Macbeth and Evil. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
The Vietnam War: A Concise International History is a strong book that portrays a vivid picture of both sides of the war. By getting access to new information and using valid sources, Lawrence’s study deserves credibility. After reading this book, a new light and understanding of the Vietnam war exists.
Guilt plays a strong role in motivating Macbeth, and causes Lady Macbeth to be driven over the edge of sanity - to her death. Throughout the story, there are many different types of guilty feelings that play a role in Macbeth’s fatal decisions and bring Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. Although there are many instances that show the power guilt has played on the main characters, there are three examples that show this the best. One is, just after the murder of the great King, Duncan. Guilt overcomes Macbeth where he can no longer think straight. A second example is soon after that, where all the guilt Macbeth feels at first, changes into hate after he decides that Banquo must be killed as well. The last example is just about at the end of the play, when we see Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, and then later committing suicide; this all because of the burden of her guilt. All of these examples build the proof that in this play, guilt plays a very large role in the characters’ lives.
The Vietnam War was the longest war in America's history of involvement. Twenty years of hell, land mines, cross-fire, and death. Vietnam was divided by the Geneva Accord. The north being communist run by Ho Chi Minh. The south being anti-Communist run by Ngo Dinh Diem. Before Vietnam was separated, it was run by France. France had ruled most of Indochina since the late 1800s. The Vietnamese were unhappy with the way the French were controlling, therefore, many of them took refuge in China. When in China, they began to follow the lead of Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to model the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence as that of the U.S. version. In the 1940s, Japan had taken over Vietnam which upset Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries when they had returned a year later.
President Dwight Eisenhower conditionally pledged to support South Vietnam’s new nation in 1955. In the time period between 1955-1961 the United States pumped seven billion dollars in aid so that Vietnam would not “go over quickly” like a “row of dominoes” (McNamara 31). In the next 6 years Vietnam would cost America billions of dollars, thousands of lives, and the disaffection of much of the United States public. Yet in the end, South Vietnam would fall to the North less than 2 years after the United States military involvement ceased.
“In July 1965, Lyndon Johnson chose to Americanize the war in Vietnam.” Although Johnson chose to enter America into the war, there were events previous that caused America to enter and take over the war. The South Vietnamese were losing the war against Communism – giving Johnson all the more reason to enter the war, and allowing strong American forces to help stop communism. There were other contributing factors leading up to the entrance of the war; America helped assist the French in the war, Johnson’s politics, the Tonkin Gulf Incident, and the 1954 Geneva Conference. President Johnson stated, “For 10 years three American Presidents-President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, and your present President--and the American people have been actively concerned with threats to the peace and security of the peoples of southeast Asia from the Communist government of North Viet-Nam.”
Bradley, A.C.. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
While the Vietnam battles began in the 1950’s, America did not become involved until 1965, under the command of President Lyndon Johnson. Right away the decision was met with mixed reactions. World War II had ended about 20 years prior to the deployment of U.S. troops in Vietnam, and many were not exactly excited to jump into another war. Right away protest groups formed across the nation, and many people began to let ...
After the death of King Duncan, Macbeth becomes the more controlling one, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually becomes too much for her to handle which leads to her death. Lady Macbeth is in fact the one that performs the preparations for the murder of King Duncan, but still shows some signs of humanity by not committing the murder herself because he resembles "My father as he slept". After the murder has been committed, she also shows signs of being a strong person because she calms Macbeth down in order to keep him from going insane.
A variety of very important events that have happened in the past 100 years, many of which are wars. They have change many things from big necessities like medicine and medical practices to little ones like bandages. No matter the winner every war has good and bad consequences. Some wars have ended in triumph for the U.S.A. and its allies, however some didn’t end well at all. A very important war with many consequences, and an example of a loss for the U.S.A., is the Vietnam war. This paper will cover the Vietnam war from both the perspectives of the Americans at home as well as what's going on in Vietnam between the years of 1955 and 1975.
The Vietnam War would end up splitting the United States in half. The tension between anti-war groups and the people for the war were building more and more each day because this war was dragging on. Many people thought that the war was only going to take less than a year. However, what we didn’t know is that we were fighting a war that could not be acquired. The Vietnam War events from 1964 to 1975 created tensions in politics, economics, and social aspects of American life.
As a consequence, September 2nd, 1945, Vietnam declared independence from French imperialist and the Japanese military, which invaded Indochina (Vietnam) during the World War II. Kevin Reilly in his Readings in the World Civilizations recorded Ho Chi Minh’s speech while declaring the independence of Vietnam in 1945, where Ho Chi Min captured the frustration Vietnamese felt over the 80 years of French dominance. Ironically, Ho Chi Min, out of respect started his speech with the citation of American declaration of independence. He talked about unequal laws, role in ...
Bradley, A.C.. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
Gilbert, Marc Jason. "Vietnam War." World Book Student. World Book, 2010. Web. 21 March 2010.
-North Vietnamese viewed both Johnson's retirement and peace negotiations as their victory. (Timothy P. Maga)
Vietnam was a struggle which, in all honesty, the United States should never have been involved in. North Vietnam was battling for ownership of South Vietnam, so that they would be a unified communist nation. To prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism, the U.S. held on to the Truman Doctrine and stood behind the South Vietnamese leader, Diem.