The Influence of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth

Because of the weakness of Macbeth’s character and the strength of Lady Macbeth’s character, Lady Macbeth is able to easily influence him. Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth toward evil at first, but after he realizes what he has done, it is his decision to continue down the murderous, bloody path. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth appears as a kind wife to Macbeth, but underneath lies a scheming and treacherous woman. Macbeth is initially a strong soldier who fights relentlessly for the King. His ambitious drive and his curious nature lead him to three witches who give him a prophecy.

Lady Macbeth is the force behind Macbeth’s sudden ambition and she tries to manipulate him into feeling guilty and unmanly for not following through with the murder, by using her husbands emotions, she manages to convince Macbeth to murder Duncan. 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.

Lady Macbeth becomes very angry and criticizes Macbeth greatly (1.7.48-49). Macbeth backs down to his wife, and agrees to go along with Duncan’s murder (1.7.79-82). The witches are not to blame for Macbeth’s actions. Macbeth is a weak minded person, and does no... ... middle of paper ... ... their prophecy come true very quickly. The apparitions are also prophecies, but they show how Macbeth will die even though he is unaware of this.

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is manipulative yet hypocritical when she tries to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan which causes a downward spiral into his insanity. This also ties into both of their ambitious behavior in that they will harm anyone to hold a great position, similar to Claudius in Hamlet. Hamlet is greatly and negatively impacted by the two women who are supposed to be most important to him: his mother, Gertrude, and his partner, Ophelia. Their actions ultimately contribute to Hamlet's theme of misogyny, or a hatred and distrust of women. "Let me not think on 't; frailty, thy name is woman!"

In addition to his mind, it is his never-ending ambition and his blind trust of the witches prophesies which ultimately change Macbeth from what he once was to the monster he had become. Over the entirety of the play the changes in morals, personality, and confidence within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can clearly be seen as a result of their ambition for the crown of Scotland. Lady Macbeth, first presented as strong and able to commit murder, eventually went insane due to her guilty conscience and killed herself. Macbeth on the other hand, went from a sincere, conscientious person into a maniacal monster which no one could control. Thus they well deserve the title Malcolm appoints them at the end of the play: "the dead butcher and his fiend-like queen."

Macbeth, like the any other tragic hero, has a great flaw. Due to his unbridled desire, for power and the position of king allows lady Macbeth to goad him into doing far more than what needed to be done. He foolishly throws everything else that matters away because of his wife’s criticisms and diabolical mind along with his own personal short-comings. Throughout the play, readers or the audience will notice a significant shift in the Macbeth couple’s sanity. Macbeth, out of guilt starts seeing specters, his wife sleepwalks through the castle speaking of the spot on her hand that will not wash away, and the dirty deeds the couple has committed.

After Macbeth writes home telling of his murderous plans, Lady Macbeth begins talking to evil spirits. Because women often lack the ruthlessness to kill someone, Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to make her male. One of the most vivid descriptions of Lady Macbeth's wickedness is directly after Macbeth announces to her he does not want to kill Duncan.This speech epitomizes Lady Macbeth's evilness. She is ruthless, and her evil accounts for the murders that occur throughout the play Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is far more savage and ambitious than her husband, yet she convinces Macbeth to commit the murders that will make them king and queen.

He ordered the death of everyone connected to Macduff, all because they witches premonition told him to be wary of Macduff, "...Beware Macduff; Beware the Thane of Fife." (Act 4 scene 1 line 72). So in conclusion, the prophecies given to him by the witches, Lady Macbeth's influence and plan, and his intensified ambition, all contributed greatly to his degeneration of his character, which resulted to his downfall and death. Therefore I think that Macbeth is weak and easily led before Duncan's murder, but after the murder, he seems to grow more and more evil.

He tries to convince himself and his wife that he should not kill Duncan, and at one stage he orders her not to go any further with the deed. Lady Macbeth... ... middle of paper ... ...cally after Duncan’s murder she is haunted by his blood then she goes crazy and eventually kills herself. All of these contribute to the strong theme of guilt and conscience in Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth the theme of guilt and conscience is one of the most prominent in the play. It gives life to the play and gives depth to the characters, it makes Macbeth a much more realistic character because we are shown that he is not perfect and still responds to temptation.

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.