In this essay I am going to discuss the role of Lady Macbeth. First I will be giving a quick summary of Macbeth, discuss the main themes and issues, analyse the text, analyse the character of Lady Macbeth, discuss the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, write about the strengths and weaknesses of Lady Macbeth, I am going to debate if Lady Macbeth is evil or good, talk about the reason why Shakespeare created the character Lady Macbeth, discuss the misogynistic views in the play, discuss demonology written by king James and finally talk about the adoptions of the directors.
Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare in 1606. Macbeth is about a brave man who has prophecies from the witches which deliver his fate. The witches predict that he will become the king “all hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter“(act 1, scene 3). Macbeth decides to make it happen. He then kills King Duncan and then his friend Banquo since the witches told him that his children were going to become kings. Lady Macbeth makes sure these prophecies come true. They both become evil. Lady Macbeth goes crazy and commits suicide. At the end of the play king Duncan’s son brings an army from England to dethrone him. In the battle they win and `Macbeth is killed. The tragedy ends.
The main themes and issues are love, betrayal, determination, murder, power, guilt, and ambition. The theme of love is shown between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. The theme betrayal is strongly shown when Macbeth betrays his king by killing him. He was known as a loyal person to the king but took advantage of the trust and love that the king put into him. The theme determination is shown by Macbeth as he is determined to take the challenge and be successful by what Lady Ma...
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... be only interested in her own personal gain. Sometimes the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is at its peak and sometimes it’s at the bottom. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel quiet happy after Macbeth has become king so they have been free of guilt and full of love. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both cleared themselves of guilt from killing Duncan. They portray themselves as pure evil wrapped in love. Lady Macbeth imagines that her hands are covered with blood and then commits suicide “here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh” (act 5, scene 1). The last scene we see of her is very emotional because she has messed up and from the rise she ultimately lost.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
To begin with, Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare that believed to have taken place around 1606. This play dramatizes the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of those who seek power for ones’ sake. In this play a Scottish General named Macbeth receives predictions from three witches that voice him he will one day become the King of Scotland. With determination his wife takes action convincing him to murder King Duncan therefore he would become king. Macbeth then becomes paranoid and filled with guilt, forcing him to commit more murders to protect himself from suspicion. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth then receive the madness of death.
The story of Lady Macbeth throughout Macbeth is one unlike those of its time in its unusually forward-thinking portrayal of a woman with thoughts and actions which would have been considered indecent. This is seen through the representation of her relationship with Macbeth and how they interact. It is also illustrated through Lady Macbeth’s morals and their effect on how she acts and reacts in situations which would weigh heavily on most peoples’ conscious. Her power-hungry attitude is one often reserved for men, especially in this era of literature. All of these factors create a character in Lady Macbeth which is dissimilar to the classic portrayal of women in the seventeenth century.
Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. As she is Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. She is Macbeth’s other half. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their relationship falls apart. Everything about Lady Macbeth is enough to create the perfect villain because of her ability to manipulate everyone around her. It appears that even she can’t resist the perfect crime.
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a fictional play written by English poet William Shakespeare. The play is set in eleventh century Scotland, during the reign of King James the first. Shakespeare evidently writes in this time period to describe the link between leaders and their supreme or ultimate power. The play was first performed in the year 1606, at the world famous Globe Theatre, and is considered one of the most profound and compelling tragedies ever told. The Tragedy of Macbeth tells the tale of a brave Scottish general named Macbeth and his ambitious desire to become king of Scotland. While he and another commander named Banquo return home from war they stumble into three hagged looking witches. The witches offer the men an enticing prophecy that leads to a more pivotal role found later in the play. Throughout the play Macbeth is seen confronting his own moral ambiguity to the heinous acts he must perform to get the position he most desires. “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, [s]hakes so my single state of man” (Shakespeare 1.3.152-53). This uncertainty, present in the scenes of Duncan’s murder, the feast, and the witch’s final predictions each unfold the ambiguity needed to understand the basis of the work as a whole.
Macbeth, one of the greatest tragedies written by William Shakespeare, tells a story about uncontrollable ambition, which destroys Macbeth and his wife. Interpreting the play using the mythological approach, Lady Macbeth exhibits a profound image as the terrible mother, more so than the “weird sisters.” Her evil intention foreshadows the awful fate and destiny of her family. The force that drives Lady Macbeth is her insatiable thirst for power.
Macbeth is a play revolving around many key ideas observed in Shakespeare’s time with various messages communicated to the audience successfully, despite the lack of the cinematic effects present in today’s literature entertainment. The interweaved themes of immoral ambition and corruption are displayed throughout the text, unveiling the corruptive nature of one’s excessive greed for supremacy, affecting both themselves and others. This idea in Macbeth is successfully conveyed to the audience in Shakespeare’s time through the literary devices of characterisation, soliloquy and plot.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
There are certain aspects of Lady Macbeth’s character that suggests she is good and therefore her downfall increases my sympathy for her by the end of act 5. But I would also argue that she entailed evil to fuel her sleeping ambition that would make her nemesis, her mental collapse, fully justified.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
While not the only contributing factor, Lady Macbeth does play a substantial role in the downfall of her husband. She is a like a catalyst for Macbeth and essentially pushes him to do what he would not have been able to do on his own. Macbeth himself highly ambitious and determined, but his wife is even more so. At first he refuses to kill Duncan but she persists and eventually gets him to do it. It is important to note here that Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth forward by manipulating him. In this sense, she can be related to Cathy Ames from East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Also, being a woman, she is confined by the conventions of society which prevent her from doing much. At what point she even wishes that she were 'unsexed' so she could commit the murder herself. Because of this, she pours her ambition and desire for power into Macbeth. Again she accomplishes this through manipulation. For example, at one point when Macbeth is disagreeing with her idea of killing Duncan, she questions his manhood:
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.
113 Macbeth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1990. The. Coursen, H. R. Macbeth: A Guide to the Play. London: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.