The Evil Lady Macbeth In Shakespeare's play, "Macbeth", there is a definite difference between male and female roles. Women were not to hear violent information nor speak their minds. Although Macbeth committed the murders himself, Lady Macbeth was the driving force and evil behind him, making her more responsible. She drives her husband to perform the murder and therefore is more to blame than Macbeth. Lady Macbeth possess more dominant characteristics in the relationship and uses them against Macbeth, pressuring him into murdering King Duncan. Depending on the version of "Macbeth" and how it was presented, Lady Macbeth came across as strong and forceful in her choice of words. Prior to Macbeth's very first murder of King Duncan, Macbeth had been second guessing himself about whether or not he would follow through with his initial plan. After the dinner party he had hosted Macbeth states, "We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people" (I. VII. 32-34). This shows the audience that Macbeth decided not to murder the king because the king thought highly of him. King Duncan was the man whom Macbeth was to protect, his job was to be his host. The audience then hears the harsh words of Lady Macbeth, who questions her husband's manliness. As her words are recognized by Macbeth, he does not show hurt. He tries to explain that a man was to honor his king, not steel the glory from him. As Macbeth becomes more insulted by his evil wife, he gives into the idea of becoming the king himself, he would have all of the land and be honored by all of the people. Here, Lady Macbeth has convinced and pressured her husband into murdering their guest. Throughout th... ... middle of paper ... ...ers of what she has caused. Through the course of the play Macbeth continued to murder whoever he thought could have an effect on his title. He continued the course of action by killing his best friend, Banquo, and Macduff's harmless family to simply ensure his position to the throne. Lady Macbeth is responsible for her husband's actions and what has become of him. She is held accountable for his later murders as well because her forceful nature was the cause of the repeating pattern. If every character had the chance to be Macbeth, they too could not help but think of what would be necessary in order for them to be the highly ranked king and ruler of the land. Although Macbeth expressed feelings to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth was the driving force behind him because she would not lay the idea to rest. She thirsts for the power and the riches of the royalty life.
Lady Macbeth has a greater control on Macbeth’s actions than any other character in Macbeth apart from the Weïrd Sisters. She is well known for her persuading speeches to her husband, convincing him to fulfill the murder of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth’s manly qualities, and informs him that only when he follows through with the murder that
In Lady Macbeth‚s eyes if Macbeth did not kill Duncan than he would not be a man to her anymore, she believes that he would be denying all urges for greater wealth and prosperity that man should have. She is wondering why he is not taking the opportunity to be king when he can easily do so, in reality, we know why Macbeth is contemplating the murder of Macbeth, because he has morals, qualities that we consider manly today.
Throughout history, the role of women in society was infinitesimal. They were considered to have few jobs and often did not play any major part in political and social matters. However in the story of Macbeth, women play a few very influential and negative roles. The only women who appear in the play are the witches, Lady Macbeth, and Lady Macduff. All of these characters can be openly seen as hateful. Numerous times throughout the play women perform menacing acts and it can be argued that women are the cause of Macbeth’s transformation from a revered warrior to an evil tyrant. In the Shakespeare’s Macbeth, women are depicted as manipulative, insane, and distrustful.
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.
Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare's most forcefully drawn female characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder's aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth's repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition, helped, of course, by the malign prophecies of the witches, is what drives the couple to ever more terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence to further one?s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to the throne?Banquo, Fleance, Macduff?and it is always tempting to use violent means to dispose of them.
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.
After struggling with the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth is reprimanded by Lady Macbeth for his lack of courage. She informs him that killing the king will make him a man, insinuating that he isn’t a man if he doesn’t go through with the murder. This develops Lady Macbeth as a merciless, nasty, and selfish woman. She will say, or do anything to get what she desires, even if it means harming others. It is this selfishness that makes it hard for the reader to be empathetic towards her later in the play, as it is evident in this scene that her hardships were brought on by herself. If she hadn’t insisted on the murder, she would not be driven in...
Lady Macbeth is an extremely ambitious woman and wants more than anything for her husband, Macbeth, to be the next King of Scotland. When King Duncan announces that his son, Malcolm, is to be the next King, Duncan’s murder is planned. Lady Macbeth’s crucial role in the play is to persuade Macbeth to carry out the murder of Duncan. In the beginning she is ambitious, controlling and strong. However as the plot concludes there is an extreme change in her character and personality which surprises the audience. Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually becomes too much for her to handle which leads to her death.
We start to see Lady Macbeth’s actions have a huge impact on Macbeth’s character as he transforms from a decent being to an overly bitter creature. The cause of his alteration is due to the fact that Lady Macbeth is constantly excreting heartless information into his mind. "Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?" (I;vii;39-41) "And, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man." (I;vii;50-51) Lady Macbeth uses these quotes to push her husband beyond limits and is therefore responsible for his dramatic change in attitude. She is constantly feeding his thoughts with negative comments and later on Macbeth realizes that he has another side to him. As he moves along to discover the concealed side of him, Macbeth falls in love with himself and begins to be drawn towards his evil desires. Because Lady Macbeth was the main cause of his new hidden discovery, she is fully responsible for opening up the door and letting the darkness in. This results in Macbeth committing both murders.
However, it was Lady Macbeth who convinced him to slay the king so that he could usurp the throne: “Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. So we can say that Lady Macbeth has more responsibility for Duncan’s murder than Macbeth himself as she used her position as a wife and a woman to induce his husband to commit the sin. She knew the “adoration” Macbeth had for her (“My dearest love” referring to Lady Macbeth) and used her status as a woman to judge Macbeth a coward if he didn’t kill Duncan. Even though Macbeth holds some blame for not being the strong, valiant man he is, in battle with her wife and standing before those childish yet effective arguments she used, Lady Macbeth is the immediate cause for Macbeth’s actions.
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. She turns into a person who is just as ambitious as her husband and she wants to do whatever it takes to help him get Duncan out of the way. She even goes to the point of calling Macbeth a coward, and mocking his bravery when he fails to complete the job. She is even willing to do it herself (plant the bloody knife with the guard). Lady Macbeth is constantly putting the pressure on Macbeth to do things that he is not sure about. She almost turns into a bully who dares Macbeth to go out and do evil things. She even says in a soliloquy that she wants to be released of all her morals and values so that she can help him commit these crimes.
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:
Act 1 scene 5 we see her praying to evil spirits in her soliloquy for
At the end of the play this character feels guilt for what she has done and has taken the personality, which was that of her husband in the beginning.At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth speaks and shows her shows how cruel and heartless she really is; "And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty". This shows she has no good in her, what so ever. Macbeth on the other hand, began as a good respectable character. When Lady Macbeth speaks of killing Duncan, he gives many reasons for reasons that he could not do so. Some of the reasons he gives in that speech are, that Duncan respects him, and trusts Macbeth. Duncan is also related to him by blood, and if he were to kill him he would never be able to rid himself of the guilt; wash the blood from his hands.At the climax of the play Macbeth makes plans to kill Banquo, with out Lady Macbeth, without anyone.
Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is presented as an evil, cold-hearted person, but, when it comes to the actual act of committing the murder, Lady Macbeth does not commit murder. In the end, it is Macbeth who plunges the knife into Duncan’s heart. Lady Macbeth had planned the whole murder, brought the daggers, and even intoxicated the guards, but it is Macbeth who ultimately killed Duncan. After the crime is committed, it is Macbeth who collapses and Lady Macbeth who smears blood on the guards to complete their plan. From Lady Macbeth actions, it is readily apparent that she is physiologically and physical capable of committing murder, but why does she not? Lady Macbeth is unable to kill Duncan because of the 1600s notion of how a woman should be, Macbeth, being a man should, be the one to seek power, and Lady Macbeth’s feminine qualities forbid her to commit such a crime.