Betrayal And Imoral Actions In Macbeth

She was the character that finally convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan in his own castle, proclaiming “O, never shall sun that morrow see!” (1.6.71-72). She encouraged such betraying behavior as a reaction to Macbeth’s letter about being predicted as the next king of Scotland. Eager to become queen, Lady Macbeth completely disregarded the inner politics of Scotland, her and Macbeth’s morals, the sacred Great Chain of Being, and the Divine Right of Kings. She continues to violate the Chain as she reverses gender roles with Macbeth, verbally abusing him as only a man was allowed to do to a woman (so it was believed then). She consistently degrades Macbeth by calling him a woman, comparing his explanations to “a woman’s story at a winter’s fire, authorized by her grandma” (3.4.78-79). The common belief in 17th century England was that women were far below men on the social ranking scale, so Lady Macbeth’s numerous insults are completely out of line. Eventually she is punished for her interruption in the Great Chain of Being as she becomes insane from guilt. At last, the murder of Duncan comes back to haunt her, causing her to imagine blood on her hands and cry “Out, damned, spot, out, I say!” (5.1.37). In the end, all of her past actions catch up with her and she commits suicide as she wrestles with the burning question, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5.1.45). Shakespeare justly writes in her demise as she is

disloyalty by showing the fated sequence of events that each character underwent in order for the story to unfold. Throughout the drama, many things happen showing how Macbeth was disloyal to all the people you would expect him to be loyal to. For example, he hears of a prophesies of himself becoming king which drives him to the murder of king Duncan. Another example is where he betrays his friend to fulfill the need of being king. Macbeth even is disloyal to himself, but does not want to let the guilt take over, so he does whatever it takes to still remain King which includes being disloyal to one of his closest friends. Finally, an example of disloyalty is when Macduff and Macbeth have their final interactions. In sum, this play showed many examples of the theme of honor vs

Macbeth is confused as he is arguing with himself on what he should do. He states reasons not to kill Duncan, because Macbeth is his noble kinsmen and the act would bring dishonor. However, he also states reason why he should kill him, because Macbeth will then become king and fulfill the witches ' fortune. Lady Macbeth, who appears in the beginning as the driving force for the murder of King Duncan, also develops internal conflict. At first, Lady Macbeth seems to be a woman of extreme confidence and will. But, as situations become more and more unstable in the play, guilt develops inside her. For instance, she exclaims; "Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. / Look not so pale. I tell you again, Banquo 's / Burried; he cannot come out on 's grave" (Shakespeare V, ii, 65-67). Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and frets about her evil wrongdoings because she is extremely guilty of her influence on Macbeth to commit the murder. Lady Macbeth reacts emotionally and dwells on her actions as guilt eats at her soul.

“Lady Macbeth tutors her husband in the arts of deceit” (Kemp 95). She tells him to “bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (Shakespeare I. v. 63-65). She also portrays the perfect hostess. Duncan praises Lady Macbeth for being an “honour’d hostess” and a “fair and noble hostess” (Shakespeare I. vi. 10, 24). She drugs the guards who protect Duncan’s bedchamber by bringing them tainted wine. Lady Macbeth, unable to kill Duncan because he resembles his father, has Macbeth to murder him instead. After the deed is done, Lady Macbeth plays to be distraught over the King’s death. Later, following the murders of Duncan and Banquo, Macbeth acknowledges his wife as hostess, and she welcomes the thanes who have gathered after being summoned to acknowledge Macbeth as their new king (Kemp 95).

Once guilt begins to overtake Lady Macbeth, she looses control of her emotions and actions, sending her onto the fast track to death. In a way, Shakespeare has Macbeth and Lady Macbeth change roles. In the beginning it seems as if Macbeth is more emotionally affected by the killing of Duncan. However, once Banquo is killed Macbeth is perfectly fine with it, and Lady Macbeth becomes vulnerable and lets the guilt overrule her. She begins to repeatedly pretend to was her hands and sleep walk. “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of/ Arabia will not sweeten/ this little hand”

Lady Macbeth’s strength of will persists through the murder of King Duncan as it is she who tries to calm Macbeth after committing the crime by declaring confidently that, “a little water clears us of this deed,” (2.2.67). Afterward, however, Lady Macbeth’s strong and ambitious character begins to deteriorate into madness. Her first sign of weakness occurred when she confessed that she could not have killed the king, revealing a natural woman’s feelings, “had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t” (2.2.13-14). Just as ambition has affected her before more so then Macbeth before the crime, the guilt plagues her now more effectively afterward as she desperately tried to wash away the invisible blood from her sin, “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfume of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,” (5.1.48-49). Lady Macbeth’s

On the contrary, Lady Macbeth begins as a ruthless woman. She has a manipulative and controlling character, convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan; she will do anything to gain power. When she says, “How tender ‘tis to love the babe…I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out” (I.vii. 55-58), she shows her ruthlessness and her “bad” ambition. In her “role reversal” with Macbeth, she gains somewhat of a conscience and realizes her guilt. When she tells him, “You must leave this” (III. ii. 35), she wants Macbeth to forget about his plan to murder Banquo’s family. She is very hesitant about committing another murder and does not want Macbeth to follow through with his plan.

There are many more acts of betrayal in the play but these are some of the main ones and they play a main role in the play to show what betrayal does to people. When Macbeth has betrayed many people in the play others start to grow in hatred of him. Other people in the play learn about what Macbeth had done and they grow angry because of everything he had done just so that he would be able to be king. One of the people that got angry was Macduff and he had planned to kill Macbeth and was going to give the title of king to Malcolm. At the end of the play Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm

In Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, Macbeth is seen to be the grounds of his own downfall. Macbeth’s actions bring upon his downfall, because it is he who eventually chose to kill Banquo and MacDuff’s family. These actions were due to his ambitious nature. Lady Macbeth is also to blame for her husband’s demise because she is the one who originally pushed Macbeth into killing Duncan; her actions cause Macbeth to eventually meet his own death. Lady Macbeth is not the only factor that cause Macbeth’s downfall. The three witches are also responsible because they heighten Macbeth’s confidence and put the idea that he cannot be killed by anything. Macbeth’s ambitious nature

Deception and Betrayal in William Shakespeare's Macbeth The play ‘Macbeth” written by William Shakespeare” not only shows us how betrayal and deception undermines society but how it restores the moral law and society back to the way it was before the Thane of Cawdor and the tyrant Macbeth brought about the destruction in the first place. the play Macbeth also featured two changes to the throne of Scotland, both as a result of betrayal, deception, the aid of the weird sisters and the death of kings, the fate of Scotland changed for better and for worse.

Lady Macbeth has the power over her husband to persuade him into doing anything she requests. She manipulates Macbeth with incredible efficiency by overruling all of his thoughts and changing his perspective on the present. Even though the many tasks that need to be completed are difficult to understand why they need to be done, Lady Macbeth will always convince Macbeth to do it. Her husband often tells her that she has a “masculine soul” which is obvious due to her murderous and envious actions. When the time came to kill king Duncan, Macbeth believes that his wife has gone insane and tells her that the crime they were about to commit was a horrible idea. As a result of his questioning, Lady Macbeth says that executing the crime will show his loyalty to her. On the night of the assassination Lady Macbeth watched the guards of the castle become drunk and unaware of what was going on. Lady Macbeth sent her husband into the castle to kill King Duncan. The married couple fled the scene leaving the guards covered in the evidence. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are stained with the blood of their victims and the feeling of guilt in their stomach.

When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth discuss the murder of King Duncan, Shakespeare uses a variety of motifs, such as the repetition of blood and hands, to show that Lady Macbeth lacked remorse for the murder. This scene portrays a contrast between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s feelings. While Macbeth is worrying that his hands will never be clean from the blood, Lady Macbeth is unphased and simply tells him to “wash [the] filthy witness from [his] hand” (II.ii.59). The

After the murder of Duncan, he delivers the bloody daggers to Lady Macbeth which in a way surprises her, and she ends up leaving them next to the guards, which makes it look like they were responsible for the murder of the loyal king Duncan. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth begins going crazy, constantly crying about the “blood” on her hands that will not come off. The blood symbolizes the guilt that she is encountering because she cannot clean her soul of what she has done, and even the doctor doesn't understand what is going on with her, they just think she is crazy. A few acts later it gets to the point where she eventually commits suicide, just because she was unable to deal with the guilt. (The Theme of Guilt). Several quotes throughout this play can help relate to the destruction that guilt causes. “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! – One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't, – Hell is murky! – Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? – Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” (Macbeth, act 5 scene 1). This quote is showing Lady Macbeth being entrapped by the guilt of the murder, which causes her to sleep walk and talk about it in a sort of dull way every night. “But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we'll not fail.” (Lady Macbeth, act 1 scene 7). Another quote by Lady Macbeth when she wanted Macbeth to continue on

Lady Macbeth gives Macbeth the first push to kill Duncan, and she wants to be ruthless, feel no remorse so that she and her husband will successfully kill Duncan. She desires to “stop up th’ access and passage to remorse” (Shakespeare 1.5.51) so that she will not feel bad about the murder. She persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan, but he struggles afterward when he does not follow the plan and forgets to put back the daggers he cannot face the evil act he has committed. Lady Macbeth is satisfied after Macbeth is king, but that is not enough for him any longer. Eventually the killings take a toll on Macbeth’s mental state, and the guilt he begins to feel is unbearable. Macbeth kills Duncan and then says “this is a sorry sight”

Initially, she is a beguiling instigator of murder, and her first reaction to blood displays this nonchalant attitude. She tells Macbeth, “My hands are of your colour, but I shame / To wear a heart so white” (IIii 24). Lady Macbeth effortlessly washes off this blood with water, disregarding the guilt. Lady Macbeth’s second reaction to blood, however, exhibits shock over her husband’s free acts of cruelty. She sees the guards her husband has slain and faints. Covered in blood, the murdered guards underline Macbeth’s malice and cruelty. Therefore, when Lady Macbeth faints at the sight of these symbols, she makes obvious her change from plotting instigator to shocked observer. Blood continues to symbolize guilt, and eventually, just as Macbeth wants to remove blood from his hands, Lady Macbeth wants to cleanse her hands of blood and guilt. She visualizes a spot of blood on her hands and perpetually tries to wash it off. “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” (Vi 72). The stigma of guilt, however, cannot be removed, which reveals Lady Macbeth’s haunting, incurable guilt over the murders during Macbeth’s reign. Lady Macbeth continues in woeful guilt, saying “The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now? / What, will these hands ne’er be clean? No more / o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that: you mar all with / this starting” (Vi 72). She says her hands will never be clean, indicating that