Blindness in Macbeth

In act three we see Lady Macbeth’s weaknesses coming through, by her, surprisingly. We see that she is troubled by guilt ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy’, saying that they never should have murdered Duncan. Macbeth too is racked with guilt, ‘Better be with the dead than on the torture of the mind to lie in restless ecstasy’, saying he would rather be dead with Duncan that alive with his guilt. But despite the fact that both are feeling guilty, Lady Macbeth tries to remain strong in front of Macbeth ‘what’s done is done’. This shows Lady Macbeth again telling Macbeth that the murder has happened and that he should get over it, as nothing can be done to change it. There is however a hint of remorse in Lady Macbeth’s voice, showing how she is losing her power over Macbeth, mainly because she is finding it hard to get over her guilt. But we see when Macbeth cries out ‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife’ shows how despite Lady

This quote reveals that Lady Macbeth is an extremely ambitious and unscrupulous woman. However Macbeth contradicts to Lady Macbeth, as he is too kind by nature to complete what needs to be done even though he consists the ambition. Macbeth’s goodness does not allow him to act heinously and murder Duncan in order to seize the throne. As Lady Macbeth shows her anxiety towards Macbeth she also states ““That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top- full of direst cruelty”(1.5. 48-50). The quote shows Lady Macbeth’s no hesitation in murdering King Duncan. Her feelings contradict to Macbeth. Macbeth shows anxiety and extreme fear as he begins to feel mix feelings. The quote shows that Lady Macbeth’s ambition is strong to overcome her husband. Even after Lady Macbeth Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth states “ My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white”(2.2, 82-83) while Macbeth was crying that he hears voices and states that he heard voices- “Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”(2.2. 47-48). It is clear during the murder of Duncan that the two characters- Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have changed the ideal role between genders. Lady Macbeth contradicts to the expectation of women during the 11th century as she controls over her husband. She leads her husband who should have power over her to murder the loyal king of Scotland as well as

Originally, she was more ambitious than Macbeth, the driving force behind King Duncan’s death. For a time, this ambition made her fearless. She treats the matter as if it was a casual, every-day occurrence, scolding the worried Macbeth for “using those thoughts of which should indeed have died with them they think on [and encouraging him to think that] things without all remedy should be without regard. What’s done is done” (3:2:12-14). However, it is not long after Macbeth kills everyone in Macduff’s castle that her guilty conscience takes over her mind. Lady Macbeth begins sleepwalking while reliving every moment from the night of King Duncan’s death. She scrubs the nonexistent blood off of her hands, yelling “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 (5:1:25-28). Unconsciously, Lady Macbeth has become paranoid about being discovered. The longer she sleepwalks, the more paranoid she becomes. Her speech takes on a more rapid pace when she “hears” knocking, urging Macbeth “to bed, to bed. There’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come. . . What’s done cannot be undone.—To bed, to bed, to bed! (5:1:45-47). Lady Macbeth’s guilty conscience and paranoia,

In the beginning of Macbeth, Macbeth is hesitant. Lady Macbeth, being ruthless, tries to convince Macbeth to kill King Duncan, but his conscience is stronger than his ambition. He feels that the king is at his palace in “double-trust”; he is

The protagonist of the play Macbeth, coordinately named Macbeth, is proven to be blind from the opening of his role in the play. Written by William Shakespeare, the play shadows many other works of his, in a sense that the majority of the most important pieces of information to the plot are delivered indirectly. An example of this in Macbeth is the frequency of characters, Macbeth more than others, to reference vision, and the ability to see while describing an event. The difference between Macbeth and other characters is that while he speaks about life and the ability to see it with his own eyes, the statement is always negative, suggesting his literal blindness. Examples of this can be found throughout all acts of the

"Let not light see my black and deep desires./ The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be/ Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see" (i, iv, 53-55). Only light enable people to see, but sinners can't see through light owing to their blindness. These black and deep desires are the one corroding the light, bedimming those righteous decisions, in which it could come after anyone. The Shakespearean play of The Tragedy of Macbeth projected a reasonable and moral man on his downfall path. This tragedy originates from the rapacious desire that erodes Macbeth's self-consciousness and completely distorts his heroic character. Certainly, Macbeth's ambitions that blind his eyes must be seem as a dangerous and terrifying identity.

Lady Macbeth accused him of cowardice and dangled bright prospects of his future before his eyes so that Macbeth would kill the king (Foster). Macbeth really killed the King because he thought it would make him a powerful man. If he wouldn’t have killed King Duncan, I would have made him feel less of a man. Lady Macbeth had a nervous break down knowing she wasn’t going to kill anyone. She states “He could not miss ‘ em .Had he not resembled my father as he kept, I had don’t” (2.2). Lady Macbeth is just making up excuses because she know that she can kill anybody. She wanted somebody to do her work for her that’s why Macbeth stepped up as a man and did what he had to do. Macbeth showed that he was willing to do anything that came in this way for the throne. Lady Macbeth showed that she is no the true villain because she started acting crazy over the murder of King Duncan and she killed herself from the gilt of what she had

She speaks with sharp words riddled with rhetorical questions. When she is given Macbeth’s letter, her following monologue is full of nefarious emotion: “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse . . .” (1.5.47-51). Her plea for a detached mind creates utmost irony, for Lady Macbeth is a character that relies purely on emotion, albeit wicked. In asking for no emotion, she becomes solely dependent on her emotions. She later prepares herself for what she and her husband must do to Duncan: “Come thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife not see the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry ‘Hold, hold!’” (1.5.57-61). Giving up her femininity and allowing hell to preserve her shows unnerving dedication. Lustful for power, Lady Macbeth is willing to literally do anything to place her husband on the throne. Therefore, she shows devotion to both her causes and Macbeth. She, like her husband, is honorable to her causes. Later she uses her manipulative diction to convince her husband to kill Duncan. She continually berates him: “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale at what it did so freely? From this time

Shakespeare’s point is that the guilt of murdering King Duncan is too much for Macbeth to handle at the moment, so he shows a hint of weakness. This quote shows that despite wanting to overthrow Duncan as King, Macbeth feels remorse for what he has done, and he does not possess the willpower to return to the scene of the crime to finish the job. Macbeth is terrified of what he has done, so he momentarily collapses under the weight of his actions. This guilt will begin his spiralling descent until his death. During a peaceful banquet, Macbeth creates a

Gigi Beattie Mr. Sherman Honors English 10 Grey 28 January 2016 Duncan- the Naive yet Benevolent King In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Duncan is highly envied among many due to his high status and possession of power as king of Scotland. One is so envious that he is willing to murder for his power. Macbeth, one of Scotland’s valiant soldiers, brutally murders Duncan.

As, she states, “My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white… A little water clears us of this deed…Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us And show us to be watchers…” (2.2.61-69). With this in mind, Macbeth’s actions do not stop her from accomplishing her goal. Macbeth seems conflicted after Duncan’s death, Lady Macbeth shows that they both contested in killing him. More importantly, her ambitious will show that absolute power has corrupted her; she even persuades Macbeth of his immoral deeds.

After killing king Duncan Macbeth returns to Lady Macbeth terrified with what he has committed. Macbeath nervously says “I’ll go no more, I am afraid to think what I have done”(2.2.48-49). Macbeth thought that killing king Duncan would earn him some respect from Lady Macbeth, but in reality she turns him down and calls him a craven and once again questions his masculinity. Lady Macbeth’s constant questioning of Macbeth's manhood has a very negative effect on Macbeth’s character, when he tries to prove her wrong by assassinating king Duncan, she declines him and calls him a coward. This constant pressure weighing on him will change his future and end with a tragic finish to the

After all, she is responsible for suggesting the idea to kill Duncan as well as manipulating Macbeth in doing so by questioning his masculinity as stated here, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man.” (I.7.49-51). However, Macbeth is definitely conscious when the plan of murder crosses his brain. He says to himself, “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’ other.” (1.7.26-29). He realizes the consequences and even admits that it is his own ambition which drives him but yet he still goes through with it. In result of Duncan’s murder, although Macbeth does not realize it, Macbeth’s soul is scar with guilt. It is obvious when Macbeth tells his wife, “ Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep” the innocent / sleep,”

In the play, Lady Macbeth feared that Macbeth was too weak to seize the throne and become king because he was just too nice. And that he lacked the necessary wickedness to kill for the throne. Lady Macbeth claims: “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the way” (act 1, scene 5, 13-14). Lady Macbeth is stating that Macbeth is too kind and that scares her. So she motivates him by making him think that he is a coward for not standing up and taking what he wants. Lady Macbeth also states: “The raven itself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious

Lady Macbeth pushed killing Duncan onto Macbeth, he had his own thoughts in Act I Scene iii, “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature?”(135-137). As soon as he hears the prophecies he is thinking about killing Duncan to become King of Scotland, but it is clear that the guilt is already residing with him and that he has a heart and is not ready to kill someone for power. Lady Macbeth, however is willing to do anything to have her and her husband to be successful and become King and Queen. It is clearly shown in Act I Scene V, Lady Macbeth says “ Yet do i fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend to it”(17-21). Lady Macbeth does not believe her husband has the ambition nor capability to kill Duncan without a little push from her. She is the mastermind behind the first killing of Duncan, and if Duncan had not looked like her late father, she would have