Macbeth, a play written by Shakespeare centers around the two leads, Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, who both have the capacity to exhibit evil throughout the play. Although Lady Macbeth is the one who convinces her husband to commit his first murder, she is not responsible for all the other murders Macbeth had committed throughout the play. Hence, it is Macbeth, who is more evil than his wife and not the other way around.
Lady Macbeth possesses traits of a villain, but unlike her husband, she also demonstrates throughout the play that her moral conscience was able to feel the weight of the deeds she committed. Lady Macbeth plays a significant role in encouraging Macbeth to commit his first act of murder on King Duncan. In the events
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Although Macbeth was manipulated by his wife into committing the murder of King Duncan, he, however, is responsible for physically killing the King out of selfishness to which he showed no signs of remorse too. During the meeting with the three witches, Macbeth is told of three prophecies one of which is that “thou shalt be king hereafter” to which Banquo replies with “why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair?” after seeing Macbeth’s reaction. This shows that Macbeth already had thoughts of killing King Duncan for the crown since the beginning. Macbeth reconsidered killing the King multiple times as Duncan has shown nothing but generosity and fatherly affection “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive...and with his former title greet Macbeth.” towards Macbeth, but, it is only when the King announces that his son is to be the heir to the throne that Macbeth finally makes a decision to murder King Duncan as he believed there was no other way. King Duncan is seen as a figure of moral order and the assassination of him signals the outbreak of chaos that lays ahead. For Macbeth, the murder of Duncan was out of selfishness and blind ambition. In contrast, his wife, although manipulated Macbeth, did it out of love for him. Thus, Macbeth is more evil than his wife as the murder of King Duncan for him was out of selfishness for the crown and for power.
Whilst Lady Macbeth urged Macbeth to
Lady Macbeth is a manipulative wife that does not consider anyone’s feelings and that likes to do things herself with no help from others. If Lady Macbeth had not deluded him into doing things he did not want to do, Macbeth would have been completely different. She convinced him to assassinate Duncan, which stained his mind and made him become a tyrant. This also led up to all the other murders hat Macbeth was responsible for. Lady Macbeth also very independent; she
Lady Macbeth played a large role as Macbeth’s seductress and brainwasher. Lady Macbeth persuaded her husband to kill the King not so that he would himself be King but so that she could be Queen.Although because of her involvement in this web of lies she felt guilty and drove herself insane worrying about what had happened and what would happen to her and her husband for being so dishonest. She was not responsible for the tragedy, she was only a manipulative factor in the scheme of things. Even though it does take two to tango, Macbeth tangoed on his own.
In Shakespare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s destiny is formed by her own actions through mind and free-will. In act I, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to murder Duncan, even though Macbeth was strongly against it. Lady Macbeth is very successful at persuading him to go against his better judgment. She entirely changes the stereotype of women being kind and caring in the first act. 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 symbolizes Lady Macbeth’s evilness. She is ruthless, because of her evil accounts for the murders that occur throughout the play. Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to commit murders that will make them king
Macbeth, although manipulated by the witches and persuaded by his wife, is ultimately responsible for his own actions. At the beginning of the play, he is portrayed as the noble and courageous hero; by the end, however, the audience sees his brutal and power-hungry character drives him to fulfil his ambition. The three witches manipulate Macbeth through prophecies foretelling his fate. Lady Macbeth is also partly to blame for her taunting and eventual encouragement of her husband, leading him to his immoral choices. In the end, it is Macbeth’s many character flaws that drive him to his poor decisions and fateful end.
Macbeth, written by william shakespeare displays a diverse range of themes and topics throughout the play. These themes are represented through a wide range of characters throughout the dramatic text. One that is strongly underlined throughout the whole play is the theme of the connection between ambition and manipulation and one of the main characters; Lady Macbeth. Throughout the sequences of the play, lady macbeth is depicted as a head-strong ambitious woman who challenges her husband's masculinity in order for him to commit actions in order to gain power.
In the Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare depicted the fall of a valiant general, who usurped the Scottish throne and eventually destroyed by his ever inflating ambition. During the course of regicide, his wife Lady Macbeth act as a powerful stimulant, who coaxed and pushed Macbeth to kill the beloved king Duncan. However,we can see from the play that though Lady Macbeth had a pivotal role to play in this evil deed, she did not bear chief responsibility of the murder. She was an intimidating and evil character from the beginning, while as situation developed, his husband became a much
It is fascinating that Macbeth is referred to as a “wicked thing” then calling him by his name or by his status.
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.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the true villain of the play as she is evil, ambitious and eventually insane. Lady Macbeth masterminded the idea to kill King Duncan and planted the vision into Macbeths mind, she convinced Macbeth to commit such a crime, and her love for her husband was eventually overruled by her determination and lust for power. Throughout the play she starts to show her true colours and the destructive force of her ambition, which inevitably results in nothing but disaster.
In the play, “Macbeth”, the character that stands out the most is Lady Macbeth. Her role in this story is significant, she is an evil, ruthless, and ambitious person. She is responsible for the murders that her husband commits because she was bloodthirsty for the crown. In fact, she then becomes more eager to get the crown than Macbeth himself and soon realizes that once you commit one violent act, there is almost no way of ever turning back. An analysis of Lady Macbeth reveals that she is a powerful character who adds complexity and depth to a play about murder, madness, and revenge.
In the play “Macbeth” the author furthers the ideas of ambition, manhood and violence throughout the play using a gender lens, mainly for masculinity in men. In the play “Macbeth” ambition plays a big role in the man characters life; Macbeth. In Act 1 scene 3, lines 125-129, “And oftentimes, to win us to our harm; The instruments of darkness tell us truth.” (Shakespeare 1.3.125-129). This quote stated by Banquo foreshadows Macbeth further into the play. Macbeth ends up killing King Duncan because he wants to be in power over the kingdom. When Banquo questions Macbeth about the killing of King Duncan, Macbeth’s ambition to kill Banquo skyrocketed. Macbeth didn’t want anybody to think or know that he ended up killing King Duncan for power. This started a cycle of death for Macbeth’s ambition to kill to stay in power. This example of ambition from “Macbeth” has a very similar motif from the movie called “The Mask You Live In”. In the movie, George Orwell states, “He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” The idea of the mask he wear fits his face helps us further the reason for men’s ambitions. Men’s ambitions are driven by power and dominance over people and prized possessions. For men to be able to gain power, they need to prove how masculine they are to society. In doing so they are dehumanizing their biological thoughts and feelings and turning them into artificial ones in order to be seen more powerful or dominate to the public.
In the play Macbeth, the character Lady Macbeth has changed throughout Act I and Act V tremendously. Her attitude has changed heavily from her being cold-hearted and harsh in the beginning, to being dominated by guilt. Lady Macbeth’s transformation reveals the darkness of human nature and eventually dark ambition leads to Macbeth murdering Duncan to be king. This play critiques or upholds prescribed gender roles because when Lady Macbeth is pushing Macbeth to murder Duncan, she feels as if she has to take on manly characteristics. Also, Lady Macbeth seems to rule Macbeth and control his actions, and this makes Lady Macbeth seem like she plays the dominant role in their relationship. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth changes greatly throughout Act I
Lady Macbeth progresses throughout the play from a seemingly savage and heartless creature to a very delicate and fragile woman. In the beginning of the play, she is very ambitious and hungry for power. She pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. In Act I, Scene 6, she asks the gods to make her emotionally strong like a man in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot. She says, “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!” Also, she does everything in her power to convince Macbeth that he would be wrong not to kill Duncan. In Act I,
Lady Macbeth can be said to be one of Shakespeare's most famous and frightening female characters. She fulfills her role among the nobility and is well respected, like Macbeth. She is loving, yet very determined that her husband will be king. At the beginning of the play, when she is first seen, she is already plotting the murder of Duncan, showing more strength, ruthlessness, and ambition than Macbeth. She lusts after power and position and then pressures her husband into killing Duncan. Upon receiving the letter with the witches' prophecies from her husband, she begins to think and knowing that Macbeth lacks the courage for something like this, she calls upon the forces of evil to help her do what must be
Macbeth’s thoughts turn dark with ambition and he thinks of murdering Duncan, a thought that is easily taken advantage of by his wife Lady Macbeth. Any indecisiveness Macbeth may have had for committing a murder is quickly dismissed under the manipulative influence of Lady Macbeth. Letting his malicious thoughts take over his mind quickly becomes the standard for Macbeth. After the first murder Macbeth merely sees murder as a tool to get what he wants efficiently; he loses his regard for human life. Murdering his best friend Banquo, is seen only as an inconvenience to him.