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How Does Lady Macbeth Want To Be A Man Essay

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What is included in being a man? In William Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth, we can see how a man acts through the lens of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth believes she knows how men should act through her statement of “unsex me here” (Shakespeare I.v.48) which shows her longing to be a man so that she could do the dirty work herself, since woman are not shown to be able to commit such crimes. By acting in a certain manner Lady Macbeth points out the flaws in Macbeth’s actions and explains to him what a man is supposed to exhibit. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth has constant control over Macbeth, and influences him in his decisions, which slowly transforms him into the man that fits her definition. By the end of the play, Macbeth accepts who he …show more content…

Lady Macbeth’s influence of Macbeth’s actions, causes him to become a man according to her high standards. The first instance, Lady Macbeth influences Macbeth’s decisions is through the murdering of King Duncan. After three witches predict Macbeth’s upcoming promotion to the King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth is eager to become the Queen, so she pushes Macbeth into killing the King. Killing the King would allow Macbeth to speed up the process of eventually becoming King, so Lady Macbeth wants him to seize the opportunity. However, Macbeth hesitates when he is about to kill the king because “he hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinion from all sorts of people” (Shakespeare I.vii.35-36) Macbeth feels conflicted because he desires to be King, however, the king has recently honored Macbeth and given him many benefits. Moreover, Macbeth’s hesitation is due to his feelings of loyalty and gratitude to the king. Unfortunately, Lady Macbeth leaves no room for repentance and second thoughts, she persuades him to do this vicious action disregarding how Macbeth feels about it. While Macbeth is having second thoughts about killing King Duncan, Lady Macbeth inquires him on his previous

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