How Does Shakespeare Make Lady Macbeth's Character Dramatic and Interesting?

Macbeth is a dramatic play which tells the story of the downfall of a ‘Nobleman’ who becomes a ‘tyrant’. In Act one Shakespeare introduces the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth using a range of dramatic devices.

From the beginning of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is viewed as very controlling, strong, and certain; saying that Macbeth ‘Shalt be what thou art promised’. This illustrates Lady Macbeth’s position in the relationship, she is ordering Macbeth to become what the witches have foreseen. We see just how powerful Lady Macbeth is, if she can command her husband to murder the king of Scotland. Her power is also shown in the way she taunts Macbeth, saying he is ‘too full of the milk of human kindness’. This shows how cold Lady Macbeth is, as milk is the food of new born children, she is implying Macbeth is too much like a kind child to murder anyone, which is another method used to spur Macbeth on into killing Duncan. Her coldness and

Lady Macbeth throughout the play shows her dominance in the relationship by challenging Macbeth's masculinity and making him seem weak. This tactic worked in her favour as it always resulted in the way she wanted. Act one scene scene 7 supports this through lady macbeth's statement; “Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale At what it did so freely?”. Lady macbeth provides a range of rhetorical questions and allusions to motivate macbeth. By using the rhetorical question “to look so green and pale At what it did so freely?”, lady macbeth describes her husband as green and pale. These two adjectives alludes to the popular disease at the time of macbeth, anemia. Anemia was heavily popular during the time of macbeth, with it being most popular in young virgin girls. This insult encouraged macbeth to pursue through with lady macbeth's wishes. Lady Macbeth continues to fire insults at macbeth through her words in Act 3 scene 4 “This is the air-drawn dagger which you said Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,Impostors to true fear, would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire, Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!” In this scene, lady macbeth uses a metaphor to convey the weakness of macbeth. She does this by calling macbeth's hallucination; a story made by a young girl, but had to be double checked with her mother to see if it was appropriate enough to say. Lady Macbeth describes these actions as proper shame, encouraging macbeth to fulfil his plans. Furthermore, lady macbeth uses this same strategy in Act 1 scene 5 , “your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like th'

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 appears evil, but this is proof of her devotion and drive to assist Macbeth rise to the throne. Macbeth is doubtful about their plan to kill King Duncan; however, Lady Macbeth bombards him with comments that question his courage. She goes as far as telling him his love his worth nothing if he refuses, which proves her to be dominant and controlling using his own weakness against him. His love for her. The fact that she belittles his confidence, insults his abilities, and questions his manhood & ambitions showing how manipulative she can be, but also wise because it worked in her favour. She said to him “Screw your courage to the sticking place” (1.7.60). Because Lady Macbeth manages to drive Macbeth to Duncan’s death, this shows viewers that Lady Macbeths own ambition is the real driving force behind most of Macbeth’s actions, because of his strong dedicated love for her.

In the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth was an important character. She was the wife of the King of Scotland. Lady Macbeth had first come off as a forceful character but as time passed, her weaknesses were shown.

Because she is assertive, she manipulates Macbeth by saying, “shall sun that morrow see.” Before Lady Macbeth said anything, Macbeth was going to let Duncan go but because of Lady Macbeth’s assertiveness, she manipulated Macbeth into killing Duncan. On top of being assertive, Lady Macbeth also downgrades people as a way to show her masculinity and her ability to manipulate Macbeth. When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth argue about the plan to kill Duncan they say, “We will proceed no further in this business...  Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?” (1.7.32-37). When Macbeth does not want to go through with the plan of killing Duncan Lady Macbeth has a downgrading tone towards Macbeth. Lady Macbeth uses harsh words like “wherein you dressed yourself” and “Hath it slept since” to manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan instead of using positive words. Because of this, Macbeth kills Duncan out of manipulation. Lady Macbeth uses her masculinity to manipulate Macbeth’s actions.

Not feeling any remorse, she is able to skillfully let go of guilt and skillfully get rid of evidence. As Macbeth comes back to her after the deed is complete he is very shaken up and extremely paranoid that someone saw him with the bloody daggers. Lady Macbeth tells him, “These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it will make us mad” (2.2.34). By saying this she believes that you shouldn’t feel guilty about doing evil, you should just get it done and move on because thinking about it will only drive you crazy. Also she thinks when commiting violent acts such as murder make sure to get rid of any evidence that will lead people to believe you are a suspect. Frustrated and upset that her husband came home bathed in blood and the daggers in his hand she states, “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers.”(2.2.52-53). She is extremely disappointed in Macbeth for being so careless and cannot believe that he did not go through the well thought out plan smoothly. In her eyes he is still a coward and does not know how to behave calmy when feeling guilty.

women, money, power. These were all three things that tempted Macbeth. Lady Macbeth seems quite the contrary to how women in Elizabethan England would have been, the only women were able to obtain power was by influencing their husbands. This was a great advantage of Lady Macbeth’s on which she played and used very successfully. She was able to influence her husband so strongly that she convinced him willingly into committing murder willingly; Shakespeare displays the strength of power that women have the ability to possess if they wish, he conveys women as sneaky and willing to result to extreme tactics to get their own way; it shows just how dangerous women can be. Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth as an icon for powerful women.

Lady Macbeth from “Macbeth” was a very powerful and influential character in the play. However, her traits are portrayed as bitter making her seem as an undesirable figure. Throughout the book she is interpreted as controlling, demanding, power seeking, and corrupt, but it will later come back and cause conflict. In the book she says, “ Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures… For it must seem their guilt” (Shakespeare 59). At this point in the book, Lady Macbeth is showing how controlling she is by taking the matters into

However, Lady Macbeth’s conscious shines through as she is not able to kill a poor vulnerable man who looks like her father. She is thrown off guard be her reaction to Duncan’s face. She does not expect to feel any remorse toward the old man but she does. After Macbeth kills Duncan, Lady Macbeth regains her cruel nature and quickly takes the dagger from him to frame the guards, “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead/ Are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood/ That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt.”(68-72). Lady Macbeth shows no remorse or respect for the dead. Lady Macbeth cannot let her remorse control her because she knows that the only way to bring about the prophecy is to frame the guards. Lady Macbeth unsuccessfully attempts to block out the horrendous deeds she commits. The compassion Lady Macbeth shows for Duncan proves that the spirits did not remove her soul or kill her conscious, which will be her Achilles heel and lead to her death.

24-29). When Macbeth decides not to continue with their plan to murder Duncan, his wife urges him to act on his desires or he will think of himself as a coward. She says, "Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valour / As thou art in desire?" (I, vii. 42-44). She then makes sure he will perform the deed by taking an active role in preparing for the murder. "his two chamberlains / Will I with wine and wassel so convince," (I, vii. 70-71) and cleaning up afterwards, "Give me the daggers: the sleeping, and the dead / Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood / That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, / I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt." (II, ii. 69-73).

Immediately, after reading Macbeth’s letter, Lady Macbeth’s malevolence urges her to plot the murder for the king. She decides to encourage Macbeth and calls for evil spirits to aid her brutal plans, “Come, you spirits… you murd’ring ministers… You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night”. Her talk about defeminising herself and making her the superior amongst the couple, “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”, suggests Macbeth is weak and powerless in her presence. She implicates her husband of not being physically impotent but soft hearted and sentimental. She confronts him of this and warns him of his manliness and cowardice. She uses these various, manipulative strategies (challenging his manhood, being more aggressive, and defeminising

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

account thy love. Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and