Lady Macbeth Heartless Essay

     In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Macbeth the main character Macbeth is driven from his status as a well respected warrior and lord of not one, but two Scottish regions to a dishonest, unloyal murderer. Macbeth gets caught in a web of lies and vile acts of murder in which he brings about his own demise. His criminal actions lead up to his tragic ending of life. ‘ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But bearlike I must fight the course.’ His great ambition and gullibility of the witches predictions are two of the biggest factors of his downfall;however, Lady Macbeth was probably the biggest influence in the whole tragedy.

     In his masterpiece Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs many motifs, but none more often than blood and water. The play includes many images of blood and water to show the characters' attitudes toward their own development of guilt. Both motifs mature and change in their meaning along with the setting and mood of the play. “Without an understanding of the blood and water symbolism, the play cannot be completely understood”(Scott 14). Blood symbolizes honor, treachery, and guilt. Water, in contrast, symbolizes cleanliness and purity of the soul, as though all it takes is water to wash guilt away.

The characters go through a number of changes in feeling through the scene; these changes will be looked at in detail in the main body of the essay. This scene takes place immediately after the murder of Duncan. Meanwhile Lady Macbeth is anxiously wondering whether Macbeth will really do the deed. When he returns, covered in blood and highly strung, she organises how to cover up the murder so that they won't be found out. In this scene we see certain emotions in the characters,

A deadly combination of ambition and guilt poisons both Macbeth and his wife and leads to their deaths in the end. Ruined by her desire for power, Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness is more vivid and guilt seems to affect her more than her husband, even though he is responsible for more crimes. Her request to the spirits to “unsex [her] here,/ And fill [her], from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!” is contrasted as the more guilty she feels, the more weak and sensitive she become, a polar opposite of her usual masculine and bold self (1.5.44-46). As a result, she is unable to cope with the guilt and meets her ultimate demise by taking her life. This has an immediate effect on Macbeth: the almost always apparent tension of ambition and guilt disappears. He does not seem interested in living and is ready to face death in a manner more relatable to his former self rather than the murderer he has become. Moreover, Macbeth’s final remark is “Arm, arm, and out!”,

of Macbeth with a banquet. It gives us an insight into his state of mind

"Macbeth" is a tragic play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600’s. It revolved around the character Macbeth and his urge to become king of Scotland. Macbeth had to do anything possible to become the king including murder, lying, and deception. However, Macbeth committed these evil deeds due to some influential people in his life. Between Macbeth’s wife persuading him to do anything to become king and the witches prophesying over him causes Macbeth to try and bury the past and control the future.

“Come to my woman’s breasts And take my milk for gall.” One would assume here that if one of the two were to have the strength of mind to live through this evil tragedy it would be Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare is entering into this very interior of Macbeth’s mind allowing the audience to realise further differences between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth at this stage is going deeper and deeper into the world of evil. “Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtained sleep.” Macbeth realized that in obtaining the crown by foul play he is devaluing as the king is meant to be appointed by God. By now, Macbeth is able to have the courage to look into the heart of fear; lady Macbeth on the other hand is unable to do this.

When Macbeth is greeted by his wife she wants to tempt him into going ahead with her plans. He does not want to commit regicide against the king so disregards her ideas, but Macbeth’s ambitions and desires get the better of him and he eventually agrees.

     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,

Macbeth was told by witches that one day he will become Thane of Cawdor and eventually become king, along with his friend Banquo who would father kings. Macbeth becomes more jealous about not being noble enough to be king, and thus begins his dark days. King Duncan falls victim to murder and his son’s become suspects to the murder and leave the city. Macbeth is the murderer, but feels guilt for it. Macbeth feels sorrow and feels lost after killing Duncan and he says “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from hand?” (59). This quote represents how bad Macbeth feels after killing his dear friend and colleague. Macbeth starts down a dark road and his wife is his accomplice. Although Macbeth’s wife tells him “ My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white” (59). Macbeth’s wife is telling Macbeth that he must keep his own composure and learn to keep his own feelings in mind as so not to tell anybody about what happened. The importance of this evidence is that Macbeth had a chance to turn himself in but his wife pushes him down the dark road and he follows. As for Macbeth, himself feels as if he has reached rock bottom and decides that in order to keep himself king that there would be more killing. But for Macbeth it is just the beginning of his

The clothing and disguises appear repeatedly in Macbeth, but they are especially significant in terms of the unfamiliar, foreboding atmosphere that begins to envelop the entire kingdom of Scotland. The Macbeths themselves are the characters that contribute to this motif the most, disguising their true feelings and intentions from their king, their friends, and even each other: “These deeds must not be thought/ After these ways. So, it will make us mad” (2.2.37-38).

Laurence Sterne once wrote, “No body, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time.” This passage embodies one of the over arching themes of Macbeth. The character Macbeth, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, could easily identify with this passage due to the fact that he is pulled in opposite directions by both his desire to do what is right and his desire for power.

The scene is an introduction to the sleeping problems that soon will be plaguing Macbeth. Three witches in the “Macbeth” seem to be connected with spiritual world, prophecies and the knowledge far beyond humans and indicate darkness, chaos and confusion. Thus, the tension and suspense is created; moreover it shows the impact the witches with their supernatural gifts will have on the protagonist later in the play.

Correspondingly, Macbeth’s demise is all the more stimulated by his dark partner, Lady Macbeth. Her insecurity as a woman in addition to her own hunger for power is a key supplement to Macbeth’s twisted end. Her reaction to Macbeth’s letter detailing the witches’ prophecy is quite disturbing. She reveals her fear that Macbeth’s nature “is too full o’ the milk of kindness” (1.5.29). This is in spite of the fact that as Thane of Glamis, he is known to be savage and merciless. Then, Lady Macbeth vows to taint Macbeth’s kindness and to “pour my spirits in the thine ear” (1.5.29). Later in the play, before their dinner party for King Duncan, the Lady is found to be doing just this. She kickstarts her husband’s

In perhaps the most pivotal scene in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s motives are truly revealed in her manipulation of Macbeth to show how humans have a desire for power and once they get a taste of it, they will go through any lengths to have it, no matter the effect on others. Her lust for power is showcased through how she persuades Macbeth by insulting his masculinity and using emotive language to counter his logical reasoning. This section of the play illustrates the tipping point of each character’s morality with Macbeth having second thoughts about the planned murder and Lady Macbeth diving straight in.