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Lady Macbeth Is A Fiend - Like Queen Essay

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Lady Macbeth Is A Fiend - Like Queen

In William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth" the audience sees two very different sides of Lady Macbeth. At the start of the play Lady Macbeth is shown to be ruthless, conniving, fiend-like and remorseless. The phrase fiend-like conjures up an image of a cruel, evil and wicked person. In the play the audience sees that Lady Macbeth has a lust for power. She believes that her ambition to become queen will come true after reading Macbeth's letter with tells her of his meeting with the witches and their prophecy that Macbeth will become king. Shakespeare wrote "Macbeth" so that throughout the play tension is built up and the play relates strongly to witchcraft and the …show more content…

When he became King he ordered its immediate printing. England was a Christian country. Although deep divisions existed between Protestants and Catholics, nearly everyone believed in heaven and hell, and lived in fear of eternal damnation, a consequence of witchcraft. People who watched Macbeth saw in it the signs of a man and woman seized by demonic possession.

Signs of demonic possession include going into trances "look how our partner's rapt," changed appearances "why do you make such faces?" inability to pray "amen stuck in my throat," visions "is this a dagger which I see before me?" and invitations to evil spirits to possess one's body "come, you spirits."

Lady Macbeth believes that for her ambition to be queen to come true she needs to kill the current King and calls upon evil spirits to help her. In the 16th century murdering a King would be regarded as much worse than an ordinary murder, as people believed in the Divine Right of Kings. People believed that Kings were appointed by God. Only somebody who is truly evil would even consider regicide like Lady Macbeth. This displays how fiendish Lady Macbeth is, she has committed a crime against God and she will go to hell "hell is murky." However, at the end of the play the audience discovers another side to Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is now unable to confront evil. She is driven mad with the guilt of the murder of

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