Lady Macbeth's Downfall

Although Macbeth commits the murder, Lady Macbeth shows that she has just as many dark and corrupt thoughts as him. The one who comes up with the murder plan is Lady Macbeth, directly after she learns about the prophecy. After Macbeth informs her of the king’s overnight stay, Lady Macbeth’s first words are “O, never/ Shall sun that morrow see!” (1. 5. 67-68) as her plan to kill the king is already being put into motion. If Lady Macbeth had not made the plans Macbeth may not have gone through with the murder. Lady macbeth becomes a driving, manipulative force to Macbeth. She justifies why killing Duncan is good and shames him into committing horrible deeds. When Macbeth tries to refuse she says “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And, to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man.” (1. 7. 54-56), challenging his masculinity. In the end, Lady Macbeth isn't the only one who’s mind becomes corrupted, she drags Macbeth down with her. Finally, Lady Macbeth pretends that the guilt doesn’t really bother her, she simply tells her husband that he is weak. She tries hide her corruption through lies and by putting Macbeth down, but in the end she falters, realises her guilt and drives herself insane.

Due to her ambition to become queen, Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to murder king Duncan.

In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is one of the most significant characters because of her ambition and urge for power. From the start, she was described to be stronger than her husband Macbeth and as a result, pushed him to kill Duncan in order for Macbeth to become King of Scotland. She made this decision to satisfy her hunger for power. However, she took the decision to want power as an obsession because women were viewed as powerless and unimportant human beings that were only there to conceive an offspring and satisfy their husband's needs. Lady Macbeth 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.

Aptly described as "fiendlike" by Prince Malcolm, Lady Macbeth was a major participant in the ruin of Macbeth. She was a woman virtually devoid of human emotions and general scruples. Her lack of principles and mindless ambition made her a proponent of seizing the throne. She goaded her husband into the act of vile murder with the words, "Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth later said, "When you durst do it [kill Duncan], then you were a man" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth called Macbeth weak and made light of his manhood in order to influence him towards the murder of Duncan. Without the influence of his wife, Macbeth may have lacked the single minded resolve to go through with the murder of good King Duncan. In addition to pushing Macbeth to commit the murders, Lady Macbeth acted as accomplice that made his succession to the throne possible. Lady Macbeth came up with the plan to frame two innocent guards for the murder of Duncan. "...his two chamberlains [the ones she planned to frame for the murder] / Will I with wine and wassail so

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).

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s desire and ambition leads to her eventual downfall. When Lady Macbeth hears of Macbeth’s prophecy she dreams of the glory and high-standing that awaits being queen. She cannot withhold her ambitions and she is willing to manipulate fate to bring about Macbeth’s prophecy. She invokes evil spirits to be filled from head to toe with cruelty to do the evil actions necessary to make Macbeth king and to remove all remorse and pity for her action from her heart. She is initially able to be involved in the treacherous deeds that are needed to bring about the prophecy quickly, but as the play progresses the weight of the merciless deeds fill her with remorse. The remorse and pain she feels for her wicked

Many of people have heard the tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The story revolves on a sequence of misfortunate events that take place when Macbeth makes immoral decisions to be king. In the play, Shakespeare shows how power can cause corruption in a human’s brain. Macbeth himself was not a very confident person, though he had a kind soul to begin with, he was easily influenced and gullible. Through the prophecies of the evil beings, an insignificant seed was planted in Macbeth. That spark of wealth and fortune caused the tyrant within him to awake. Which eventually lead to his fatal death. His ambition lead him to murder, go insane and become very superstitious.

“It’s just a hallucination, just like the floating dagger you claimed led you to Duncan.” (Act 3, Scene 4) This displays the courage and strength of Lady Macbeth as she is able to keep a calm mind and think straight. Nevertheless, Macbeths behaviour become far too erratic for Lady Macbeth to handle, forcing her to tell their guests to leave. “The lord is only getting worse.

The drastic fall of lady Macbeth’s role in the relationship is also illustrated by her absence in the entire act four in which embodies the acceleration of Macbeth’s downfall. Consequently, the collapse of the firmest pillar of her masculinity, relationship, brings forward lady Macbeth’s feminine character which lessens her ability to cope with guilt. In fact, whether the deteriorating relationship exempts her need to put on a masculine mask or proves the impossibility of women being treated as equals, it significantly victimizes her in front of guilt. Looking back at blood, the visualization of guilt, instead of insisting on it being “A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight” (II.ii 30), the deteriorating relationship enables her unmasked true

The downfall of Macbeth in Shakespeares’ play ‘Macbeth’ is a topic debated about many times; was it Macbeth’s ambition that led to his downfall, or the influence of the witches and Lady Macbeth? King Macbeth’s downfall is predominantly caused by his overvaulting ambition in spite of the fact that the 3 witches and Lady Macbeth do influence much of his actions. Macbeth’s obsession with power causes the majority of his downfall, the witches had only hinted at his betrayal of Duncan and the death of Banquo and Lady Macbeth only pushed him over the edge. Firstly, Macbeth’s tragic flaw, i.e. his obsession with power is the cause of his downfall.

Shakespeare wrote a play name, Macbeth. It was a Tragedy Macbeth was the main character. First performed in 1606 it dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effect of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. It was first published in the Folio of 1623 it is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy Macbeth

Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill king Duncan, so she can live her dream life. “And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man”(Macbeth 1.7.50-51). This quote explains how Lady Macbeth is trying to persuade her husband in doing the death of king Duncan. One characteristic that sticks out about lady Macbeth, Is that she is a smooth talker to whom she knows she can convince in doing what she won’t do. She tells Macbeth what he wants to hear for her own fame. “And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep”(Macbeth 1.7.61). While Macbeth is shocked and frightened about Lady Macbeth’s thoughts. She explains to him that king Duncan’s death will not be known of them, As why they do it while he is sleeping. Lady Macbeth tells him the future they will have if he does her plan. Now Scotland gets turned upside down. Macbeth kills king Duncan against his will. Lady Macbeth talked Macbeth into killing king Duncan so she would not have to live with the quilt of doing the murder. Lady Macbeth’s plan starts to unravel, As they hear a voice from another room. Macbeth is so out of sorts, that he has left the bloody dagger he use to kill king Duncan at the scene of

All of her inner thoughts are disclosed when she sleepwalks in the fifth act exposing the radical difference between how she presented herself to Macbeth and the nobles and how she really feels about the murders she has had a hand in. In this play she is only strives to kill one man, Duncan but the blood Macbeth sheds throughout the play affects his wife as much as him. In her very first appearance, she wishes to a higher power to give her cruelty to kill her beloved king in order to become queen and Macbeth king as the witches had prophesied , she wished that, “that no compunctious visitings of nature/Shake my fell purpose.”(I.v.52-53) she thinks her nature is too kind to go through on these horrible deeds so she merely as though she is unaffected to get her husband to go through with the murders. She continues to be the steady when he falters into madness after what he has done, in murdering his king and best friend. We don’t see till the end that she too is just as affected but the tragedy they have caused as him. She cannot show this however and must be the masculine example of strength and stability to her husband and the kingdom. After Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo she reminds him “My worth lord,/ Your noble friends do lack you”(III.iv.100-101) she wants to remind her husband no matter how real or devastating what he just saw was he needs to remember he is a king hosting nobles and his responsibility is greater than his

Lady Macbeth’s burning ambition to be queen drives her to the point of insanity. She stops at nothing to gain power and uses Macbeth as the enforcer for her plans. This power is clearly illustrated as her husband follows her command to kill the king of Scotland, she constantly taunts Macbeth bringing him even further under her control. She is quite the opposite of how we generally assume feminine characters to act, and even begs the gods to remove her femininity at one point, “...Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here...Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers...” (Shakespeare 12). As Lady Macbeth expresses her desire to become unsexed, we see the link that clearly exists between masculinity and murder. She believes that since she is a woman she cannot be capable of committing such evil deeds, and her reference to her breasts which is generally linked to the idea of nurture, is called upon in reference to her desire to do quite the opposite. Lady Macbeth presents a very strong character throughout the play, and through her actions a very clear picture of a manipulative wife is painted. Though Macbeth is the one to carry out many of the deviant plans, Lady Macbeth’s role is clearly portrayed as the evil mastermind behind the murders.

Lady Macbeth is the driving force that encourages Macbeth to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action on the prophecies. She is plotting for King Duncan’s murder to get the throne of Scotland. She is stronger, ambitious, and greedy than her husband. Lady Macbeth persistently taunts her husband for his lack of courage and challenges Macbeth to commit murder of King Duncan. Specifically, she mocked the masculinity of Macbeth in order to commit the murder. She said “But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail”. In this regard, Lady Macbeth appears to switch characters with Macbeth midway through the play. Although most famous for her cruelty and lines such as "unsex me here," the decline of Lady Macbeth is also of great interest and certainly a mysterious aspect of Macbeth.