Lady Macbeth's Soliloquy

As Lady Macbeth receives the message from her husband claiming that he has earned the title of Thane of Cawdor she is very proud and grateful to have such a successful husband. “Glamis thou art… yet I do fear thy nature; it is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness… thou wouldest be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it. What thou wouldest highly…” Although she is proud of him there is an undertone of doubt and belief that he could do more. She loves him undoubtedly and wants the best for him. When she asks of him to fulfill the strangest of deeds he contemplates “if we should fail?” They are a team, everything they plot they do together. They are honest and wholesome with each other. As they successfully gain the title of king and queen of Scotland, their relationship starts to hinder. They fight more frequently, almost growing out of the honeymoon state of marriage and into a business like attire. As the power and murders incline, all honesty is shot. Macbeth no longer tells Lady Macbeth of the innocent blood on his hands. This environment holds no hope for a relationship to last. The guilt and dishonesty between them separates them from even having a casual chat. They have become so consumed with what they have done that they have no room to remember each other. As Lady Macbeth kills herself, Macbeth just simply says, “She should have died hereafter. There would have been a time for such a word.” He looks at her dislodged

I consider Macbeth’s dagger soliloquy from Act Two, Scene One to be one of the most revealing speeches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. This is because it demonstrates the effect that a character’s actions have on the way they think about moral issues. The speech takes place while Macbeth is on his way to kill King Duncan. At the beginning of the speech, Macbeth is feeling guilty about what he is about to do. This is shown by the fact that he is seeing a dagger that is not there. His use of rhetoric in the statement “Is this a dagger I see before me, / the handle towards my hand?” shows the reader that Macbeth is uncertain about the substantiality of the dagger. Macbeth has clearly been thinking about the effects of the murder so much his conscience has presented him with an image of that which he is dreading. His statement “heat-oppressed brain” also tells the reader he has been so wrought up about the murder, he is hallucinating

Furthermore, Macbeth wants to enjoy what he has earned from his services. He has earned the title of Thane of Cawdor. He knows that if he proceeds with the murder of Duncan could lose men’s good opinions of him. However, when Lady Macbeth hears this she attacks her husband’s weakest spot; his courage. She tells him he will only be a man if he commits the murder.

Macbeth Act 1.7 is a quintessential example of an author’s mastery of rhetoric. Shakespeare uses his skills to reveal the character’s emotional conflicts through the use of tropes and schemes. First, he highlights Macbeth’s inner battle with morality, and continues with an external power struggle between Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth. As the performer of the soliloquy, I had the challenge of portraying Macbeth as an expression of his own thoughts. For the performance of Act 1.7, my group and I analyzed the use of rhetorical strategies to craft an interpretation of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and their shared conflict of killing King Duncan.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the antagonist Macbeth is influenced and motivated by his wife Lady Macbeth to plan and execute vicious acts. Lady Macbeth is presented as a villainous character as she instigates her husband into committing horrendous acts starting with the murder of Duncan. She implant’s the idea of violence into Macbeth’s mind. And constantly manages to feed Macbeth’s thoughts with heartless and unfavorable comments. “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would..be so much more than the man” (1.7.47-51). Lady Macbeth cleverly uses these quotes to mock Macbeth’s ability to behave like a man. She questions Macbeth’s identity and uses him as a pawn to complete her plan. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that he would be more than a man if he committed the murder and that this would benefit him.

Initially, Macbeth is viewed as a brave and loyal soldier, with Duncan praising him by expressing that “More is thy due than more than all can pay” (1.4.21). At this point, he has not been influenced by the three witches. Yet, by Duncan implying his importance, Macbeth gains a sense of self-worth and this arouses power within. His clear desire to be titled Thane of Cawdor while then having a growing temptation to commit regicide clearly demonstrate the early stages of his corruption and forms a basis for utilizing illegitimate power.

Visualize being in MacBeth’s place, you are announced Thane of Cawdor after your heroic leadership on the battlefield, why would you thirst for a higher rank? Although you may be content with your position, there are many reasons why you would want more power. Your rank becomes very close to that of a king, so you decide to go for it, after all, all you have to do to be king is to kill Duncan. As your sight of kingship would become realistic, your rapacity grows, and you start making nefarious decisions that would affect your disposition. As an effect of your changed mindset, your nobles start to become suspicious that you are deranged. Little do they know they are all pawns in your game of life and your scheme to become king is going impeccably

Lady Macbeth's ambitious nature was a large part of the play. Lady Macbeth often brought Macbeth's manhood into question whenever he was weary of going through with something, even something as atrocious as murder. For example, “Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way”(1.5.14-16). In this quote she basically says that he is too much of a wuss to follow through with their plan to elevate their social status. Lady Macbeth was also the one who planted the daggers on the guards when Macbeth couldn't follow through with it. If she hadn't have done that there is a good chance that they could have been caught. She asks “Why did you bring these daggers from the place? / They must lie there:

Secondly, Lady Macbeth’s blind ambition and false appearance take part in further altering Macbeth’s decisions. Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter and she immediately starts to plot King Duncan’s murder so the witches’ prophecies can her husbands desires can become true. She knows Macbeth is, “too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/… That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false/ And yet wouldst wrongly win” (1.V.17-23). Lady is aware her husband Macbeth is too noble and innocent to hurt an individual for his own personal gain. She knows she will have to persuade Macbeth to murder Duncan in order for him to become king. Later, during the congratulatory dinner, Lady Macbeth convinces a hesitant Macbeth to execute Duncan. At first, Macbeth is hesitant because he thinks he is double crossing trust with the king, he is his kinsman, and tonight Duncan is his guest. Moreover, Duncan has done no wrong to deserve death. Macbeth confesses to Lady Macbeth he can not murder Duncan however, Lady Macbeth says, “Art thou afeard/…Wouldst thou have that/ Which thou esteem’st the ornament

This speech is one that is one of the most revealing in Macbeth - it illustrates Lady Macbeth’s values throughout the beginning of the play. Her anger when Macbeth tells her he does not want to continue with the plan to murder Duncan demonstrates the importance that she places on loyalty and keeping of word. “I would…dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn.” - Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s willingness to sacrifice her own child should she have promised to do so is a demonstration of valuing loyalty - not only to people, but to her own word. This anger is also displayed through her telling Macbeth that his decision makes him less than a man, evidence of her belief that men were supposed to be ruthless and cunning. This belief was founded earlier in the play, where Lady Macbeth calls on the spirits to ‘unsex her’. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth criticises Macbeth for attempting to back out of the plan just when the time was right to commit the murder, which she planned herself. This

I,Malcolm, let Macbeth do anything to be king. While I watch him ruin his legacy.Macbeth proves his loyalty to Duncan by serving him. Macbeth states, " the service and the loyalty I owe in doing it pays itself(I.iv.25) To avoid being taken advantage of, Macbeth must demonstrate that he is not weak. He fulfills this by taking the cowardly way out and murdering Duncan King of Scotland. He acts out because he is jealous and feels as if he deserves to be king. At this point once Macbeth displays that he is no longer loyal to his once King of Scotland, who said " for brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name"(I.ii.95). A disloyal Macbeth cannot accept the promotion to thane of Cawdor, so he get greedy and does the unthinkable. Macbeth says, "Let not light see my black and deep desires: the eye wink at the hand yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done to see"(I.ii.50-53). These words reveal Macbeth's deep desire to be king, after King Duncan announces that his son Malcolm will be the one to take the throne after him.

Throughout the play “Macbeth” Shakespeare uses multiple examples of strong diction, paradox, metaphors, and imagery to demonstrate the theme that fate is inevitable. These examples also help emphasize that the witches are in control of Macbeth's severe and hostile actions throughout the tragic play. Without the witches prophecies the idea of murder would have never crossed Macbeth’s mind. After the witches informed Macbeth that he would soon become king he was willed to do anything to make sure this bizarre prophecy would come true.

In scene 4 of act 2 Macduff reveals to the Thane of Ross that king Duncan’s death, during the middle of a crazy storm. Before knowing about the king’s death an old man says that “[h]ours dreadful and thing strange” (2.4.3-4). This quote allows the audience to understand that the world is acting crazy, where it is dark during the day and that animals’ behaviors are changing. This is why I have a picture of a storm in my slide. In addition,

Looking at Macbeth, the main theme of the book is destructive power, when unchecked, has disastrous consequences. An example of this is seen through Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy.

The play ‘Macbeth’ uses soliloquies with great effect to express the thoughts of individual characters, particularly in the case of the protagonist, Macbeth. In Act V Scene V, strong words from Macbeth convey to the reader two themes of the play.  This soliloquy demonstrates the play's use of irony and the use of the disparity between the great opposition of light and darkness as symbols for both life and death.  This soliloquy is quite significant to the play as a whole since it demonstrates two very important themes as well as leading to a better understanding of Macbeth.