Lady Macbeth's Speech Essay

Ladies and gentleman of the jury. Sitting before you today is a man accused of the murder of Duncan, the King of Scotland. The prosecution will portray Macbeth as an ambitious man, one who plotted to murder his own cousin, so that he could lay claim to the title of the crown. But the issue in this case is not whether Macbeth murdered the deceased. This fact is not disputed. What you must determine is whether Macbeth was of sound mind when he committed this act. Evidence showed that this was not so. In fact, Macbeth was the victim in this crime. It was he, who was possessed and brainwashed by the evil witches. Then it was Lady Macbeth who took advantage of his state of mind. She pushed him over the edge to fulfil her ambitions of being

The conformity to gender roles that Macbeth and Lady follow leads to the destruction of their relationship. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is more masculine than Macbeth and holds the power in their relationship. Lady Macbeth is aware that she is the assertive one in their relationship and uses that to manipulate Macbeth. In act 1, scene 7, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s masculinity saying, “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.”(54-56) in saying this, she is using Macbeth’s fragile masculinity against him because she knows Macbeth will prove his masculinity by killing Duncan. After they succeed and get away with the murder, Macbeth becomes more assertive and decisive. Macbeth begins to hide things from Lady Macbeth, like his plan to kill Banquo, this causes a strain on their relationship. In act 3, scene 2, lines 50 and 51, Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth, “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed.” about his plan to kill Banquo because he doesn’t want her involved. This furthers the strain in their relationship because Macbeth thinks he, a man, should handle these kinds of things where Lady Macbeth, a woman, should not concern herself with such problems. Furthermore, by excluding Lady Macbeth he has pushed a wedge between them by keeping secrets from her, losing her trust and leading to the downfall of their relationship. Closer to the end of the play, Macbeth assumes his role as a hypermasculine man and becomes violent, killing any possible threat to him. In becoming king, Macbeth becomes obsessed with having power because of the lack of control he had in his relationship with his wife. To Macbeth Macduff appeared as a threat,

Here I feel a little bit of sympathy for lady macbeth because I don’t think that she knows what is going on, and I think that she sees him very worried and all sweaty and scared. “Sit worthy friends. My lord is often thus” Lady Macbeth tries to act although she knows what’s going on and she has acted as he has before, so the guests do not get suspicious of his actions, as she can’t explain, as she isn’t sure herself. “I would while smiling in my face have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this”. Lady Macbeth is saying to macbeth she would rather kill her baby by bashing its brains out than break a promise like macbeth has done, although I feel that she has said this to make him feel guilty so he will carry out the promise. This is a very persuasive piece and although she might be bluffing Macbeth is a bit vulnerable and this manages to persuade him to carry on and keep the promise. She also questions his manliness to persuade him to kill Duncan so this shows how desperate she is to make him murder Duncan, which suggests to me she is afraid to do it herself. I have absolutely no sympathy for her here as I think she is taking advantage of Macbeth and she turns him against his will.

With the current state of Scotland, being innocent is not necessarily enough in the eyes of Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth’s Act 1 scene 5 speech in Macbeth, written by Shakespeare, helps develop a very important part of the play. Lady Macbeth learns that her husband has been announced Thane of Cawdor and also told he will become king. She forms an idea to kill the present king, Duncan so her husband can become the ruler of Scotland. Though when she has the chance to commit this crime, she fights with herself about whether or not she should kill Duncan. Therefore, this passage discuses having the strength to perform something that will negatively affect others but will help the person executing the deed.

To begin, Lady Macbeth is the first character to establish manhood and give an insight to her view of the subject. After contemplating the murder of noble King Duncan, Macbeth decides to tell his lovely wife Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth is kind in nature and is determined to convince Macbeth for personal gain of course. “When you durst do it, then you were a man,” – Lady Macbeth, 1:7, line 48. Essentially Lady Macbeth makes it clear to Macbeth that he is not a true man unless he murders the king. Early on

Lady Macbeth’s gentlewoman has just seen her wandering the castle at night for the first time prior to Act 5, Scene one. She does not know what to do – she is hesitant to tell the doctor because she is uncertain about what will happen to her career. She knows that the Macbeths killed Banquo partly because of his suspicion regarding King Duncan’s murder, so now she is uncertain about what they would do to her if she said anything. She is concerned about the natural order of the world, and what has happened due to the divine right of kings. The gentlewoman is holding a candle, sitting down on a chair in the centre of the stage. There are Rosary Beads on the table next to her.

Most significantly, Lady Macbeth is able to emasculate her husband repeatedly, possessing the knowledge that in his desperation to prove himself and his manhood to her, he will perform the sinister tasks she wishes him to perform. Macbeth in turn, later echoes Lady Macbeth’s actions as he questions the manhood of the murderers hired to kill Banquo. Such ambitions are further seeded as she continuously builds upon the prosperity the crown would provide should Macbeth be willing to claim it: nobility, power, and vast riches. Her attempts to manipulate are proven successful as Macbeth gives into her demands, proclaiming that, “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none” in (1, 7, 46-47). This line suggests Macbeth fears losing his masculinity and thus follows the commands of his wife in order to reclaim its solidarity. It is this lurking anxiety dwelling within the two that the reader may observe

At the beginning of the play Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King but is corrupted from the witches prophecies and by his and Lady Macbeth’s ambition. Their marriage is of convenience for Lady Macbeth, but for Macbeth it is more than that. He loves his wife, and she takes advantage of that. She is continuously making him feel guilty, for being weak, and challenges his manhood, with these words "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." (I,vi,50-52), which means, Be a man, and I will love you as one.

She especially manipulates her own husband Macbeth using his masculinity and courage against him. She challenges his masculinity when she says, “When you durst do it, then you are man.” The audience can infer that Lady Macbeth is trying to question Macbeth’s pride and masculinity so that he does what she asks. This is important because it shows how the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is mostly controlled by Lady Macbeth. When Macbeth starts to feel guilty about what he has done Lady Macbeth accuses him of being and says, “My hands are of your color; but I shame to wear a heart so white.”

The speech that Macbeth gives upon hearing that his wife is dead in Act V, Scene V shows a great impact on his personality and selfishness. Macbeth’s words captures the reader’s attention and also influences one of the major themes in the drama. Throughout the whole play he shows an excessive relationship with his wife. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have each other’s backs with the remorse both of them have for keeping a deadly secret between each other. At the end of the play, it seems that Lady Macbeth’s death didn’t mean a thing to Macbeth because he does not feel sad or as if he has not lost something very important to him.

Upon reading Shakespeare’s Macbeth, I was struck by the importance of the theme ‘evil’ that was continually evident throughout the play. Researching this topic enabled me to form conclusions, which aided in bettering my understanding of the main character Macbeth as well as the text as a whole. The conclusion I formed was: ‘When people commit immoral or evil deeds, there are certain circumstances which cause them to commit these deeds’. Using this conclusion, I was able to form three key questions: ‘To what extent is evil as a theme in Macbeth affect the main character and the overall plot?’, ‘How is evil portrayed as a problem in society in regards to evil deeds people commit?’ and ‘To what extent are immoral acts of evil or one being evil the fault of one person?’.

(To Macbeth) O my worthiest cousin. Just a moment the sin of my ingratitude ever now is

“But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail.”-Lady Macbeth (Shakespeare 17).In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth Lady Macbeth was the dominate partner in her marriage. Carl Gustav Jung was the most famous student of Sigmund Freud. Jung was Freud’s favorite son and his successor (Bressler 149). With all successors they move on and Jung became “one of the leading forces in the psychoanalytic movement” (Bressler 149). With him creating his own form of the human psyche which consist of three parts: the personal conscious, personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious. The other part of Jung’s human psyche is the archetype, which is a repetition of human experiences. This also includes the animus, which is the masculine

Characteristically speaking the speech in only 15 lines embodies Lady Macbeth’s intentions, thoughts, personality and power. By showing her change from a woman and wife to her genderless idea of power; the transformation gives her most inner thoughts a way into the world. It is unsurprising for this to come from her, as it is at the very beginning of her appearance within the play. The speech stands as a foundation to her character. Any idea of who she is can be made from these lines and her future acts are foreshadowed to. Her spell of sorts is not only one that she hopes will help her husband and make the prophecy come true but also a speech to herself. The words she speaks are meant for her own ears. She must persuade herself she is