Macbeth Character Analysis

In play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most dominant and frightening female characters, known for her ambitious nature. As Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their

Macbeth uses his manhood to portray his solider like qualities, but Lady Macbeth’s masculinity manipulates Macbeth’s actions, however, in the end it is Macbeth who uses his masculinity to do heinous actions.

The play Macbeth, written by Shakespeare, describes Macbeth’s rise to power and the obstacles he faces on his journey. The witches prophesied his rise of power that will lead to him becoming King. He must make many drastic decisions that will lead to becoming king and powerful. Males often strive to obtain supremacy and glory. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, male roles are strictly defined as cruel and violent; however, not all men follow these standards. Male gender roles and the stereotypes they reinforce, may or may not define the way a male acts in society.

Macbeth’s character has developed significantly up to the second act. We are first introduced to Macbeth character in a way that we view him as powerful and Nobel. We get this idea from the quote “oh valiant cousin, worthy gentleman” which is what he is described as by Duncan, who at the time is the king. From this quote Macbeth is portrayed as a loyal and heroic figure who has done much for many, however as we know this was not a smart move for Duncan to make as it makes him come across and weak and seems like Duncan should be giving Macbeth a higher title, which is what the witches had told him before. In addition, this idea of the king complementing Macbeth about all the good that he has done seems to trigger the belief that Macbeth has the ability to be king, even in the eyes of Duncan who is so ecstatic what he has done for the county.

In the play “Macbeth” the author furthers the ideas of ambition, manhood and violence throughout the play using a gender lens, mainly for masculinity in men. In the play “Macbeth” ambition plays a big role in the man characters life; Macbeth. In Act 1 scene 3, lines 125-129, “And oftentimes, to win us to our harm; The instruments of darkness tell us truth.” (Shakespeare 1.3.125-129). This quote stated by Banquo foreshadows Macbeth further into the play. Macbeth ends up killing King Duncan because he wants to be in power over the kingdom. When Banquo questions Macbeth about the killing of King Duncan, Macbeth’s ambition to kill Banquo skyrocketed. Macbeth didn’t want anybody to think or know that he ended up killing King Duncan for power. This started a cycle of death for Macbeth’s ambition to kill to stay in power. This example of ambition from “Macbeth” has a very similar motif from the movie called “The Mask You Live In”. In the movie, George Orwell states, “He wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” The idea of the mask he wear fits his face helps us further the reason for men’s ambitions. Men’s ambitions are driven by power and dominance over people and prized possessions. For men to be able to gain power, they need to prove how masculine they are to society. In doing so they are dehumanizing their biological thoughts and feelings and turning them into artificial ones in order to be seen more powerful or dominate to the public.

Whilst the character of Macbeth is initially portrayed as a noble kinsman, his ambition and motivation, directly influenced by the witches and Lady Macbeth, ultimately transforms him into a corrupt and ruthless tyrant. William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy “Macbeth” clearly depicts this notion of change, illustrated through Shakespeare's utilisation of literary techniques. The tragic downfall of Macbeth is mainly attributed to Macbeth’s own greed and hubris.

Throughout the book, as Macbeth continues to progress in power, it seems as though his morals fade away while dark and destructive ideas spread through him quickly. While Macbeth contemplates his first evil deed of killing Duncan, he often talk’s himself into doing it, or gets outside persuasion to gain the courage that he is lacking. After talking to Lady Macbeth about how he has to murder Duncan, he exclaims, “I am settled and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. / Away and mock the time with the fairest show. / False face must hide what the false heart doth / know” (1.7.92-96). Later in the novel we learn that Macbeth thinks that Banquo has become a threat to his power. Macbeth then takes this problem into his own hands and assigns murderers to kill Banquo. Macbeth then says, “So is he mine; and in such bloody distance / That every minute of his being thrusts/ Against my nearest of life. And though I could / With barefaced power sweep him from my sight/ And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not, / For certain friends that are both his and mine, / Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall who I myself struck down. And thence it is, that I to your assistance do make love, masking the business from the common eye for sundry weighty reasons” (3.1.132-142). Macbeth is saying that if he absolutely has to do this terrible deed he will, it doesn’t mean he wants to, but he is going to do it anyways. Macbeth uses the motif of appearance versus reality when he

Ambition is the passion to achieve success, yet there is an irony that comes with the word "passion" originating from a Greek verb meaning to suffer, when ambition is generally supposed to lead others away from suffering. In the case of Richard Nixon, his ambition lead to his suffering: he aspired to have power, continued running after defeats in elections, which made him paranoid of political opponents, which led to the Watergate debacle, which was the beginning of the end of Nixons' presidency. Besides history, there are examples in literature, from the past and present, which occasionally tell the stories of what can become of excessive ambition that becomes uncontrollable passion. " The Tragedy of Macbeth" by William Shakespeare is a drama

First off, Lady Macbeth is a character very much rooted in ambition. The authors use of masculinity versus femininity furthermore portrays the extent to which Lady Macbeth will go to ensure the success of her plan to kill the King. Her hunger for masculinity is first clearly portrayed through her use of the phrase “come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.” This quote exemplifies her willingness to give up her femininity in exchange for masculine cruelty, which would ensure her success in carrying out the murder of King Duncan. Through this quote, Lady Macbeth directly opposes the Elizabethan expectation of women to be feeble, nurturers of life. Lady Macbeth did not believe that her husband had the means to become a strong

Lady Macbeth’s desire to become more manly and kill Duncan is against her assigned roles as a woman in this time period and continues to be highlighted throughout the play. Another character who frequently goes against his gender’s typical nature is Macbeth. After he decides he must kill Duncan to ascend to the throne, Macbeth questions his new murderous idea and nearly backs down. His wife, Lady Macbeth, determined Macbeth was not acting as a brave man should, exclaims “are you a man” when she learns of Macbeth’s doubts (3:4:61-62). By not always displaying manly bravery or courage, Macbeth goes against society’s expectations of him as a man.

In some instances, men tend to fall under the rule of strong woman.  Lady Macbeth rejects her womanly, submissive traits in order to the stronger character and Macbeth's backbone. Macbeth is a great example on how women influence men because he is insecure and a coward. I will show how without Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have lived and prospered. Lady Macbeth is very good at manipulating her husband, as the play movesalongg she become more bloodthirsty than Macbeth and she encourages him to use his power for violence. In this play author, William Shakespeare, is trying to show how easy it is for evil to penetrate your head and make you act out. The play Macbeth is centered in Scottland with characters fighting over the power of the land with Macbeth ending up as king of Scottland. In the end however Macbeth's guilt over comitting murder makes him go delusional, showing how weak his mind really is.

Macbeth is one character in the play who is quite ambiguous, because for one he is said to have many brave and valiant like characteristics like men, but there are times when his manliness is questionable. For example, when Macbeth goes to the three witches in the beginning of the play, they discuss Macbeth’s fate, and upon hearing about his future Macbeth did not even blink for a second and left to seize the throne to become king, but he did not do so until speaking to Lady Macbeth first. He relied on his lady to give him advice and help him through this situation, and “such situation can serve an archetype of how power corrupts a morally immature man.” (Ferdous 1). This shows that Macbeth trying to gain power and seize the thrown for himself, leads to the start of a down fall in Macbeth’s life. His swiftness quick thinking at that moment showed male like characteristics, because men tend to think less before they do something impulsive. When Macbeth does complete the deed of killing King Duncan his manliness is shown off because of the way he does it, he is ruthless and does it aggressively. Furthermore, Macbeth is also filled with the extreme admiration of himself. Macbeth mainly wants to focus on becoming king and doesn’t want

Character Analysis In the Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, women are consider weak and emotional, but Lady Macbeth is different. Women were not smart or equal to men, but Lady Macbeth is the man in her relationship with Macbeth. Macbeth trusts her and tell her what he has knows or heard.

Lady Macbeth is controlling and conniving, where Macbeth is much more blunt and reserved but they both have similar dreams and ambitions of power. Even though their gender roles are different, with Lady Macbeth being more dominant in the relationship and Macbeth being more submissive and inferior towards his wife, it helps them to work together in planning and going through with Duncan's murder. Also, Lady Macbeth often makes fun of her husband for being weak. When making fun of his manhood she says, "What beast was't then that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man. And be to more than what you were, you would be so much more the man."( I, vii, 47-51). In this quote Lady Macbeth teases her husband by using their close-knit and intimate understanding of each other against him. She especially recognizes the flaws and qualities in her husband and tries to fulfill his ambitions and dreams of becoming King. She knows Macbeth will not do anything to achieve his goals so she steps into action by plotting the murder. Even though Macbeth was a brave soldier,he is mentally very weak, This is also much like Lady Macbeth where she is strong on the outside but can be easily broken after tragedies. This shows that the couple can become truly crazy when pushed off the edge with their cruel

Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. She is Macbeth’s wife and her role is significant in his rise and fall from supremacy. When we first meet her she is already plotting King Duncan’s murder. Lady Macbeth has a more intense thirst for power than her husband. She is stronger and far more ambitious than Macbeth; she is fully aware of this and knows that she will need to push him into committing murder. At one point she wishes she were not a women so she could do it herself; she doesn’t want to be gentle, soft, sweet-tempered – qualities stereotypically associated with being a woman. During Shakespearean times women were regarded as being insufficient and weak and weren’t thought to be as intelligent