Lady Macbeth: The Mastermind Behind the Murder
Lady Macbeth is a two-faced megalomaniac who is responsible for the murder of King Duncan in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. After Macbeth tells her about their probable future of royalty foretold by a group of old witches, she immediately creates a plan to kill the king of Scotland in order to gain control of the throne. She, however, puts this murderous crime upon the shoulders of her husband Macbeth to do the dirty work. In the play, one can see how Lady Macbeth is more responsible for the murder of King Duncan because of her abilities to easily manipulate people into doing what she wants.
Upon discovering the witch’s prophecy, Macbeth’s ambitions rise. Nevertheless, he didn’t know that he would be committing a murder in order to gain power. According to the play, Macbeth says, “If th’ assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success; that but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all…” (Shakespeare 1.7.2-5). This quote shows Macbeth’s
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Macbeth says, “I am settled, and bent up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: false face must hide what the false heart doth know” (Shakespeare 1.7.79-82). In this quote, Macbeth is admitting defeat and getting prepared to go kill the king. As he is on his way, he sees an imaginary dagger pointing him in the direction of the king. When he sees it, he knows it’s too late to turn back. He says, “...a dagger of the mind, a false creation, proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?” (Shakespeare 2.1.38-39). As Macbeth says this, he is mentally trying to figure out whether the dagger is there because of his own corrupted imagination or because of Lady Macbeth’s manipulation. Macbeth now feels more willing than ever to kill the
David Rosenberg once stated that “hope is a tree sitting on a mountain where the grass don’t grow ” . This quote relates to Macbeth because he hopes things that never lasts forever even if he tries no matter way . Lady Macbeth influenced Macbeth to carry out evil activities.
Lady Macbeth played a large role as Macbeth’s seductress and brainwasher. Lady Macbeth persuaded her husband to kill the King not so that he would himself be King but so that she could be Queen.Although because of her involvement in this web of lies she felt guilty and drove herself insane worrying about what had happened and what would happen to her and her husband for being so dishonest. She was not responsible for the tragedy, she was only a manipulative factor in the scheme of things. Even though it does take two to tango, Macbeth tangoed on his own.
In the Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare depicted the fall of a valiant general, who usurped the Scottish throne and eventually destroyed by his ever inflating ambition. During the course of regicide, his wife Lady Macbeth act as a powerful stimulant, who coaxed and pushed Macbeth to kill the beloved king Duncan. However,we can see from the play that though Lady Macbeth had a pivotal role to play in this evil deed, she did not bear chief responsibility of the murder. She was an intimidating and evil character from the beginning, while as situation developed, his husband became a much
While attempting to convince her husband to murder the king, Lady Macbeth acknowledges no moral boundaries to get what she wants. Disturbingly, regicide is essentially a non-issue to her. Her nonchalance regarding murder is a part of her barbarism that rubs off on Macbeth. In The Heroes of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Victor Cahn writes that “Lady Macbeth knows that something malignant must lie in the soul of someone who is to fulfill what she imagines” (Cahn 129). To acquire the crown, she recognizes that it will not come via good or righteous deeds. The nobleman’s wife calls out her husband for not having a source of malice within his body: “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” (1.5.17-19).
In the dagger speech (II, 1, 33-64) William Shakespeare conveys the message that Macbeth’s ambition overrides his morals to accomplish what he wants and what he thinks will give him happiness. In lines 33-41 of the dagger speech it portrays the message that Macbeth’s guilt is tearing him apart from the thought of what he is going to do. Shakespeare uses apostrophe of the dagger to convey the message. In the speech Macbeth addresses the dagger as if it was a person. This allows the audience to see the moral conflict of inside of Macbeth. Showing that he knows what he wants to do is wrong causing him to see what is not actually there. Shakespeare also uses rhetorical questions such as “The handle toward my
In Shakespeare's “Macbeth” both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are crazy but the crazier one is Macbeth. Macbeth murdered innocent people, he was obsessed to become king and he believed whatever the witches said.
Lady Macbeth is the one who instigates most of the mischief in the play. Near the start of the play, we know that Lady Macbeth wants to be queen, and it is evident that her ambition for her husband to become queen is the reason she persuaded her husband to commit all of the terrible crimes. It is obvious that Lady Macbeth is going to manipulate Macbeth when she says, “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. (1.5.26) Lady Macbeth baits Macbeth to kill the king. She questions his manhood, and calls him a coward. Lady Macbeth tries to make Macbeth feel guilty by saying,
“When Lady MacBeth receives the letter from MacBeth telling her that he wants to kill Duncan, she fears that he would not have the courage to go through with it” (Shakespeare 31). She brings out the worst in him and encourages him to kill King Duncan. She persuades him by constantly telling him negative things to get MacBeth to believe that he is doing the right thing. “Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under ’t” (Shakespeare 35). Lady MacBeth is the one who tells MacBeth to be this vicious creature and makes him think that killing King Duncan is okay. Because of Lady Macbeth’s behavior, MacBeth was led to become a murderer. Macbeth should not be held accountable for his actions since Lady MacBeth is the one who convinced him to commit the crime that started his madness and turn him into a monster.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the true villain of the play as she is evil, ambitious and eventually insane. Lady Macbeth masterminded the idea to kill King Duncan and planted the vision into Macbeths mind, she convinced Macbeth to commit such a crime, and her love for her husband was eventually overruled by her determination and lust for power. Throughout the play she starts to show her true colours and the destructive force of her ambition, which inevitably results in nothing but disaster.
Fleance does not return back to Macbeth’s castle shows that he has control over his own fate by opposing to the future that the witches had seen in their prophecy. “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none” (act1 scene3 line 70) In the beginning of the play the witches had foretell Banquo that his sons will become the king. Macbeth strongly believes in the witches prophecy. He commits murder against Banquo and Fleance in order to fight against the destiny that the witches had prophesied. “Thou may ’st revenge —O slave!”(act scene line) Banquo urges Fleance to escape and someday to take revenge of this gory tragedy. The reader expects Fleance to return to Macbeth’s castle to take revenge by murdering Macbeth similarly like he had done to his father. Though, the reader loses where he had fled in the story after he had escaped from that scene. This may show that he would not become the king. As the witches recite in the beginning of the play. “Fair is foul, foul is fair”(act scene line), Macbeth acts as what the witches had said. He is brainwashed by the evil spirits, he has no more control over himself. He believes that he is doing the right thing but he is actually trapping himself in a difficult situation. Although, both Banquo and Fleance opposes to this
“They knew very well why he hadn’t: because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood” (Golding 31).
At the same time, Macbeth’s fear that “[w]e still have judgement here, that we but teach / Bloody instructions which, being taught, return / To plague th’inventor,” foreshadows the way that his deeds will eventually come back to haunt him. The imagery in this speech is dark—we hear of “bloody instructions,” “deep damnation,” and a “poisoned chalice”—and suggests that Macbeth is aware of how the murder would open the door to a dark and sinful world. At the same time, he admits that his only reason for committing murder, “ambition,” suddenly seems an insufficient justification for the act. The destruction that comes from unchecked ambition will continue to be explored as one of the play’s themes. As the soliloquy ends, Macbeth seems to resolve not to kill Duncan, but this resolve will only last until his wife returns and once again convinces him, by the strength of her will, to go ahead with their plot.
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
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character Macbeth holds a soliloquy in which he speaks about his current situation and his hesitation to execute the slaying of the king. Macbeth speculates whether or not his situation is real when seeing a “dagger of mind, a false creation” (2.1.50). He envisions a false dagger because he may crave an effortless way to find a dagger, or he may be incessantly be thinking about weapons because of his high stress-level. He continues to ask himself if his visions are real and wonders“I see thee yet, in form as palpable” (2.1.52). Macbeth’s unease is so intense that he does not know if he is touching the dagger or if it is a figment of his imagination. Alternately, he may wish what he sees is false because he knows his appalling actions will be irreversible and already he regrets his action before enacting it. Or, as mentioned earlier, he may yearn for a smooth way to do eliminate the king, thus his brain presents a false dagger with no trace of previous use. Consequently, he discloses he sees “gouts of blood/Which was not so before.”(2.1.58-59). This could either be an extension of his bad hallucination or it could be him, contemplating about the dagger further and imagining the gore of his killing. If it is an extension of his hallucination, then Macbeth could become more fearful of his future as he imagines the conclusion of his insane planned event. But, if it is him seeing the gore, that may symbolize that he is balking the homicide knowing
Lady Macbeth as the Driving Force Behind the Murder of Duncan in William Shakespeare's Macbeth