The Responsibility Of Lady Macbeth In Shakespeare's Play

   Shakespeare's "Macbeth" holds many hidden themes within its already exuberant plot.  The first of these surrounds the murder of Duncan and the role that both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself played.  However, the true guilt of the murder can fall on either character.  Although Macbeth physically committed the crime, it was Lady Macbeth that pushed him to his limits of rational thought and essentially made fun of him to lower his esteem.  With Macbeth's defenses down, it was an easy task for Lady Macbeth to influence Duncan's murder and make up an excuse as to why she could not do it herself.  The guilt of Duncan's murder can be placed firmly on the head on Lady Macbeth.

Timothy Leary once said, "Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition" (Peters 175). But is this true in the case of the classic play Macbeth? In Macbeth it seems to be, that Macbeth the protagonist of the play is influence by Lady Macbeth's ambition. Could this be an exception or was Lady Macbeth lying when she ask to be equal to a man so she could commit the murder (1.5.33.45-61). To understand one must look deeply into the plot and many themes of Macbeth. William Shakespeare uses ambition among other things to imply may different ideas. Thus, Macbeth's downfall is a direct cause of Lady Macbeth's goading and ambition.

In the Shakespeare play, Macbeth, Macbeth is responsible for all the deaths in the play because Macbeth didn’t have to do anything about the prophecies, he could have chosen not to kill King Duncan, and Macbeth decided all on his own to have Macduff’s family killed.

From murder to greed Macbeth portrays a story of how a human’s flaws can be elevated to a point where they are no longer flaws but a person’s way of thinking and acting. A lot of the characters evolve from doing what they think is right to doing what their heart desires. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth changes from an evil mastermind to a guilt ridden woman because Shakespeare shows how a person’s actions affect their personality by having selfish desires turn into a person only driven by power and ambition.

Guilt is a very strong and uncomfortable feeling that often results from one’s own actions. This strong emotion is one of the theme ideas in William Shakespeare, “Macbeth”. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel guilt, but they react in different ways. Guilt hardens Macbeth, but cause Lady Macbeth to commit suicide. As Macbeth shrives to success guilt overcome’s Macbeth where he can no longer think straight. Initially Macbeth planned was to kill Duncan but it wasn’t enough he also had to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family. On the other hand Lady Macbeth had to call upon the weird sister to unsexed her so she had no true feeling towards anything as if she was a man. However, the true guilt of the murder

You can control guilt or guilt will drive you into madness. In the novel, Macbeth, guilt has taken over two of the main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, but each one responds to it in a different way. Their similarities and differences are quite obvious and both are driven to their actions by this feeling. It will eventually cause both of them a breakdown, affecting their behaviors and resulting them into going through a psychological incapacity.

Responsibility for the Tragic Events in Macbeth by William Shakespeare Macbeth is one of Shakespeare four great tragedies. The witches, Lady

‘Macbeth’ is a play in which a Lord and his Lady come into supreme power through acts of injustice and despicable inhumanities. In the play Macbeth there is no main focal theme that overrules the others; the play however has several underlying themes, namely there are important themes i.e. good and evil (like ying and yang), greed and power, guilt and conscience, fear, ambition – this leads to the murder of other people illustrating to the reader that even the most sane of people can result to character diminishing methods to get what they want. These particular themes are the most prominent and when closely looked at, it can help to understand characters and meanings behind the play. The theme of ambition is very important in this play,

In the old Shakespeare play Macbeth, women wear the pants, while the men wear the dresses, this is the theme throughout the play. It focuses on the marriage of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth takes the lead role, while she convinces her husband to kill Duncan. Shakespeare play concerning gender roles, shows the untraditional marriage in Scotland; what one sees is not what one gets. It also show how one starts is not how they end. The story of Macbeth shows power and betrayal. It shows power because it shows how one can take charge and get it done. It shows betrayal because he kill Duncan just to get the crown.

Unfortunately for Lady Macbeth, her ambition wins out over playing house. Her strong willpower leads to an equally strong demise. In the sleepwalking scene, Lady Macbeth vigorously tries to clean her hands with bleach in the utility sink, and then the tap begins to run with blood (Collins 189). Not literally of course, but the audience sees this in order to see what is in Lady Macbeth's mind. She does not unravel easily, but when she does it is dramatic and sudden: "Lady Macbeth seems at first determined to pull herself together, but her control of her bodily coherence is short-lived" (Spolsky 493). She undergoes a descent into madness and eventual suicide. Arguably, these physical consequences can be viewed as "bodily signs of her corruption, and (self-)punishment for her transgressive, evil ways" (Thomas 81). Her influence upon her husband leads him to a tragic fate as well. He begins acting on his own, and arranges the murders of Banquo, as well as Macduff's family. The accumulation of these acts causes Macduff to kill Macbeth in an act of vengeance. The significance here is that this ending was caused by the initial act of

These lines show us, as if it was not obvious already, that Lady Macbeth, not the uncertain Macbeth, was the driving force in the murder of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth takes control of King Duncan’s murder as to ensure that it will go smoothly and she can become Queen. Lady Macbeth was so committed to the plan that when Macbeth forgot to place the dagger beside he drunken chamberlains, Lady Macbeth offered to do so. The first sign of Lady Macbeth’s letting her emotions or moral righteousness take precedence over her ambition was in Act 2 Scene 2: “Had he not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had done’t”

In the Elizabethan Era, society was highly suspicious of the power of supernatural forces and it was commonly accepted that one’s life was governed by fate and was predetermined. Shakespeare’s Macbeth challenges the Elizabethan ideology of fate by privileging that although Macbeth was a victim of his “vaulting ambition” (1:VII 27), he was ultimately responsible for his villainous actions. Shakespeare has foregounded certain events to privilege that a person has free will and a concience and the cosequences of going against one's conscience, thus challenging the assumption of the Elizabethan Era. The audience is invited to sympathise with the protagonist, Macbeth, and see him as a tragic hero. Before his descent into evil, Macbeth

In the seventh scene of act one Macbeth has left the banquet, and expresses his doubts about murdering Duncan in a monologue. Lady Macbeth comes in, and argues with Macbeth, until she manages to 'convince' him, that he has to murder Duncan.

Lady Macbeth is a frightening female character. Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Macbeth was placed in a time when women were expected to be weak, she used her position to gain power and stay strong. She manipulated Macbeth to the point of killing, but she herself could not do it. Her insanity shows her weakness.

Lady Macbeth is the most interesting and complex character in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. She is, in fact, the point on which the action pivots: without her there is no play.