Was Lady Macbeth 'Evil'? Essay

The irony in the situation between Macbeth and his wife is extreme, because one would expect Macbeth to be the more immorally, determined character to have greater ambition, not his wife, who is expected to play the simplistic, encouraging wife. She is a little too encouraging, for example when Macbeth says, “Valuating ambition, which o’leaps itself and falls on the other-”

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

Lady Macbeth comes off as one of the most oblique, yet determined characters in the play. She had her mind set on helping her husband conciliate the throne and encourages him to pursue his dreams of being crowned as the king. When his weaknesses appeared she remained firm and made Macbeth’s goals her own ambitions. Things do seem a bit outrageous at that particular moment where Lady Macbeth explains to Macbeth how they should kill King Duncan but it shows not only the true love and devotion for her husband, but how she would stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.

“Lady Macbeth tutors her husband in the arts of deceit” (Kemp 95). She tells him to “bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue: look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (Shakespeare I. v. 63-65). She also portrays the perfect hostess. Duncan praises Lady Macbeth for being an “honour’d hostess” and a “fair and noble hostess” (Shakespeare I. vi. 10, 24). She drugs the guards who protect Duncan’s bedchamber by bringing them tainted wine. Lady Macbeth, unable to kill Duncan because he resembles his father, has Macbeth to murder him instead. After the deed is done, Lady Macbeth plays to be distraught over the King’s death. Later, following the murders of Duncan and Banquo, Macbeth acknowledges his wife as hostess, and she welcomes the thanes who have gathered after being summoned to acknowledge Macbeth as their new king (Kemp 95).

People will say that she is just a good wife trying to go after happiness and joy with her husband. All she wanted was power and for him to be king. That did not work out well. Everything just turned against them. But, here is the weakness; Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both fell apart. After they did all that was wrong, they both felt guilt and did not stop thinking about it. Macbeth started having bad dreams and imagining things. Lady Macbeth started sleep walking and fell apart until she finally decided to take her own life. It did not turn out well for both of them. One can say she was trying to help and do well for her and her husband but that is not

Lady Macbeth is a vicious and overly ambitious woman, her desire of having something over rules all the moral behaviors that one should follow. On the beginning of the novel, Macbeth receives the news that if Duncan, the current king, passed away he would be the next one to the throne. So,

On the contrary, Lady Macbeth begins as a ruthless woman. She has a manipulative and controlling character, convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan; she will do anything to gain power. When she says, “How tender ‘tis to love the babe…I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out” (I.vii. 55-58), she shows her ruthlessness and her “bad” ambition. In her “role reversal” with Macbeth, she gains somewhat of a conscience and realizes her guilt. When she tells him, “You must leave this” (III. ii. 35), she wants Macbeth to forget about his plan to murder Banquo’s family. She is very hesitant about committing another murder and does not want Macbeth to follow through with his plan.

Lady Macbeth is far more evil than the witches; however Macbeth is more than just a dagger in her hand. Reasons for this statement are that the witches simply tell Macbeth the

Macbeth’s wife, Lady Macbeth, was a woman who strived for a leading role in the kingdom and true power who would have done anything to get it. Lady Macbeth had the intention to kill King Duncan and take away the throne by convincing Macbeth to commit scandalous and shameful crimes in the kingdom. Lady Macbeth was a manipulative woman whom no one can trust. However, her relationship with her husband was much different and also much stronger than the relationship

In the play, “Macbeth”, the character that stands out the most is Lady Macbeth. Her role in this story is significant, she is an evil, ruthless, and ambitious person. She is responsible for the murders that her husband commits because she was bloodthirsty for the crown. In fact, she then becomes more eager to get the crown than Macbeth himself and soon realizes that once you commit one violent act, there is almost no way of ever turning back. An analysis of Lady Macbeth reveals that she is a powerful character who adds complexity and depth to a play about murder, madness, and revenge.

Lady Macbeth is a complex and intriguing character in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. She is a difficult character to embody as her personality seems split between two sides, one that is pure evil, sly and conniving in contrast to her softer, vulnerable, weak and feminine side. In the play we see her in these two main ways. The reader may feel a certain animosity towards Lady Macbeth throughout the first few acts as her personality appears more and more distasteful, in spite of this towards the end she has a serious breakdown over the guilt that torments her, even in her sleep, regarding her hand in Duncan’s untimely death.

She the woman of the house. She’s an example of a woman that most women wish they could be. Lady Macbeth convincing attempts to rejects her feminine sensibility and adopt a male mentally because she feels that the ones around her, think females should be weak. Lady Macbeth feels all women should be strong. Lady Macbeth is the type of woman that gives orders, instead of taking them. Lady Macbeth planned everything. She planned the murder, and how to poison the guards. However, Lady Macbeth does doubt the plan.

     Lady Macbeth progresses throughout the play from a seemingly savage and heartless creature to a very delicate and fragile woman. In the beginning of the play, she is very ambitious and hungry for power. She pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. In Act I, Scene 6, she asks the gods to make her emotionally strong like a man in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot. She says, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!” Also, she does everything in her power to convince Macbeth that he would be wrong not to kill Duncan. In Act I,

Lady Macbeth is a strong character controlling her terrifying dreams at night and rescuing Macbeth from his weak conscience as in the scene when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost. She protects him and defends him at the banquet. However as the play progresses, Lady Macbeth’s relationship with Macbeth weakens and we see more of her defenselessness and delicateness. During the

Lady Macbeth from “Macbeth” was a very powerful and influential character in the play. However, her traits are portrayed as bitter making her seem as an undesirable figure. Throughout the book she is interpreted as controlling, demanding, power seeking, and corrupt, but it will later come back and cause conflict. In the book she says, “ Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures… For it must seem their guilt” (Shakespeare 59). At this point in the book, Lady Macbeth is showing how controlling she is by taking the matters into