The truth is that many of these decisions that Macbeth makes or follows is based on what the witches told him. One example of this is when Lady Macbeth convinces him to kill Duncan in order to become king. She specifically says, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature / … / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, / and chastise with the valor of my tongue” (1.5.16-17, 27-28). In this quote Lady Macbeth is thinking about the witches prophecy and how she can make it come true.
She is the one who plans the betrayal of Duncan and pressures Macbeth into thinking the only way to fulfill the witches “promise” is to kill the king. She goes so far as to tell Macbeth to stop wearing his emotions on his sleeves, saying “Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men / May read strange matters. To beguile the time, / Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, / Your hand, your tongue: look like and innocent flower, / but be the serpent under it” (I, v, 69-73). She reinforces her strong character by telling Macbeth, in a time where men dominated their wives, what to do. When Lady Macbeth says “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be /What thou art promis'd: yet do I fear thy nature / Is too full o' the milk of human kindness” (I, v, 14-16), we see how she considers Macbeth too kind, to prone to letting his conscience take over that she asks the evil spirits to enter her, so that she will be able to achieve what she fears he husband will not.
Shakespeare presents the flaws in Macbeth’s character using prophecies from the witches, juxtaposition in his soliloquys, and Lady Macbeth slowly manipulating him to do deeds that in the end lead to his demise. In Act 1 Scene 2 Shakespeare uses 2 characters talking about Macbeth to portray the idea that Macbeth is a loyal, brave and tenacious character and he uses imagery to show this. The sergeant tells us that Macbeth “with smok’d with bloody execution, like valour’s minion carv’d out his passage.” The imagery of “valour’s minion” is used to suggest that Macbeth is Valour’s favourite person and that he is the bravest person other than Valour himself. The imagery used to suggest that he is also a very violent person, able to commit acts that were perhaps disturbed is “smok’d with bloody execution.” This quote tells us that Macbeth is perhaps considered a violent person, but it is acceptable because it is for the King, therefore it is the right reason. In Act 2 Scene 1, just before Macbeth kills the King, we see signs of his psychological destruction when he hallucinates about the dagger.
Discuss how the characters of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Duncan are established in Act I by using textual evidence to support your points. Macbeth: “return to plague the inventor” Macbeth is a person that knows what he must do but is doubtful of it. He is the war hero and got news of his promotion by the witches, who also said he would be promoted further. To make their prophecy come true he must kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth: “unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty” Lady Macbeth is the “true” evil.
Yet do I fear thy nature, / It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way.” (I.V.15-18).These lines tell how much she wants power so bad that she makes Macbeth feel unmanly by telling what she could do. Lady Macbeth shows devotion to making Macbeth King by planning ways that he can become king.
This misinterpretation, committed in pursuit of power, leads Macbeth to perform certain actions which result in the death of the king, the death of Macbeth’s friends, and eventually his own demise. At the start of the play, Macbeth is seeking a great amount of power. His wife, Lady Macbeth says to him, “When you durst do it, then you were a man;” (Act 1, sc. 7, line 56), suggesting that they have either considered or committed murder for the sake of their own advancement in the past. Macbeth further condones this in his action to the witches’ prophecy that he will become king.
Macbeth Mini Essay Q: Choose from a play a scene which significantly changes your view of a character. Explain how the scene prompts this reappraisal and discuss how important it is to your understanding of the character in the play as a whole. “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is a well know dark tragedy in which the audience’s opinion of the main character changes throughout. In Act I Scene II, Macbeth is initially portrayed as a noble and loyal knight who seems to love his king and his country. However, our opinion of him quickly changes in Act I Scene III when his true ambitions are revealed after an encounter with three witches and he soon learns that he himself will become king one day.
She becomes evil and ambitious before the murder of Banquo, and then she becomes fearful of her surroundings because of her guilt after Banquo's murder. Lady Macbeth develops her evil character by informing Macbeth about her idea of killing King Duncan and taking over the throne. "What beast was 't then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst to it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more than a man...When Duncan is asleep, his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason a limbeck only..." said Lady Macbeth (I, VII, Lines 55-77). Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth about her plan to kill Duncan when he sleeps.
Lady Macbeth is a victim of her uncontrolled ambition.This ambition causes her to push herself and Macbeth to the very edge. She convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan by questioning his manliness. Lady Macbeth shows her negative ambition and ruthlessness while speaking to Macbeth in this quote: "Was the hope drunk?...Like the poor cat I' th' adage." (Act I, Scene vii, Lines 35-45) In this quote Lady Macbeth is asking Macbeth if he is afraid to kill Duncan, and if he has enough courage to say so. She is asking him if he wants to be king or not, and if he is to be king he must commit regicide.
Lady Macbeth also plays and evil role beside him. She mocks him, if he frets over her instructions, saying that he will be less of a man if he does not follow the plan. She gives Macbeth a lecture of deceptiveness when planning the murder of King Ducan. She had also prepared a dagger for Macbeth to kill the King in advance. Though Macbeth still had doubts, she was ready to do this blood thickening job, herself.