How important is the influence of Lady Macbeth on her husband? Discuss In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, lady Macbeth greatly affects her husband’s actions and decisions but she cannot be blamed solely. Other strong influences such as the witches and Macbeth’s ability to make his own decisions when deciding who is at fault for transforming Macbeth from a noble warrior to a bloody tyrant. The importance of Lady Macbeth, on Macbeth’s decisions and action cannot be underestimated. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth is the driving influence behind Macbeth and the immoral path that he chose to follow.
The idea of blood in other works and novels typically evokes the idea of slaughter and massacre. However, in this play the blood symbolizes the guilt that will forever stain the palms of Macbeth and his wife. The simple act of murder that was once looked at as indifferent led to a devastating past. Macbeth expresses his guilt when he remarks, “And with thy bloody and invisible hand/ Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond/ Which keeps me pale” (3.3.48-50). Macbeth is scared by the blood of Duncan.
Macduff abandons Lady Macduff eventually leading to her death portraying a weak image of marriage that looks as a foil to the strong marriage of the Macbeth. However, both marriages end up failing; yet separation from the wives, respectively, could save/ saves the husbands. Listening and staying with Lady Macbeth started the inevitable downfall of Macbeth, but separation could have led to a prosperous, powerful life for Macbeth. Immediate separation from Lady Macduff allows Macduff to kill Macbeth. Therefore, I would argue that in Macbeth, William Shakespeare’s denouncement of marriage suggests women hinder the true, righteous nature of men; consequently, showing the inferior nature of women.
This is demonstrated by her imagining her hands stained by blood and her constantly trying to clean the “damned spot” away and rid her sole of the guilt. The subconscious actions of Lady Macbeth illustrate how the guilt tears apart at her integrity and ultimately destroys her with the taking “off her life”. Guilt engulfs and destroys the lives of the characters within Macbeth which showcases to the responder the true extent of guilt and impacts the audiences understanding of the play. The closing scenes of Macbeth illustrate to the responder that harmony can be restored following doom. Throughout the play the character of Macbeth selects unethical ways of climbing the social and royal hierarchy and ultimately causes chaos.
People do not want to admit when they are defeated, just like Macbeth in this scene. The subject matter in Macbeth seems to be the desire to be great at any expense, and the panicky world that one can create for them when they try to achieve greatness at all costs. Denial is present as well as a lack of regard for anyone but Macbeth and his desires. Wives and sons are killed just to avoid something that is not certain. Only at the end do the witches’ predictions come true with the defeat of Macbeth.
The idea that she consciously recognises the need for “murdering ministers” to provide her with the support to assist Macbeth in regicide certainly falls in favour of arguing that she willingly has the desire for help from the darker realms, making her more evil for actually wanting to be tainted by the poisonous associations of “darkness” in the play. In addition, concealment is a significant device employed into the plot of Macbeth. In Act 3 scene 2, Macbeth hides his dark plans away from Lady Macbeth. Through concealment, Shakespeare allows readers to gain an insight to the ever-changing relationship between the couple. Macbeth tells his wife to “be
This shows that his ambition and self-image of bravery wins over his virtues. After Duncan’s murder, his “partner of greatness”, Lady Macbeth, starts to fall ill and is going crazy. Her powerful personality is disintegrating, and this leaves Macbeth even more alone. Even after gaining the throne, Macbeth is still insecure about remaining on the throne, and he goes and orders a series of murders. However, all this does is add to the terrible guilt that haunts him (Banquo’s ghost) Macbeth is lonely and alone, and has nobody once Lady Macbeth dies.
Shakespeare does a magnificent job by using Macbeth to show the terrible consequences that can result from an unchecked ambition and a guilty conscience. Those elements, combined with a lack of strong character, distinguish Macbeth from Shakespeare's other tragic heroes, such as King Lear and Richard III, both of whom are strong enough to overcome their guilty conscience. Before Macbeth murders Duncan, he is plagued with anxiety and almost does not go along with the plan. It takes his wife, Lady Macbeth's persuasion in order to complete the plot. When is about to kill Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger covered in blood floating in the air, representing the bloody course he is about to take.
This conflict within Hamlet is further expounded by the possibility that his father was murdered by his uncle, King Cladius. In an attempt to cope with the moral weakness of his mother, Prince Hamlet dispels any sympathetic feelings toward women causing him to ruin his relationship with Ophelia and leaving him lonely. In order to accurately interpret Shakespeare’s usage of a female’s role throughout his play it is imperative to consider the greater source of his ideas-his historical background. The historical period of the Elizabethan era influenced Shakespeare’s negative portrayal of women and thus, he uses the women in his play as tools in unraveling Prince Hamlet. In Hamlet, it can be noted that the patriarchal setup of society mirrors that of England during the Elizabethan era.
This is due to the fact that Macbeth listens to his wife and finally takes what she has to say into thought and carries through with it. The function of this is to create a sense of hostility amongst the audience. Everyone can't believe that Lady Macbeth is encouraging her husband to kill someone and it really makes them uncomfortable and shifts there mood of love towards Lady Macbeth to hate. This mood of the audience is heightened in Act 2 Scene 2 when once again Macbeth has decided that he is going to stop what he is doing although he had already killed Duncan; (This is shown in act 1 scene 7, and act 2, scene 2.) This shows that Macbeth once again was filled with guilt but again his wife contradicted him and led him down the path of evil.