Although it is true that Lady Macbeth is a big part of the play and adds a lot of interest, her character is revealed through her unkind attitude with Macbeth, careless feelings towards the lives of others, and her guilty conscience. Lady Macbeth is very pushy when it comes to the murder of Duncan and Macbeth’s hesitations towards it. She gives this comment to Macbeth, “Oh, never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men may ready strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue.
1. “Lady Macbeth is the real villain of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth.” Do you agree? Lady Macbeth is a villain in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, about the battle of kingship in 17th centaury Scotland. But Lady Macbeth, driven by her ambition, is not the only harbinger of death. Macbeth is the real villain and Lady Macbeth is just a partner in crime, egging him on because of her desire to be Queen.
After a protracted discussion of the topic of who is to blame for the demise of Macbeth, the blame has come to rest upon the Three Witches. Within the play Macbeth, the Witches have done numerous things to cause the demise of Macbeth; influenced him through prophecies and apparitions, spurred his killing spree and manipulated him. From the outset, the Witches show Macbeth prophecies which lead to his downfall. These prophecies are the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings, push Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to act upon their evil thoughts, and alter Macbeth from a loyal soldier to a traitor. First and foremost, the Witches were the root of Macbeth’s misfortunes and evil doings.
In many scenes, violence is readily available, in which it is normally committed or illustrated by the protagonist, Macbeth. Shakespeare takes the violence and relates it to manliness. Lady Macbeth, who, behind public eyes, is a very savage, threatening force, wants to remove her womanhood in order to commit tyrant crime herself: “The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts / And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers” (Shakespeare, I.5.53). Lady Macbeth is calling upon the gods to “unsex” her so she can proceed and help Macbeth commit the murder of Duncan.
Macbeth hatches the plan, as he is in conversation with Lady Macbeth, he states, “When we have marked with blood those sleepy two”. Sleepy contains connotations of vulnerability and no use of self-defence, therefore meaning that the guards are helpless moreover Macbeth planning to frame them whilst at this vulnerable stage, infers the tyranny within. Aristotle’s theory on a Tragic Hero states that persuasion soon follows the self-indulgent of greatness. In this instance, his own wife, Lady Macbeth, convinces Macbeth to kill his best friend, Duncan. She insults his masculinity greatly, by calling him a coward.
If ill, why hath it given me earnest of success commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings”. (Iiii 143-151) This is where the witches premonitions start to get into his mind about becoming king and get him to think about killing the king. Lady Macbeth was the second and strongest push against Macbeth.
Throughout the play Lady Macbeth is the driving influence behind Macbeth and the immoral path that he chose to follow. To put it simply Lady Macbeth started the rot and persuaded the hesitant and indecisive Macbeth to “be a man” and do the deed of killing Duncan. Macbeth initially decided to “proceed no further” in the matter of killing Duncan because he had been kind to him of late bestowing the position of Thane of Cawdor on him. She responds to this by saying that if he can lose his ambition so readily, his love for her must also be changeable. Then she insults his masculinity and questions his courage.
“Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”. This takes her femininity away and portrays her as a cold-hearted character who is not only willing to commit murder, but also able to persuade her husband into going against what he believes in. As well as this, the violent imagery in this quote is very shocking and gives a gothic element to Act One Scene Seven. It also shows us how quickly Lady Macbeth
The witches were the driving force of Macbeth’s guilty ambition and were the prophecies that would play on his mind continually. “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter,” (Act One, Scene 3, Line 53). Following this, readers are introduced to Lady Macbeth, another character that encounters an ambitious discourse. The audience witnesses Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambitious discourse being ruined when they conclude that the only way to be on the throne is to commit the murder of the loyal King Duncan. The murderous actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth lead to their guilty ambition influencing each other to commit deeds that would not only ruin their clean conscience, but also their cultural assumptions.
Shakespeare CA Start: Whether it’s the gruesome murders of ‘Macbeth’ or the ‘merry wars’ in ‘Much Ado’ Shakespeare has many ways of showing disturbance. Shakespeare uses the troublesome tragedy of ‘Macbeth’ and the classic comedy of ‘Much Ado’ to portray strong minded characters such as the feisty Beatrice and the bitter and mysterious Lady Macbeth. As we explore this metamorphism of comedy and tragedy we see how the human condition exhibits disturbance, regardless of the type of person it is controlling. Much Ado: The line “You always end with a jade’s trick; I know you of old” is said by Beatrice in the play ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ when she has her first confrontation with Benedick. Shakespeare makes clear her disturbed persona, through the slowing of the pace in the second half of the line.