Thou wouldst be great art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” This shows that Lady Macbeth simply brings out the murderous butcher within Macbeth which was always subconsciously there with his ambition for glory. Macbeth decides to kill Duncan on his own, with his major flaw, ambition, as the main influence to his decision. After murdering Duncan Macbeth is extremely frightened and regrets to killing Duncan “Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!” However Lady Macbeth is calm and collected immediately after the murder. She
Macbeth first takes this in a joking manner, but soon begins to take it very seriously. When he came home to his wife, he shared the witches’ prediction with her and she encourages Macbeth to quicken the process by murdering the current king, King Duncan. After murdering the king, Macbeth soon finds himself needing to kill many more in order to keep his secret. His kingship comes into jeopardy when he hears of someone named Macduff who is foretold to have the power to defeat him. Macbeth hears some juxtapose news that gives him a reckless attitude.
William Shakespeare's Macbeth, is a Medieval story about a nobleman who had evil ambitions of becoming the King of Scotland. It is evident in the play that both Macbeth, the nobleman, and Lady Macbeth, his wife, suffer from the same tragic flaw: uncontrolled ambition.This uncontrolled ambition causes them to commit regicide. Although Lady Macbeth coerces Macbeth to murder King Duncan of Scotland, it is clear that she is, in fact, a victim to her ambition. She suffers greatly by losing her sanity, which ultimately leads to her death. Lady Macbeth is a victim of her uncontrolled ambition.This ambition causes her to push herself and Macbeth to the very edge.
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.
Macbeth is not naturally inclined to perform malicious deeds, but he deeply desires power. After speaking with the witches, he could not stop thinking about what they said. He wanted so badly for the prophecies to become true that he let his wife influence him to do what had to be done to make him king, which began his downward spiral. Macbeth is physically strong and mentally weak, and it is this that is a major factor in the change of his character, whereas Lady Macbeth seems to be quite the opposite of her husband right from the first murder. Lady Macbeth is far more determined than her husband, and using her devious ways is able to convince him into murdering Duncan while assuring him that he will
It can be argued that Lady Macbeth is the true butcher; she is the person who persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan. Macbeth’s conscience tells him not to kill the King, he actually attempts to stand up to Lady Macbeth but she uses interrogative language to belittle him. Lady Macbeth’s overpowering traits at the beginning of the play would have been seen as very unusual to an audience watching at the time it was written as females were usually dominated by their husbands. This is effective in the play because it shows how weak Macbeth was at the start of the play and shows how their personalities change after killing King Duncan; Lady Macbeth becomes
In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, Macbeth has to cope with the strong feelings of envy, and hatred to fulfill his ambitions of being King. Macbeth started off as a loyal and trusting person that has triumphed in battle, therefore he is granted the title of, “The Thane of Cawdor,” from King Duncan. Soon after, Lady Macbeth receives good news saying that Duncan will be staying with them for some time. Lady Macbeth then manipulates Macbeth into killing Duncan. Although Macbeth desires to be King he still has his doubts about the murder.
Clearly willing to do whatever necessary to seize the throne. AMBITIOUS HEARTLESS LADY MACBETH (The real villain) Persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan as she demands that he becomes manlier. Even after her husband put the matter aside, she didn’t listen to him. STUBBORN PERSUASIVE/DEMANDING Still continued explaining on her ambitious plans, though her husband asked her to stop. Thus she turns an honest man to a tyrant and proves herself as villain.
Macbeth himself was always yearning for power. It is first shown when he is made thane of Cawdor, and is jealous of Malcolm for becoming heir of the throne. “As Macbeth hears the title given to Malcolm, he shows again the conflict within him between ambition and fear.” (Campbell 216) His greed and ambition for more gets the better of him, as he plots with Lady Macbeth to kill King Duncan and become the heir to the throne. This was a very selfish act in his position; by killing Duncan and becoming king, Macbeth disrupted the chain of being and doomed all of society as a whole. “The Great Chain of Being was supposed to keep the Earth in a stable condition and order.
His horror at the thought of murdering Duncan shows us that he is not totally cold and solely ambitious. It is clear that Macbeth is in love, as shown by his letter to Lady Macbeth in which he calls her his “dearest partner of greatness”. Lady Macbeth is very much like her husband; she loves him and is also very ambitious, as shown by her immediate determination for Macbeth to be king. “Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter! / I feel now the future in the instant”.