Lady Macbeth manifests a misguided loyalty to her husband. Lady Macbeth loves her husband with a genuine if perverted fervour. In her obsession with the achievement of earthly power she calls on the powers of darkness to take her over body and soul. She believes that by doing this both of them will come to have ‘solely sovereign sway and masterdom.’ At the Banquet scene she makes a prodigious effort to remain loyal to her husband and shield his reputation before the lords of Scotland. It is also loyalty, which causes her to faint when the murdered body of Duncan is found in order to prevent Macbeth from exposing his fear before the others.
What can we say for a person that poisons her little sister because they both love the same man? The answer is obvious: wicked, evil and monstrous person. During the whole play Goneril and Regan are portrayed as bad wives and even worse daughters. However, this final action, before taking her own life away, is the final piece of the puzzle of Goneril’s character. From the start of the story Goneril is working together with her beloved sister against King Lear.
Having being set alone on stage, from a dramatic point of view, it would be most effective if Lady Macbeth were to read the letter aloud for the first time as paces from left to right of stage. This would not only convey Lady Macbeth’s true immediate response to the letter, but with changes in volume and a high pitched tone, showing how ecstatic Lady Macbeth is, to hear her husband being greeted as King, revealing her true motives. Lost in her own excitable state, Lady Macbeth is impetuously lured into the prophecy of the “metaphysical” forces, as she determines herself into acquiring the status of King for her husband. Human instinct would make it difficult to believe the words of creatures “that made themselves air”, but clearly this is not the case with Lady Macbeth. Consequently the influence of the witches’ prophecy on Lady Macbeth gets her to overlooks Macbeth’s newly acquired title of “Thane of Cawdor”, as Lady Macbeth’s ambitions demand more for her husband.
Shakespeare shows through Duncan, who carries a legitimate power, that only direct threats to the kingdom are punished accordingly. Illegitimate power is also shown to result in manipulated relationships. Macbeth’s relationship with Lady Macbeth is evidence of this. They were both madly in love with each other in the beginning, Macbeth greeting his mistress tenderly and saying that she is his “dearest love” (1-6-57). However as the events unfold, they become allies more than lovers in their quest to claim the throne, and Macbeth is manipulated and encouraged to do wrong.
Although a courageous general who holds Duncan in high regard, ‘he hath honoured me of late’ (I, vii, 32) and isnot naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, he deeply desires power and advancement; he kills Duncan against his better judgment. Afterward, Macbeth is wracked with guilt and paranoia, and toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness, before being killed. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet
Rashmitha Rapuri Mr. Morano ENG 2DB-03 June 5th, 2015 Macbeth Act 2 Modernization Rationale The Shakespearean play Macbeth, explores many genres and themes to many audience’s interests. It carries a sense of comedy, tragedy and supernaturalism. Macbeth is a play of contradiction and the power of being a king which the protagonist, Macbeth, is striving for. In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare highlights Macbeth’s gracious qualities such as bravery, modesty and loyalty. However, these qualities turn into greed, apathy and self-indulgence soon after Macbeth takes fate into his own hands, guided by his wife and the three weird sisters.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth while being filled with ambition, convinces her husband to kill the king. There are many atrocious crimes committed in the play, not least of all regicide, and the most guilty of all the characters is Lady Macbeth, husband to Lord Macbeth. Lady Macbeth may seem to the outside world to be innocent as a flower, but in fact she uses deception and persuasion to convince others to carry out her bidding. When her lackeys fail at their tasks, she is fully able to finish the deed for them. Near the end of the play she admits to her crimes, further solidifying her guilt.
Ultimately her apparent success comes about as she challenges his manhood during the discussion of murdering Duncan, “When you durst do it, then you were a man” (1, VII, 49). Macbeth does not want to be portrayed as a coward, especially in the eyes of his beloved wife; he carries out the assassination and ascends the throne as a result. Onwards from this point in the play, the persona of Macbeth changes as he indulges further into murderous behaviour and tyranny leading to his defeat as King of Scotland. Therefore Lady Macbeth played a direct role in Macbeth’s rise to
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”.
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.