If any woman is to be held responsible for Macbeth’s demise, let it be Lady Macbeth, for rather than warning Macbeth against the witches’ prophecies, she decides to encourage her husband to kill the King. Lady Macbeth is obviously the dominant partner of the two when that role should naturally fall to the male partner. She is the mastermind behind all of Macbeth’s evil deeds. Lady Macbeth has such greed and desire to be Queen of Scotland, that she will do practically anything to seize the throne. She immediately forces Macbeth to act on the witches prophecies and murder Duncan in his sleep.
Macbeth is an extremly complicated character to portray. His personality changes throughout the play beginning as an honurable war-hero and being praised highly by the King; making him Thane of Cawdor even though he was already Thane of Glamis. He then becomes a hesitant murderer, constantly distressed about his situiation ‘I am afraid to think what I have done’ to actively planning the murder of Banquo and showing little contrition for the death of his wife, Lady Macbeth ‘She should have died hereafter’ and becoming responsible for the massacre of Macduff’s wife and children.it is imperative that the actor playing Macbeth understands the intricacy of his character. He must also be able to show the contrast between Macbeth’s character in Act 2 Scene 1 and Act 5 Scene 5, in order to portray Macbeth, the actor must contemplate the mood and tone of what he is saying, his gestures and actions to match a certain phrase or speech. Also his facial expressions are very important.
The prophecies of the witches have planted a seed in Macbeth’s mind that if he kills Duncan, the current king, he will be one step closer to being king. However, although he is ambitious and his wife is pushing him to kill Duncan, he feels guilty killing his king. As Macbeth is contemplating the murder, he has a vision of a bloody dagger leading him to Duncan. The passage “Is this a dagger I see before me?.” from Macbeth illustrates how Shakespeare uses imagery and allusions to show Macbeth’s indecision and establish his frame of mind. Shakespeare uses imagery to illustrate Macbeth’s conflict between free will and a predetermined fate.
In the play Macbeth is persuaded by Lady Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to get the “ornament of life,” which would be taking the thrown. Before the murder of Duncan Lady Macbeth says that, “Glamis thou art and Cawdor; and shalt be what, not without ambition, but without the illness that should attend it,” in order to show that Macbeth must turn to murder as a way to gain power after Macbeth has heard the predictions of the weird sisters. Lady Macbeth explains that murder is the answer to the obstacle of Ducan, but she fears that Macbeth is much too kind to do such a thing. Because Macbeth is a genuine person, Lady Macbeth must manipulate him into the murder to achieve power for her and her husband. Lady Macbeth makes Macbeth look vulnerable which makes Macbeth feel pressured into the killing of Duncan.
"He's here in double trust: First, as I am his kinsman and his subjects, Strong both against the deed; then as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself" (1.7.12-16) This is where Lady Macbeth comes into Macbeths fall. Because of Lady Macbeths strong will, she convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan so that he may become king. She becomes so obsessed about this crime that she even contiplats doing it herself. "Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty." (1.6.35-38) Her drive behind Macbeth drove him to kill Duncan.
New Time, Same Problems: False Ambition in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Peter Jackson’s Heavenly Creatures When looking at these works we see that their characters portray similar characteristics and dilemmas. Pauline from Heavenly Creatures gets influenced by Juliette to believe that if they get rid of Pauline’s mother, Honora, they will be able to achieve all the goals they have; this is short lived when they get separated anyway. Similarly, Macbeth is convinced by his wife that the killing Duncan is the right way to become king, after the murder takes place he realizes that there are more obstacles to over come till he becomes king; obstacles he cannot over come. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is similar to the film Heavenly Creatures by Peter Jackson because of the character parallels
In your opinion, how responsible are the witches for Macbeth’s downfall? ‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter.’ Act 1 Scene 3 The witches played a crucial part in Macbeth’s downfall; however, I firmly believe that they should not be solely responsible for it. They were the wood, set up and ready for ignition. Lady Macbeth was the kindling, her enthusiasm for her husband to do the wrong thing, caused Macbeth to do what he knew he shouldn’t. And finally, Macbeth’s own ambition was to blame.
He has becomes obsessed with preventing the overthrow of him as a king. Some may say Macbeth became stronger as the play went on, but evidences shows he had become weaker as the haunting of the ghost Banquo broke him down to a point where he was questionably insane. He relied far too much on the prophecies and the supernatural, which in the end was his downfall. Towards the end of the play Lady Macbeth has died and the battle is drawing closer to Macbeth. After hearing the news of Lady Macbeth’s death Macbeth appears unemotional “She should have died hereafter;…” Macbeth is overly confident due to the witch’s prophecies telling him that anyone born from a woman cannot harm him.
Macbeth is also responsible for putting power into the hands of Lady Macbeth and therefore allowing her to influence him. Finally, Macbeth acknowledges his guilt of further wrongdoing and is thereby responsible for his actions. Macbeth’s ambitions drive him forward to follow an un-stated but a clearly obvious plan to kill Duncan. Although the witches prophecies trigger Macbeth’s desire to become king, no one makes him kill Duncan. When the second of the witches prophecies becomes true, Macbeth immediately thinks of murdering King Duncan.
She is far from a passive participant as seen by her actions. Throughout “Macbeth,” Lady Macbeth serves as the driving force behind Duncan’s murder. In one of her first immoral acts, Lady Macbeth begins to plan Duncan’s murder when she receives the witches’ letter, but she is concerned that Macbeth lacks the will to murder. After reading the witches’ letter that prophesizes Macbeth’s coronation, Lady Macbeth is overcome with ambition to take the throne. Lady Macbeth is willing to do anything to make this prophecy a reality.