When Macbeth is talking to Lady Macbeth he says, “I will, to the weird sisters: / More shall they speak,” (3.5.134-135). In this context Macbeth is anxious to go to the witches to see if he should fear anyone taking his newfound power from him. This shows that he has acquired what he wanted however he doesn’t feel secure, this shows that he relies on the witches for support and cannot think without first taking into consideration what the witches say. Before this
(Macbeth I, v, 26) Lady Macbeth made Macbeth feel bad about himself, by lowering his manhood and bravery. Lady Macbeth deceives everyone so well that people were scared to tell her about Duncan’s death, not thinking she can handle it. “Look like an innocent flower /but be the serpent under it” (Macbeth I, IV, 65-66) this means to look innocent and pure but to be evil on the inside. At first Lady Macbeth is able to keep her cool and not think anything of the deed. Macbeth on the other hand cannot sleep and starts to see things.
Hanna de Villa Ms. Jackson ENG 3U1 - 11 16 May 2008 The Source of All Evil in Macbeth: Women Macbeth is a play full of betrayal, deceit and murder. Generally, men carry out these actions but instead women stir the cauldron of trouble. From the witches’ prophecies that spark Macbeth’s murder, Lady Macbeth’s domineering presence and the exploitation she uses on her husband are the inevitable roots of catastrophe and evil in the play. They do not show any aggression and violence but relies on deception, manipulation and supernatural phenomenon. The Witches and Hecate portray the image and eminence of evil in Macbeth.
Macbeth is supposed to be the dominant character, yet Lady Macbeth is portrayed as the dominant, and the more controlling character of them both. This is shown in Act one Scene 6:’ leave all the rest to me’. Lady Macbeth is the more dominant character at the moment in the play as she is telling Macbeth to leave all of his worries to her. From this, it is also explained how their relationship isn’t a typical married relationship in the Elizabethan era. As influenced by the witches, Macbeth allows them to manipulate him with their power.
Macbeth by William Shakespeare Macbeth is known as one of the most tragic and bloody plays ever written by William Shakespeare. The first we see in the play is a conversation between three witches who our protagonist encounters on the way home from a great victory with his friend Banquo. The three witches tells Macbeth and Banquo a great prophecy, Macbeth will become the king one day. Because of this prophecy, Macbeth becomes consumed by the idea of ruling, and tells about the prophecy to his wife whom we do not know the name off. Lady Macbeth is a frightening and aggressive woman so to say.
Roseanne Barr once said, “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You take it.” In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, lady Macbeth, Hecate and the Three witches take it upon themselves to achieve power. By questioning Macbeth’s manhood, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into killing King Duncan, therefor achieving a position of power. The three witches play upon Macbeth’s ambitions to gain power over him and lead him to his downfall. The goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, manipulates Macbeth by taking power over the three witches and telling them to mislead Macbeth to his destruction.
Lady Macbeth leaves the consistency in dialogue completely astray and does not speak in verse. This implies her madness in that Shakespeare only seemed to have the characters with abnormal states of minds or in abnormal conditions speak out verse. From this play, these characters would include the witches, who speak in trochaic tetrameter, and Lady Macbeth, who speaks out of verse to symbolize her insanity. The second literary device would be irony. Lady Macbeth is constantly ridiculing Macbeth because he is too afraid to kill Duncan, and she even tells him that he might as well be a woman.
Lady Macbeth is the wife to the plays protagonist Macbeth. I would consider lady Macbeth as not being such a conventional Elizabethan woman being that women in this time where seen as weak and unable to control manly situations however lady Macbeth is shown to be strong and In control of Macbeth which was unheard of in Elizabethan times. An Elizabethan audience would react highly to the sight of a woman being in control of a man because it was seen to be not right to for a woman to be in control being that a man would normally be in control of a woman. The audience will be shocked an astonished by the way in which lady Macbeth acts. However a modern audience will not react as highly as an Elizabethan audience would, as now day’s people are more familiar to women being powerful of different places within society.
Lady Macbeth doubts Macbeth’s ambition which ultimately leads her to manipulate him into assassinating King Duncan. She exclaims her doubt in Macbeth’s ambition due to his morals in saying they “. . . are too full of the milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way.” [1.5.13] Her masculinity overshadows Macbeth’s when she asserts her power without contemplation and plans King Duncan’s murder.
Albeit Macbeth may seem as a strong and independent character his actions are substantially influenced by the female characters of the play. In addition, the leading female characters of the play are essentially portrayed as evil and their actions lead the play’s tragic development. The premise of the play is revealed at the very beginning of the play. The three witches awaken Macbeth’s ambition when they call him “thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor and king hereafter” (I.iii. 48-50) and present the main characters and their relationships.