“(1.3.47-49) These three lines are extremely crucial to the play because it gives Macbeth his beginning thoughts toward receiving the throne. Shakespeare made the witches deceive Macbeth and Banquo who begin to believe they are invincible and have much to look forward to. This proves misogyny in Shakespeare because it ultimately put the witches to blame for all the horrible events in the play. Shakespeare also portrays his misogyny through Macbeth as he belittles the witches by saying, “How now, you secret, black and midnight hags.” (4.1.47) In Shakespeare’s era, chivalry and respect toward women was big. By having a character in his play say this to three so called women, seems
Characters in Macbeth frequently dwell upon the issues of violence and cruelty which are associated with masculinity. Throughout the play many characters have experienced this issue of manhood which has been contradicted to many of them such as how Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be “unsexed” and does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a women like her should give birth only to boys. Another example would be how Macbeth’s own actions that leads him towards violence and evil and how Macduff takes his revenge on Macbeth for killing his wife and child. Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband.
Many of Shakespeare’s characters in “Macbeth” were complete hypocrites; they manipulated and tricked innocent others into believing that they were friends and then killed them. This play demonstrates that people are not always what they appear to be on the outside and not everyone can or should be trusted. The people that you may think are your closest and dearest friends may turn out to be your biggest enemy. Lady Macbeth is an extremely hypocritical and manipulative character. She may very well be the underlying cause of all evil in the play; she tricked King Duncan, used her husband, and made her guests believe that, rather than feeling guilty for his crime, Macbeth was sick.
His decisions are, however, to some extent, made under the influence of Lady Macbeth, who manipulates him in every way to guide him to success. The witches and their prophecies play a significant role in Macbeth’s downfall. Throughout the play, the witches deceive and fool Macbeth by giving equivocal prophecies, evoking his inner desire for power and swaying him to take evil action. They exploit his ambition from the very beginning, telling Macbeth he will be “Thane of Cawdor” and “King of Scotland” without specifying when or how. This, along with the proven credibility of their first prophecy – Thane of Cawdor – awakens Macbeth’s hidden ambition and triggers his desire to fulfill the last prophecy – King of Scotland, giving him the thought of killing Duncan, “Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair” (Macbeth, I,III, 45) and thus, providing the first stepping stone towards his demise.
The points that will be argued are, that Lady Macbeth played a large role in the murder of King Duncan, The three witches planted the idea in Macbeth’s head, and that the murder of King Duncan was all Macbeths doing. In many ways, Lady Macbeth drives Macbeth to the murder and acts as more of a physical spur, as opposed to the witches who use a mental approach. She bullies him, uses emotional blackmail and knows he is morally sensitive so he must be pushed. She mocks his bravery and knows he is a warrior and will be insulted. When Macbeth is thinking about not going ahead with the plan she says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man”.
To what extent can Lady Macbeth and the witches be held accountable for the actions of Macbeth? In the dramatic play ‘Macbeth’, written by William Shakespeare, showed us that the King of Scotland, Macbeth was being played and controlled by the people he trusted the most, his own wife, Lady Macbeth and the witches. His wife, Lady Macbeth was very evil, selfish, cunning and manipulating and the witches misguided him with their prophecies, which resulted him losing his sanity and making very bad choices. Therefore, even though Macbeth was greedy and ambitious himself, Lady Macbeth and the witches were to some extent accountable for Macbeth’s actions. What happened to Macbeth was a combination of events that lead him to believe that one day he would be King.
Lady Macbeth’s choice of lexis makes her often appear almost evil, and witch-like, emphasising her ‘fiend-like’ traits. This is especially evident in her speech when trying to persuade Macbeth to murder King Duncan. She calls upon the “spirits” to “unsex” her, in order to remove her ‘womanly’ traits that in the patriarchal society that the play was written, would have meant that she was removing her weak and vulnerable traits, and replacing them with strong and powerful ‘masculinity’, and to fill her “from the crown to the toe” with “direst cruelty.” This demonic possession would terrify an Elizabethan audience, who would have strongly believed in witchcraft and demon possession, making Lady Macbeth appear even more ‘fiend-like’ in their eyes. This devilish language also links her to the witches, with her making reference to the gothic features of “the raven” and “spirits.” She is deceitful, telling Macbeth to “look like th’innocent flower, but be the Serpent under’t”, manipulating him, emphasising her parallel with
1 / 22/ 11 THE CRUCBLE ESSAY. BY: STARDASHA LOWMAN If a person is frightened enough they allow that fear to over cloud their better judgment and commonsense. In the book “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller the characters allowed their fear of witches to take over their better judgment and turn on each other. In the book they allowed their fear of witches to overpower their commonsense and misused their authority. They were so frightened that they were going to be seen as witches and doing witchcraft that they sold out their neighbors in order to protect their names.
Lady Macbeth manipulated her husband that eventually got himself killed. Manipulation is a problem that many people go through today. Women and men alike uses manipulation to get the upper hand on a weaker person Truth is a matter of perspective in Macbeth, if the witches want Macbeth to believe something, they can tell it to their own benefit. It must also be remembered that if Macbeth wants to believe something,
Throughout the story of Macbeth we are constantly aware that Lady Macbeth was the influence for all of Macbeth’s wrong doings. The audience at the time of Shakespeare would have been shocked at her strong, dominant behaviour when women at the time were regarded as subordinate. Macbeth usually has the final say in the killings but Lady Macbeth was always the villainous tyrant next to him, mocking him when he distresses at the plan which she has laid out for him. Repeatedly telling him, he would be less of a man if he did not do so. (Act 1; Scene 7; Lines 55-57) When you durst do it, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.