The witches are shown as figures that seem to trigger Macbeths murderous ambition, as their prophesy leads Macbeth to first consider killing Duncan, to gain power. But the witches never actually say anything about murder; all they do is tell Macbeth he s going to be King. Macbeth himself as man, questions how, and makes the evil plot, leaving the witches looking as if they are the evil figure. Is there a reason that witchcraft is only represented as evil women? Sexism is displayed through the witches in “Macbeth”.
Lady Macbeth is an evil and ruthless woman who, being aware of Macbeth’s ambitious nature decides to exploit it and manipulates him into murdering King Duncan. When Macbeth, hesitates to commit the murder, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s manhood and states, “When you durst do it then you were a man,” in an attempt to appeal to Macbeth’s guilt as well as to challenge him to commit the crime. She even trivialises Macbeth’s fear that he would
Appearance vs. Reality in Macbeth In the play Macbeth, written by Shakespeare, one can find a multitude of paradoxes and equivocation; however, what played the biggest role in the play was deception. The art of deception is first introduced when Macbeth need to appear innocent during the investigation of the murders he committed. This cone of deception then grows to include Lad Macbeth as throughout these investigations she acts to divert attention away from her traumatized and distraught husband. Finally, we see this concept taken to the extreme with the weird sisters.
In this story, betrayal plays a very big role. People betray others in order to get the things that they want. Lady Macbeth desires the kingship for Macbeth just as strongly, if not stronger, as he does. She tries to persuade Macbeth into thinking that he should kill the king. Macbeth agrees, and betrays the king’s trust by plotting his murder.
It seems that most people believe that Macbeth is the real villain of the play, after firstly killing the King but then Banquo and Macduff’s family but through Macbeth’s own ambition and desire for power, Lady Macbeth was able to manipulate and evoke weaknesses in Macbeth’s character to cause his respectable needs as a loyal solider, to turn into evil motivations. In the course of the play Macbeth’s mind changes from thinking logically to thinking unreasonably and acting impulsively on every thought that comes to his mind. The ideas that Lady Macbeth had and the prophesies from the witches came together to lead Macbeth into the conflicted character he become, going from a loyal, respected soldier into a tragic flawed hero. Before Macbeth’s character shifted into villainy he was a loyal and respected thane. His desire for power grew throughout the play and begins when he first encoumis, then they hail him the thane of Cawdor, which he didn’t yet know of, to him soon would be his next, second title.
But, she is afraid of his personality ‘too full o’th milk of human kindness’ and decides to take matters into her own hands. This is also the scene where we hear her first famous soliloquy which is ‘unsex me here’ when she calls on the evil spirits. Really, she wants to be the same as the three witches, but because of who she is, she has to repress all her inner feelings and her conscience in order to carry on with her plan to murder Duncan. She has to be two-faced. When Macbeth returns later in the scene, she immediately pounces onto him and tries to persuade him to murder the King and she says it in a very manipulative way.
This forebodes the death of Macbeth and also Lady Macbeth by suggesting that they will not be able to kill the King and live a normal, guilt free life afterwards. Lady Macbeth then creates irony as she mocks Macbeth for thinking this way, she refers to him as a ‘coward’ and insists that this murder is necessary. This part of the play is extremely significant as we realise just how harsh Lady Macbeth is and how far she would really go. She removes any maternal characteristics that she may have had by explaining that her lack of pity would extend so far, that she would murder a baby. “Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”.
In many scenes, violence is readily available, in which it is normally committed or illustrated by the protagonist, Macbeth. Shakespeare takes the violence and relates it to manliness. Lady Macbeth, who, behind public eyes, is a very savage, threatening force, wants to remove her womanhood in order to commit tyrant crime herself: “The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts / And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers” (Shakespeare, I.5.53). Lady Macbeth is calling upon the gods to “unsex” her so she can proceed and help Macbeth commit the murder of Duncan.
He is admired by the public, “For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name...”. as well as his wife, Lady Macbeth who convinces him to kill in order to achieve his goal of becoming king. When the witches tell Macbeth that he will become king, he becomes obsessed with gaining power. He will stop at nothing, not even the murder of the current king, on his road to becoming king. Like all tragic heroes Macbeth demonstrates he is doomed to make errors in judgment when he allows Lady Macbeth to convince him to commit murder in order to gain the crown.
The statement “Fair is foul and foul is fair” comes into play, because becoming king sounds fair, but Macbeth doesn’t know that he will have to kill to achieve it. The main betrayal throughout this play is the moment Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, who has never been anything but kind and good. It is because of the supernatural power of the witches that Macbeth decides to kill Duncan, and start his decent into madness. Violence and murder are main themes in Macbeth. Although mostly offstage, the violence is described in great detail.