Lady Macbeth Power Essay

In these ways, the Lady manipulates Macbeth and attempts to live through him to accomplish her thirst for power. She knows this is the only way to achieve her

Lady Macbeth was a fictional character in the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a tragedy set in the 12 century. She was the wife of a man named Macbeth who became very murderous and blood thirsty while trying to become King of Scotland. In this tragedy, three witches tell Macbeth that he will become king and so he shares this news with Lady Macbeth. At the beginning of this story Lady Macbeth is the more dominant and strong willed person in the relationship, while Macbeth is the coward and fragile one.

She is able to see through the morality of death and is completely focused on her own ambition for Macbeth to become King, and is willing to do whatever’s necessary to complete her goal. “Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be ‘unsexed’,” (SparksNotes) She uses this manipulation to influence Macbeth’s desire to kill in order to have his own preservation, going as far to say that doubting hisself makes him cowardice and unmanly. Later in the play, Lady Macbeth tends to contradict herself as she soon becomes insane due to how the murders created a toll on her conscience. "Out, damned spot!

Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, also realizes that nothing can save her from her guilt. Using her persuasive powers to manipulate him, Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth to commit the murder. Even going as far to provide the plan and the means for carrying out the deed. Lady Macbeth is also the one who frames the guards for the murder, and she helps cover up the murder by taking the daggers back to the crime scene and washing the blood off of Macbeth’s hands. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a strong, ambitious woman that would do anything to achieve her goals.

She knows how much Macbeth cares about his masculinity and targets it in order to get what she wants. After hearing this Macbeth thinks some more about the act of murder eventually stating his final decision. “I am settled, and bend up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. ”(Shakespeare 1.7.80-81).

“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…”(1.5.43-44). Lady Macbeth trying to appear androgynous like the witches. As with the witches, Lady Macbeth is a manipulator. Often emotionally and physically manipulating others to gain more power, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth by questioning his manhood, bravery, and by giving him the courage and ambition to commit murder.

In the Renaissance era, William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a character in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that plays the wife of Macbeth. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth was the lady in charge of the marriage and household to become Queen of Scotland. Toward the middle through the end of the play, she suffers of guilt for her part in the crime.

After she receives a letter from Macbeth about his encounter with the witches, she immediately thinks of killing Duncan for them to achieve their fate. To prepare herself for the murder, she tells the spirits to, “unsex [her] here,/And fill [her] from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty”(1.5.47-50). By asking for the spirits to “unsex” her, she wants them to take all the usual traits associated with the female sex away and to replace them with masculine traits of fortitude and violence. Lady Macbeth also associates being masculine with being cruel as she tells the spirits to fill her with cruelty. To her, femininity is viewed as being innocent while masculinity is viewed as impure and corrupt.

First, Lady Macbeth is ruthless because she talks about how she would kill her baby while smiling at her if she said she was going to kill the baby. Next, “I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out had I so sworn as you have done to this (Shakespeare 1.7.54-59a)”. Finally, She is talking about how she has nursed a baby before and she knows how it feels to love the baby and she would pull her nipple out of it’s mouth while it smiled at her and smash it’s brains in if she said she was going to do that. First, Lady Macbeth is ruthless and quickly comes up with a plan to kill the king even though he is a kind person to her and gives her gifts and her husband honorable titles.

Lady Macbeth is shaming Macbeth about questioning their plan. She uses the image of a child to make a graphic affirmation about her amplitude of violence. In agreement with Lady Macbeth’s violent thoughts, “Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers (I, v, 47-48).” Lady Macbeth is preparing herself to commit murder; the breasts and milk suggests her womanhood and symbols of nurture. It hinders her from performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates with

William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a

Lady Macbeth tried and attempted to fasten onto Macbeth’s inner feelings and attacked his level of masculinity. He is a easy person to manipulate once the future queen questioned his manliness. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he cannot go through with killing King Duncan, she proceeds to tell him that he is a coward. To further convince her husband to kill Duncan is the utmost importance she said that she “would, while (her unborn child) was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out.” (Act 1, Scene 7, Lines

This scene highlights Lady Macbeth's influence over Macbeth and her ability to manipulate his emotions and actions to achieve her own ambitions. Macbeth is initially hesitant about murdering Duncan, as he is full of doubt and uncertainty about the morality of the act. Lady Macbeth seizes this opportunity to persuade Macbeth to go through with the plan as she sees the potential for her own power and status. Lady Macbeth uses Macbeth’s desire to be king to manipulate him to kill Duncan. She appeals to his ambition and his fear of being perceived as weak or cowardly, using language that is emotive and violent.

Her ambition is not only for herself but also for Macbeth. Nevertheless, with all her fervor, she wants him to be as strong as her. “Make thick my blood./Stop up the access and passage to remorse,/That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my fell purpose/Come to my woman’s breasts,/And take my milk for gall” (1.5.44-49). Lady Macbeth never wavers in her goal.

Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.