Lady Macbeth Rhetorical Analysis

Shakespeare, in Act 5, Scene 5 of his play The Tragedy of Macbeth, portrays time as unfeeling. Shakespeare’s purpose is to make the audience ponder the nature of time and denounce ambition as a vain notion of humanity through repetition and personification. In the speech, Macbeth adopts a grim and weary tone in order to convey the meaninglessness of day to day life and the cyclical nature of time to the Elizabethan audience. In Macbeth’s speech in Act 5, Scene 5, Shakespeare uses repetition to create a grim tone which reflects the speech’s message surrounding the cyclical nature of life and time.

As Macbeth prepares to kill Duncan, he realizes that “this blow/Might be the be-all and the end-all here”(1.7.4-5), meaning this might be the end if he gets caught. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth to “proceed no further in this business”(1.7.34), telling her to stop thinking about killing Duncan. Macbeth does not listen to his own advice and continues to think about murdering Duncan, which he achieves. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth looks towards Lady Macbeth as he says,”This is a sorry sight”(2.2.28), truly acknowledging his actions and feeling guilty for them. As Macbeth lets the murder sink in, he realizes that the blood will never be “

Well Lady Macbeth, who is dead set on having absolute power, disagrees with that. She convinces Macbeth to kill, to cover up the murders, and tries to convince him that these murders will get them to the top. Lady Macbeth calls upon the witches and states, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 lines 31 and 31). This shows that while in the pursuit of power, Lady Macbeth wanted it so much that she asked the witches to “unsex” her and make her more like man. But along with that you see the theme of gender roles are uncertain which ties into Lady Macbeth leading Macbeth in this pursuit of power, also giving him the ambition that she wants him to

Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

Thesis statement: In Lady Macbeth's speech convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan in Act I Scene vii, the speaker's persuasive tactics, the audience's knowledge of Macbeth's character, and the effective use of rhetorical appeals and literary devices contribute to the powerful rhetorical situation. Lady Macbeth employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos and utilizes the literary device of manipulation to convince Macbeth of the necessity and righteousness of regicide. Body Paragraph 1: Speaker, Audience, and Rhetorical Situation Lady Macbeth's speech in Act I Scene vii presents a crucial moment in the play as she persuades Macbeth to commit regicide. The speaker, Lady Macbeth, is a determined and ambitious character who seeks power and control.

In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth truthfully expresses that life is ultimately repetitive and meaningless towards the actions that lead to death. Claiming that life is short and easily extinguished from his reaction towards Lady Macbeth’s apparent suicide. Shakespeare applies rhetorical elements to emphasize Macbeth’s responsiveness to the concept of life and death. Initially, Shakespeare commences with repetition of the word “tomorrow” thrice to accentuate the hopeless future Macbeth perceives.

After reading the letter from Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is bloodthirsty and obsessed with planning the murder of Duncan. She immediately starts plotting, with no second thoughts about the severity of what she is doing. This desire for bloodshed is fueled by how “she craves power,” and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that power (Thompson 8). It is

Lady Macbeth plans to invite king Duncan over for dinner, but really she is convincing Macbeth to murder him. She influences him to kill Duncan because he is the only one standing in the way of Macbeth becoming king. Lady Macbeth plans the killing but convinces Macbeth to do the dirty deed. Lastly, Lady Macbeth is one of the causes of Macbeth’s failure because she repeatedly questions Macbeth’s manhood until she persuades him to make a bad choice. “When you durst do it then you were a man” (1.7.53-58).

In the beginning Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was a ruthless and masculine woman. She showed the audience that, mentally and emotionally, she was stronger than Macbeth. Although as the story started to continue the audience began to see that she was becoming mentally insane. Throughout the story there was also evidence of shakespeare showing the more masculinity you had the more cuel you became.

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

Moreover, this realization leads Lady Macbeth to think about murdering King Duncan for her and Macbeth to gain power. In addition to Lady Macbeth’s cruel character, she reveals her desirous thoughts towards the crown. Lady Macbeth continues her speech and mentions her unquenching thirst to take Duncan’s power. “Make thick my blood. Stop the access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace with the effect and it!”

Lady Macbeth begins her soliloquy using a metaphor which denotes the raven to be an omen of evil. This raven, which “croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / under my battlements” (1.5.36-37) symbolizes to her that it is destined that the king should die under her roof. Taking this as a clear sign, she begins to call on the “spirits / that tend on mortal thoughts” (1.5.37-38) asking them to “unsex me here / and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / of direst cruelty” (1.5.38-40). In these words, Lady Macbeth seeks to not only rid herself of feminine weakness, but of the natural human response of guilt that would accompany

In act one scene 7, Macbeth doubts if he should kill the king; however, his wife, Lady Macbeth, manipulates him into proceeding. It might be difficult for Macbeth, the renowned warrior, to hear his wife accusing him of cowardice. Therefore, under Lady Macbeth’s influence, as she questions his manhood, he commences the murder in order to prove to her that he is not a “coward.” This is important to note because his soliloquy shows his determination to proceed.

Macbeth’s state of mind changes dramatically throughout the play. This is revealed through his soliloquy. In his soliloquy, He shows his intention he would like to achieve but its construction shows Macbeth’s mind still very much in confusion. However, most of the time Macbeth shows three different fears considering the consequences of killing king Duncan. At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth is in turmoil about killing Duncan.

Lady Macbeth then gradually begins to bear the guilt "where our desire is got without content 'tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy". She says in a soliloquy, which Shakespeare uses to portray her deepest thoughts as she is afraid of killing more. Lady Macbeth feels that nothing was gained by killing Duncan because even though she and Macbeth got the crown, it wasn’t worth it because they can never be truly happy about it. She thinks death is better to have than living a life with questions of their future