Lady Macbeth Essay

English 12 2/27/2023 William Shakespeare's Macbeth is a tragic play that explores the themes of ambition, guilt, and the consequences of one's actions. The main character, Macbeth, is a tragic hero whose ambition leads him to commit heinous crimes, which ultimately lead to his downfall. Throughout the play, Macbeth attempts to control the future and bury the past in various ways, which ultimately contribute to his tragic fate. One way in which Macbeth tries to control the future is through his attempts to control the future is through his interaction with the witches and manipulation of the prophecies given to him by the three witches.

In Macbeth Act 4 Scene 2 Shakespeare shows three themes within this act with Lady Macduff and Ross her son. (Miller)Miller states about this scene that it is shakespeare's way of reflecting back on the play so far “Lady Macduff's much expanded role and the death she suffers, in contrast to her counterpart in Shakespeare's Macbeth”. The first theme that is showed is flying and it is showed in the first line of the scene by Lady Macduff with her talking to the messenger Ross when he arrives. In the following lines Lady Macduff expresses the second theme which is cowardice when she is talking to Ross the messenger she talks about how Macduff abandoning her and her son, she talks to Ross she calls Macduff a traitor. One of the last themes showed

Lady Macbeth is also power-hungry. To Macbeth, she says, "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised." (Act 1: Scene 5: Lines 14-15). Lady Macbeth says this while conversating with Macbeth about how

Often the play encounters a negative change in the weather indicating a rise of evil. This rise often had a lot of correspondence with Macbeth and his desire to maintain the position of king. In adopting this role, the reader can clearly see how he demonstrates his determination using violence and murder. Shakespeare frequently uses mortality in the play to further amplify the mood. The deaths of King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff’s family are crucial to the structure and shape of Macbeth’s overall mood.

Throughout the course of the play Lady Macbeth uses her ability of deception and cunning to manipulate her husband Macbeth in order to achieve her own goals of power, opportunity and freedom. The time period set for the play allows us to view the heavily re-enforced gender roles of Scottish middle age society, with Lady Macbeth being stuck within her roles of both mother and wife. Her implied inability to bare children is highlighted throughout the play, and as a result out of all characters seen within the script, Lady Macbeth is the most desperate to escape her specified role within society and through believing that power may allow her to do so, she chases it, using any means necessary including calling upon dark spirits, or pushing her husband towards murder ‘flower quote’. The representation of sin within her biblical reference shows her willingness to disrupt the divine right of kings and go against gods will in order to succeed. By likening her husband to Satan we are foreshadowed the ending of the play, as, just as the serpent is punished in the garden for his deceit, Macbeth Is killed for his, with both stories ending with the divine right restored and humanity ruled by the deserved king.

In Act 1 Scene 5, Shakespeare introduces and engages our interest in Lady Macbeth’s complex character by associating her with the supernatural and revealing her deadly ambition to fulfil her murderous needs. As the scene progresses, Lady Macbeth performs a soliloquy that brings light to the complexity of her character, using language associated with the supernatural and witchcraft. She says, “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts,” referring to the ghosts that are deadly and feed on thoughts of murder. Shakespeare uses this in revealing Lady Macbeth’s belief of the supernatural and the innate connection she has that is strong enough for her to be calling out to them for help.

By foreshadowing the death of King Duncam, Shakespeare has left the audience expecting his death, but faced only with the burden of mystery on how or when King Duncan will be killed. As well as, what will happen to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and if they are capable of keeping their mask on in the duration of the play to deceive their country.’ Moving on, after the long and hard journey of trying to take the crown of Scotland, Lady Macbeth has reached her breaking point and is beginning to expose herself through her speech. To explain, after her and Macbeth have committed multiple murders, Lady Macbeth has succumbed to the weight of her guilt and paranoia of getting caught. Her mask is slowly falling, and towards the end of the play, her mind has become so unstable to the point where medical help is called for.

As soon as Macbeth is informed of the prophecy that he will be king, from the witches, he tells Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth starts persuading Macbeth to kill the current king, King Duncan, and rule Scotland, with Lady Macbeth by his side. Macbeth opposes the idea of killing Duncan at first, but at the end he is broken and Lady Macbeth’s will is done. This implies that Lady Macbeth is very persuasive and can control Macbeth, ‘we’ll not fail’ Lady Macbeth to Macbeth. In the Jacobean era, the wife would not be able or allowed to argue with her husband, however Lady Macbeth made Macbeth kill the king, which suggests that she wants to be powerful and doesn’t care how she gets it.

Lady Macbeth’s strong character portrayed in Act I Scene V creates suspicion of dark events later in the play. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth reveals her true character in her speech and foreshadows King Duncan’s death. Throughout her speech, Lady Macbeth reveals her lust for power and desire to kill Duncan to become queen. Although Lady Macbeth’s character is recently introduced into the play, she reveals her true self as a sadistic and covetous person which foreshadows the murder of King Duncan and Macbeth’s prophesied future.

Lady Macbeth is presented originally as ambitious and many modern audiences would interpret her as a feminist figure. They would interpret her as this because she demonstrates three main characteristics: empowerment, equality, and her improvement of her role in society. She first starts off the play being the wife of the Thane of Glamis. The play finishes when she is queen and holds the most power in Scotland. She gains this empowerment by the murders of Duncan that she led with the help of her husband, Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is truly an evil character. In the beginning of the play, it tells how much Macbeth is a fierce warrior, but coming home the witches came. As soon as Lady Macbeth heard about the prophecy, she becomes the fierce warrior and Macbeth bends to her every whim. Lady Macbeth is always making Macbeth feel awful, (Act 3, scene V, line 58) “Are you a man?”.

The play Macbeth authored by William Shakespeare emphasizes a theme of guilt and regret in relation to unnatural acts, through the character change of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, their relationship and how it can cause emotional breakdown loss of personality and ultimately, loss of sanity. The play was written in the early the 1600s and is set in Scotland. It focuses around the life of Macbeth a Thane, and future king of Scotland, who seemingly does whatever it takes to achieve this prestigious role. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth is steely in her mannerisms and appears to be willing to do anything in order to achieve what she ultimately desires. However, in the final act of the play her steely and cruel nature breaks down due to the

Shakespeare illustrates how the supernatural are partly to blame for Macbeth’s downfall. At a strange greeting with the witches and Macbeth, the witches “all hail Macbeth” after telling him that he “shall never be vanquished”. Shakespeare uses dialogue between the characters to depict their influence on Macbeth. Macbeth was a noble and loyal character at the beginning of the play, but with the influence of the supernatural, this shifts Macbeth character into being someone who must protect his position as king. Macbeth knows that King Duncan has “honoured [him] of late” but once he had “done the deed”, his moral conscience changes into wanting to kill more people.

Death will soon befall Scotland, as the play ends with a battle. This battle ultimately leads to the death of Macbeth. In a way, the sickness can be paralleled with Macbeth’s paranoia. He is never quite fully at peace, even after he hears the messages of the three apparitions, as he constantly worries who is plotting to kill him. Earlier in the play, after the assassination of the King of Scotland, the sun does not rise over the country.

William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character; Macbeth, is seen as an evil character. The play is based off of Macbeth’s decisions and his actions to become King. In the beginning Macbeth starts out as a hero in Scotland’s war with Ireland and towards the end he is transformed into a murderer. Macbeth is not wholly evil because of is heroism in the war, his love for Scotland, and because he didn’t want to kill King Duncan initially. Macbeth was brain washed by his wife and tricked into killing the King.