A Comparative Between Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby and William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth the main women struggle to cope with the circumstances they face in their lives. Both Lady Macbeth and Daisy Buchanan reveal their feelings of disillusionment through the alienation in their relationships, the murders that take place, and through their common desire to be at the top of the social order. Their actions have an impact on others but most importantly have consequences for themselves. This causes difficulty for both women to cope with the circumstances in their lives. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship is not considered to be an ordinary relationship. Both characters keep secrets from …show more content…
Therefore, she could be the one to kill Duncan and take over the power all on her own. In her “unsex me here” speech she explains how she wants “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, [to] unsex [her] here, and fill [her] from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty” (I.v.l 33). She is very determined to kill the king as it will increase the Macbeths social status. Macbeth kills King Duncan which leads him and Lady Macbeth to believe that they conquer all and will not be disappointed in their accomplishment of murdering Duncan. Unfortunately, this is not the case for Lady Macbeth. She acts very irrationally after the murders occur which leads her to believe she has blood permanently stained on her hands. She speaks very absurdly as she exclaims “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!...Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (V.i.l 25, 33-34). The blood symbolizes the guilt that Lady Macbeth has after being involved in the murder of Duncan. The Macbeths believe that cleaning their hands with water would make the sin of the murder not be in connection with them. However, the sleepwalking and Lady Macbeth believing her hands still have blood on them signifies that they will be forever punished for the crime they committed. She feels disillusionment and is unable to cope with the guilt that haunts her which ultimately results in Lady Macbeth killing
“Blood itself - the color, the smell, and importance - is vital to life and shocking to see. ”-Anonymous. Throughout Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, blood plays an important role. Blood represents guilt for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It’s not until after the murder of Duncan that their guilt begins to manifest.
What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow'r to accompt? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?" (Mac.5.1.29-33) Lady Macbeth is trying to scrub the blood off her hands while in a conscious state. She thinks she has blood on her hands.
Lady Macbeth in the beginning of the play is manipulative, most of the times she manipulates her husband into doing either what she wants or what she thinks he should do. For example, when Macbeth does not want to kill Duncan anymore, Lady Macbeth convinces him by saying “from this time such I account thy love. Art thou afeared to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire? (I.vii line 38-41). Besides, the audience see Lady Macbeths is influencing her husband’s feelings by she is using her love as a weapon because she is saying do it
Instead of going along with Macbeth’s new plans to murder more people, Lady Macbeth attempts to dissuade Macbeth, telling him that he “lack[s] the season of all nature, sleep,” trying to get Macbeth to go to bed as opposed to plotting and then carrying out his plans of murder (3.4.142). By trying to stop Macbeth from murdering more people, it is clear that despite wanting to be evil and feel nothing, her sense of guilt is too strong for her to
Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!” (Act 5, Scene 1) Though she continuously rubs her hands to get rid of the blood, Lady Macbeth can not washed away the guilt that stains her hands.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is revealed as an influential woman of great strength and determination, which can be seen in act three of scene two in which Lady Macbeth’s influential words “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it,” which guides Macbeth to also have the belief that to get the power he so desired, then he had to kill King Duncan. The extent of which Lady Macbeth’s influence had an impact on Macbeth’s conscience and his decisions eventually led to not only Macbeth himself, but also Lady Macbeth. Her downfall mimicked Macbeth’s in such a way that they were both craving power. In contrasting the Great Gatsby and Macbeth, readers find the themes of love and the aspect of the influence of women to make a considerable impact in both
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.
On page 35, Macbeth states, “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine making the green one red” (Shakespeare). Macbeth states that his guilt will never be washed away and rather turn innocence into the color of his blood-covered hands. Later in the act, Macbeth talks with Duncan’s sons and Lennox about the murder of the king when Macbeth admits that he killed the guards that were guarding King Duncan. “O, yet I do repent me of my fury, that I did kill them” (Shakespeare).
Mihir Sharma Ms. Dornford ENG 3U1-05 10 December 2015 Power and Corruption William Shakespeare in “Macbeth” and F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, depict how greed for power and social status can make women ruthless and crafty in their aspirations. To achieve their ulterior motives, they can destroy lives through either pretense or manipulation. William Shakespeare depicts women as malicious in their intent who can camouflage their real intent to achieve their ambitions. Lady Macbeth is unable to pursue her dreams due to social constraints.
The women in Macbeth are presented by Shakespeare to be powerful and ambitious which was unlike the typical views during Jacobean times. The playwright portrays Lady Macbeth and the witches to be highly influential to male characters in the play, which again contrasts the contemporary views to that time. Their ambition and power are demonstrated through the perversion of nature. This highlights the evil and immoral side, they possess. Shakespeare, however, presented Lady Macbeth and the witches to be manipulative and cunning, rather than violent like Macbeth was during the play.
Due to the killings, her guilt began to change her as a person. With the appearance of blood, Lady Macbeth realizes what horror she has created. Blood haunts Lady Macbeth in the worst possible way. Lady Macbeth can not wash the blood from her hands, staining permanent guilt. “Out, damned spot!...
“Looks like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it”(Shakespeare 1.7) this truly defines Lady Macbeth and describes her being someone that acts one way in certain situations and then in a contrary manner in others and also shows her manipulative personality and exploits her victims. Lady Macbeth is sharp at convincing and uses people for her need which she does throughout the play. In the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is ultimately responsible for Macbeth’s undoing because her ambition supported his greed and provoked his downfall. Lady Macbeth with her demanding and forceful comments triggered Macbeth 's weakness which leads Macbeth to agree on the murder.
By the end of the play, Lady Macbeth realized the consequences her and her husband are going through. She tried to save her out of control relationship by drawing him from plotting. However, she was too weakened by her own psychological guilt that left her drained and was unable to stop Macbeth. In fact, due to her guilt of taking part of the murdering, she started sleepwalking and having delirious visions. These visions make her believe she has blood on her hands that can’t was off, symbolizing what’s done cannot be undone.
In this essay I will be comparing two female characters from different texts and different time periods. We will be looking in depth at Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare 's play 'Macbeth ', and Sheila from J.B. Priestley 's 'An Inspector Calls '. We will be looking at their roles in their respective plays, and how their characters develop over time. It is clear that both ladies are in strong relationships, but how they act within these relationships is vastly different.
At first Lady Macbeth did not feel any guilt until things begin to get carried away. Sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth is heard saying, “Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. ”(5:1:53-55) and“ Out damned spot, out, I say”(5.1.37). Lady Macbeth is saying these things because she is visualizing that there is blood still on her hands representing her extreme guilt because she knows what she did not was wrong.