Power can easily become a corruptive force when ambition and desire get out of hand. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth (1606), Macbeth’s ambition and Lady Macbeth’s greed for power transform them into a corrupt king and insane queen. The witches are the trigger for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s inhumane actions. A variety of literary and dramatic techniques are used to present these themes.
The catastrophic consequences of desiring power can be seen through the development of Lady Macbeth. She is introduced as a strong, manipulative woman that is corrupted by supernatural forces and her thirst for power. When she hears of the witches’ prophecy, she believes she and Macbeth are entitled to the “promises” the witches made. Lady Macbeth, after discovering her husband is “too full o’th’ milk of human kindness” to go through
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This is contrasted with “and take my milk for gall”, which presents Lady Macbeth, unlike Macbeth, as someone full of poison and cruelty. She begs the spirits to “unsex me here” and to fill her with “direst cruelty”. This use of imperative language emphasises her yearning to give up her femininity for the greater good she believes will come from killing Duncan. Her manipulative nature becomes evident when she begins taunting Macbeth’s weakness by calling him “drunk… green and pale”, “a coward in thine own esteem”, and the “poor cat” that wanted the fish but was too afraid to get its paws wet. Macbeth is exactly like this cat—desperate to be king, but is afraid of dirtying his hands. She then shoves him off the fence by saying she would rather “dash[ed] the brains out” of her own child than break such a promise. Religious allusion is used when Lady Macbeth says, “a little water clears us of this deed”, in which Pontius Pilate is clearing himself of being involved in Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. This shows that Lady Macbeth thinks it is easy to wash away any guilt her and Macbeth are experiencing. The lines