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Lady Macbeth craves to be cold, ruthless and in control, which are typical masculine traits in Shakespeares time. As a result of this she begins manipulating her husband to gain what she wants. She manipulates Macbeth with great effectiveness, which she achieves by undermining his objections to murdering Duncan. when she sees him hesitating to go forward with the murder, she begins repeatedly questioning his manhood until he feels that he must do it just to prove himself and his masculinity; she says “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man”. Lady Macbeth abuses her power by planting the idea in her husband's mind that anybody who stood in her and Macbeth’s way on the journey to reach royalty was to be destroyed, and made him feel as if he was less a man if he decided against it.
When Macbeth tells his wife of his doubt to kill Duncan she hastily responds, stating, “Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn (1.7.55-56).” In this quote, Lady Macbeth states how she would kill an innocent baby if she had the opportunity. This quote is symbolic, as this is when Lady Macbeth reminds Macbeth to fulfill the witches prophecy and follow fate by challenging his courage. Lady Macbeth’s persuasion seems to be the reason why Macbeth carried out the murder , however Macbeth later reveals his real
After he kills Duncan, he looks for comfort in his wife. He is horrified by what he has done, but he has not quenched Lady Macbeth’s thirst for blood. She mocks Macbeth once again, claiming “My hands are of your color, but I shame / to wear a heart so white,” (Shakespeare II.ii.82-83). She repeatedly taunts him for his weakness and innocence, while Macbeth is already showing major signs of mental deterioration. First, she calls him a coward, and after he does as he’s told she claims he’s fragile, naive, and still unworthy.
Macbeth tries to defend his decision by saying: “I dare do all that become a man” (1.5.46) in one last attempt to try and sway his wife to see things his way. But she continues to disparage him in her reply. She also reminds him of their child. She tells him that even if it had been their own child she still would have killed it if she had promised him that she would. Which further ensues his guilt causing him to reluctantly agree to their original plot.
It has been held as a significant reason that Macbeth ultimately comes to a resolution and kills Duncan the King of Scotland, taking his power for his own. In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth deliberately and verbally attacks Macbeth, questioning his manhood and courage for not being able to complete the act of assassinating Duncan. Lady Macbeth states, “That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were,
After hearing of the witches' prophecy, Lady Macbeth manipulates and belittles her husband to convince him to carry out his plan against Duncan. She tells him, “Art thou afeard / To be the same in thine own act and valor / As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that / Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, / And live a coward in thine own esteem” (1.7. 39-43). She expresses her belief that Macbeth should be willing to do whatever is necessary to get what he wants.
It is in this quote that Lady Macbeth stresses her power over Macbeth and twists his arm to do her doing. She forces his own manliness against him and makes him feel weak for not wanting to carry out the murder. In the quote the lines “When you durst do it, then you are a man”. Lady Macbeth made it clear that if, and only if, he commits the murder he will prove is manliness. When she is doing this it’s simple to see that Lady Macbeth is only doing this for personal gain, using Macbeth like a pawn.
Whenever Lady Macbeth does this it causes a serious internal conflict within Macbeth because he feels as if he needs to show Lady Macbeth that he is not weak. Because Lady Macbeth wants royalty so bad when Macbeth starts to take into question about killing Duncan, she speaks condescendingly to him to make him feel more obligated to kill Duncan. One example of this is when Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth, ”When you durst do it, then you were a man;” This quote literally shows her calling Macbeth out and questioning his masculinity(1.6.54-56). Coincidentally, after she said this to Macbeth, he went and killed Duncan. Later in the story Lady Macbeth also says, “... Are you a man?...
Macbeth calls her his “dearest partner of greatness”, which indicates they have a close relationship, and he considers her equal to him. “Lady Macbeth must act and think "like a man" because good women are by definition subservient, and can exert no recognizable authority.” When there is the idea of murdering King Duncan, she takes control of the situation. She calls on the evil sprits saying, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, of direst cruelty.” She needed to be male in order to kill Duncan because it was believed only men could commit murder, since women were too dainty to do
Which she hopes with this masculinity she can pull off a huge cruel, murderous, plan. Lady Macbeth made it clear in the story that she was ruthless. She told Macbeth that she would bash in the brains of her baby she was nursing. 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
Macbeth continues to become “rapt” due to Lady Macbeth as well because she continues to make him feel weak. She once again is knowledgeable of the fact that he will do anything it takes to win her over and continue to satisfy her. Macbeth’s second occurrence of weakness is when Lady Macbeth says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man” (Shakespeare, 1.7.56). When Macbeth is told this, his thought process is that the only way he can have strong masculinity is if he commits this terrible act. Lady Macbeth pushes her husband so far with insults that he begins to feel overwhelmed with how she feels about him.
Lady Macbeth, a greedy, vindictive woman, is set to raise her status in the Scottish nobility. Believing her husband is “too full o’th’milk of human kindness,” she decides to inflict emotional pain on Macbeth to lessen his reserve (1.5.15). She says to Macbeth that, “to alter favour ever is to fear,” mocking his mercurial behaviour as a sign of “fear” (1.6.70). Lady Macbeth continues to coerce her husband to kill Duncan by mocking his undecided nature by calling him “drunk” and commenting on his “green and pale” appearance as a sign of illness (1.7.35-37). Continuing with the insults she claims that, “when [he] durst do it, then [he] were a man,” which considering the times, femininity was considered a weakness (1.7.49).
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
Furthermore, Lady Macbeth has a strong desire to neglect all of her femininity in order to gain strength and power. With these qualities she believes she will hold more power over Macbeth and his potential shot at becoming the king will be in her control. Once again, Lady Macbeth wants to rid all of her femininity, “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis that loves the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nimple from his bonless gums, and dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this” (1.7.30-32.) This quote shows Lady Macbeth’s ability to get rid of every ounce of femininity she posses. She is explaining how she had once loved a baby, but would kill him in a heartbeat for Macbeth and his potential success as king.
Lady Macbeth persuades and manipulates Macbeth by pointing out his insecurities successfully and pressuring him into murdering the king. Along with this, Lady Macbeth also questions Macbeth’s manhood and masculinity when he does not want to carry out the plan when she says “When you durst do it, then you were a man;//And to be more than what you were, you would//Be so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.49-51). By saying these things, Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to believe that murdering the king will be his redemption from being a
