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Macbeth as a tragedy
Macbeth as a dark tragedy
Exploring the character of lady macbeth
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Macbeth as a tragedy
Macbeth as a dark tragedy
Exploring the character of lady macbeth
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
If Macbeth had been innocent, then he wouldn't have killed king Duncan But because he killed a King out of his despise, It shows he did it for
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, several characters have a certain degree of responsibility for the assassination of King Duncan and the murders that follow. Macbeth, being a soldier, knows how to kill and is familiar with this act. This may be damning evidence that Macbeth is completely responsible for the murders he commits throughout the play. However, while Macbeth may be thought of as ultimately responsible for his actions, there are certain steps taken by other characters, such as the witches, Lady Macbeth, King Duncan’s guards, and even King Duncan himself, that push Macbeth to his eventual downfall.
King Duncan was a mighty king indeed, who enjoyed his kingdom and his people. The book Macbeth portrays Duncan as a loving king and a good guy who still loved war. “See, see, our honour'd hostess /The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,/Which still we thank as love.(I.vi.13-15) a great king know his ways with words. Yet king Duncan wanted lands and victory ordered his loyal soldier Macbeth to bring the head of the rival king instead getting his own dirty, “What bloody man is that? He can report, /As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt The newest state.
The Tragedy of Macbeth claimed the lives of many characters, however there is no clear answer as to who is clearly responsible. Even though both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth played a role in the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth holds the larger amount of responsibility due to the fact that she was the more evil character, that she manipulated her husband into carrying out the murder, and that she was the one who outlined the specifics of the plot to kill Duncan. To begin with, Lady Macbeth is the one who convinces Macbeth to commit the murder in the first place. In act 1, Scene 5, she reads Macbeths letter detailing the witches prophecies and realizes that he is hesitant to act on them. She decides to take matters into her own hands and calls
Lady Macbeth regrets the killing and struggles with the horror. Macbeth begins the play as a loyal soldier and reacts strongly to the predictions from the witches, he is in two minds what to do ‘if chance will have my king why chance may crown me’ this shows that he does not know whether to act on the prophesy or not. The people of the era believed in witchcraft in Shakespearian times. Macbeth decides he does not want to murder king Duncan but gets drawn into doing it by lady Macbeth this is shocking to a Shakespearian audience women were not powerful at this time in
The murder of Duncan is the definitive moment which becomes the source of guilt for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth; it is the negative event that they both feel responsible
Lady Macbeth was a creature in her own right, selfish in nature, she advised Macbeth to continue with his ambitious desires for her desire for power trumped her desire for Macbeth’s wellbeing. Duncan’s murder was, surprisingly, almost completely her doing as she set the stage for the entire event. Originally, Macbeth’s conscience advises him that he is already high in society and that he should feel no need to climb higher, for Duncan is a fair and just king. Lady Macbeth, however, taunts her husband, taking jabs at his manliness and “making quick work of his virtuous resolution” (Kelly 288). She persuades that if there was ever a time to become king and complete the prophecy, it is now.
Some might believe that Macbeth is the true villain because he kills innocent people, but in actuality the only reason Macbeth killed those people is because of Lady Macbeth. By making Macbeth feel emasculated, Lady Macbeth was able to persuade him to kill innocent people so she could get what she wanted. After he decides to go along with his wife’s plan, Lady Macbeth tells him to keep his promise to kill King Duncan. She exclaims that if she had made a promise to him, she would keep it. Even if the promise is that she must pluck her “nipple from his boneless gums And dash'd the brains out” of her own baby(1.7.57-60).
Throughout the play, Macbeth is viewed with hostility in regard to his unscrupulous actions. However, the fact that it was Lady Macbeth who was the mastermind behind king Duncan’s death is often
Because Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s decision to murder Duncan, Both face the guilt of the power they abused portrays on the shadows that reflect on them as well as the natural consequences they will face. During the first half of the play, Lady Macbeth expresses her unnatural feelings and this is demonstrated through the corruption of power when she want’s to hire people to kill Duncan because she thinks that Macbeth is too scared. At first, when Lady Macbeth hinted “Their drenchèd natures lies as in a death”(1.7.78). This demonstrates that Lady Macbeth is characterizing corruption of power due to the fact that she want's to kill Duncan, therefore she can be queen of cawdor while Macbeth is king.
Just to get what she wanted, she did convince macbeth to commit crimes, but Macbeth is still the person with the last word. He cannot do anything by himself because he is scared, but when his wife helps him out, she herself does not wish to kill anyone. The one who commits the crime pays the price. Macbeth is the only murderer since he was the one who always ordered the murderers to kill whomever he disliked. Macbeth also has no mercy when he sent out the men to kill Macduff's family.
She insults him and calls him a coward while also questioning his manhood which makes Macbeth come to a realization that not killing the king is the way of a coward and he is motivated to carry out the plan and murder the king because of Lady Macbeth’s insults and speech that she gives him. By successfully persuading Macbeth into murdering the king this shows that Lady Macbeth is controlling towards people and she can be a very manipulative person. It shows that she is the type of person that gets things done by manipulating other people to do her dirty work for her. Lady Macbeth can simply achieve her own goals by getting into anyone’s head and turning their own conscience against them in, which is essentially what she did to her husband. Macbeth would have never went through with killing King Duncan if Lady Macbeth had never persuaded him because he really does have a soft heart and is good and honorable.
Lady Macbeth tries to mask her guilt by covering up for her husband, but eventually comes to grips with her own instability. In Macbeth, Shakespeare asserts that power drives the title character and his wife to insanity, particularly after their conspiracy to kill Duncan. For starters, prior to killing Duncan, Macbeth imagines the likely consequences of his future actions and whether or not they signal his destiny. At the beginning
Previous to her first plotting of evil, Lady Macbeth is seen as a morally righteous and sane person who simply has a well off life with her husband. However, she turns completely opposite from the greed she acquires within herself wanting her husband to become king. A now selfish and greed hungry Lady Macbeth, plans and succeeds in the murder of Duncan, the first person in the way of Macbeth’s thrown. The act of taking someone’s life proves further all of her moral
Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.