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Examples Of Ethos In Macbeth

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During the last scene of Act 1 in Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth employs the three Aristotelian Appeals in order to inspire Macbeth to murder his cousin Duncan. Lady Macbeth utilizes logos, ethos, and pathos to evoke a convincing argument against Macbeth to initiate him to kill his cousin. As Macbeth decides to kill Duncan to obtain power, it proves how Lady Macbeth’s application of the three Aristotelian Appeals utterly convinces Macbeth to commit the inhumane act of murder. The first Aristotelian Appeal, logos, is defined as an argument based on logic or reason. When Macbeth withdraws his decision to kill his cousin, Lady Macbeth furiously asserts that Macbeth “[lives] a coward in thine own esteem/Letting ‘I dare not’ wait …show more content…

As Lady Macbeth continues to criticize Macbeth on why he will not kill Duncan, she acknowledges that Macbeth would “be more than what [he was], [Macbeth] would be so much more the man” (1.7.57-58). Lady Macbeth indicates that if Macbeth continues with his plan and kills Duncan, he will then develop into more of the man he previously was. As ethos is a form of creating reliability within an audience, Macbeth is seduced by Lady Macbeth into thinking that he will develop into a masculine figure if he kills Duncan. In addition, Lady Macbeth uses pathos as one of her main elements for convincing Macbeth to commit a ruthless murder against Duncan. After Macbeth withdraws from his plan to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth confidently avows that she would “have plucked [her] nipple from [the baby’s] boneless gums/And dashed the brains out, had [she] so sworn as [Macbeth] have done this” (1.7.65-67). Lady Macbeth utilizes the baby as it is commonly found as a weak spot for couples who have withdrawn children from their family. Lady Macbeth uses pathos-driven emotion to cause Macbeth to feel motivated to murder Duncan to attain power of the throne. Lady Macbeth contains the most convincing argument as she uses pathos, logos, and ethos to assert logical statements and emotional-driven responses which will ultimately overcome Macbeth’s

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At this point in the play, Macbeth has decided to kill the king of Scotland. In Act 2 Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he utilizes pathos and dark, liquid imagery to create a mood in the reader similar to that of Macbeth’s emotions. As stated earlier, Macbeth is prepared to kill his king--an act he originally didn’t want to commit. Since his meeting with the Witches, Lady Macbeth has worked her way into Macbeth’s mind. She has now completely convinced him that he wants to be king, this is an example of the reliance on someone else’s thoughts.

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Speakers can create forms of ethos, pathos and logos to make their speech effective, which is exactly how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth accomplish this in Macbeth. Though both of these characters can be fairly effective speakers, Lady Macbeth takes the crown for being the best through her achievement of logos by using her child to create an emotional situation. The instance that Lady Macbeth is the most effective during her speech to Macbeth, is during the section of her speech in which she creates pathos, by presenting a situation surrounding their presumably deceased child, “I would, while it was smiling in my face, /Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, /And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you /Have done to this.” (I. vii.

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When trying to convince someone of something, “the mind is no match with the heart in persuasion; constitutionality is no match with compassion” (Everett Dirksen). Persuading someone into another opinion is difficult, and that difficulty reaches its maximum when trying to persuade someone into something like crime. Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, takes place in early modern Scotland, in which the main character Macbeth is told his future of being future king. However, in order to be future king, Macbeth must murder King Duncan and get away with it. Within the book, the characters use many rhetorical appeals that serve to deceive and persuade others in order to get what they want.

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Although babies and children are seen as an obstacle in the way of Macbeth’s ambitions, they actually play a vital role because they showcase innocence, symbolize responsibility, and foreshadow what is to come in

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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.

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As a mother, Lady Macbeth would pluck her “nipple from his boneless gums / And dashed the brains out” of her baby revealing how she will do anything to get power because, although she loves her child, her greed allows her to be able to kill them if it benefited her. She chooses to ignore the devastation and grief she would have if she murdered her child because of how much she wants Duncan to die so that she gains power. While Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to continue with the murder of Duncan, Macbeth asks what if the plan fails and Lady Macbeth responds with “We fail? / But screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail” (1.7.59-61).

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This shows Lady Macbeth going through lengths just to become royalty and this shows she is ruthless because she is only thinking about herself. Besides, the idea of dashing out the brains of a child deliberately shows Lady Macbeth is willing to killing her own blood, which is cold because usually mothers have a stronger and more intimate bond with their babies. Therefore, Lady Macbeth is shown as a ruthless person, who is very controlling, however there is a shift in her character at the end of the play, she becomes weaker. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth into doing things he didn’t want to do, by targeting is insecurities (his masculinity). But, now her persuasion no longer works on Macbeth, for example at banquet Macbeth was acting crazy and Lady Macbeth challenging his manhood by asking him if he were a man.

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