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How Does Lady Macbeth Change Throughout The Play

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Lady Macbeth and her poorly timed realization

Macbeth, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, is considered one of the playwright's most famous works. The play revolves around the protagonist Macbeth and starts off with Macbeth returning from a war. Macbeth feels as if the king had not rewarded him greatly enough and therefore develops a slight grudge in the sense that he feels he deserves the kingdom himself. This leads to his wife, Lady Macbeth, taking advantage of his ambition and convincing him to kill the king to take over the kingdom for himself which leads to catastrophe after catastrophes until the pair ultimately meets their demise. Lady Macbeth adds meaning by pushing Macbeth to embrace his ambitions which leads the play to its climax and also allows the reader to see the ultimate power of guilt. This is done through metaphors and foreshadowing.

Lady Macbeth is instrumental in pushing Macbeth to pursue his …show more content…

In Act 1, Scene 7, Lady Macbeth calls Macbeth a coward and compares him to a cat, “...And live a coward in thine own esteem, / Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’; / Like the poor cat I'th’adge?” (Shakespeare 1.7,43-45) The cat in this scenario is a cat wants to fish but is unwilling to wet its paws. The reason Lady Macbeth compares Macbeth to such a cat is because he has the ambition that he wants to become king but he does not want to carry out the act, so in a sense both the cat and Macbeth are unable to muster up the courage to get what they truly want. Therefore, Lady Macbeth's character adds meaning to the play through simile and metaphor by demonstrating how manipulation and charisma can lead many to follow dangerous and treacherous paths in which it was Macbeth who followed this

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William Shakespeare then shifts to using figurative language such as similes to alter the destruction of Lady Macbeth’s ambition. For example, after Macbeth hesitates on murdering King Duncan, Lady Macbeth deceives him by emphasizing, “You’re like the poor cat in the old story.” (1.7 45) This reveals how Lady Macbeth deceives because she uses a simile to compare Macbeth and make him feel low as a person to try and have him do as she says to gain for herself. She comments on his ability to weaken him but ultimately gives him a reason to concur to what she is saying by manipulating him.

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Part of him wishes to reach his potential and become king, and the other part wishes to honor his oath to the current king. Both sides of his free will are trumped by Lady Macbeth when she scolds him for being a coward. She tells him “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 I.vii.56-58). By saying this, she mocks his fears and implies that his masculinity relies on his ability to perform the task. By equating Macbeth’s manhood with betrayal and violence, she ensures that he will go to those lengths to prove it — thus sacrificing his morality in hopes of social acceptance and praise.

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Lady Macbeth was a fictional character in the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, a tragedy set in the 12 century. She was the wife of a man named Macbeth who became very murderous and blood thirsty while trying to become King of Scotland. In this tragedy, three witches tell Macbeth that he will become king and so he shares this news with Lady Macbeth. At the beginning of this story Lady Macbeth is the more dominant and strong willed person in the relationship, while Macbeth is the coward and fragile one.

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Macbeth Analysis A couple of notes: The prompt asks you to to both compare and contrast. You contrast here, but is there anything you can compare (any similarities)? What does Lady Macbeth do or say in Act V that shows a similarity to her character as presented in the first four acts?

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In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Shakespeare explores the consequences of unchecked ambition and greed paired with blind trust in the wrong people, and how this will ultimately result in inevitable repercussions. Shakespeare's character Macbeth explores these ideas through his political greed and desire to become King of Scotland. Macbeth was a virtuous man who was enrolled in the army, and this play represents how power can corrupt even these kinds of people. His ambition to be the king guides him to commit multiple heinous crimes, including the murder of his friends and allies. He lets this idealized version of himself control him, and lead him to malicious acts that eventually lead him to his death.

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In scene 1 of Act 5, Lady Macbeth is presented as quite disturbed and a guilt-ridden character. The scene starts with the Doctor and the gentlewoman, where they both talk about Lady Macbeth and her troubles so far. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and is acting almost powerless and lonely as Macbeth has gone into battle. In the opening paragraph, the doctor and the gentlewomen have been talking about Lady Mabeth and how she is not herself. The gentlewoman is almost like Lady Macbeth's right-hand person, so she knows everything about her.

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The film Macbeth illustrates Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to have very different personalities than their original counterpart of the play. Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a much more grieving mother. Her characteristics change and are more revealed during the killing of the Macduff family. Throughout the film Lady Macbeth is demonstrated as a much more emotional character, with her grieving over her child's death, to the breakdown during the terrifying burning of the Macduff family. The new characteristics of the character also again give a new feel to the storyline of the character.

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Macbeth is a man from Scotland that struggles with his emotions. These emotions drive him to make bad decisions later in his life, causing him to go to Hell. Macbeth was a joyful and loving man who loved his wife Lady Macbeth. However, Macbeth becomes sad after he kills Duncan, who was a good king. This leads him to also kill Banquo.

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Macbeth’s mental condition begins to dwindle as time goes on, starting with the murder of Duncan. At first, Macbeth is seen as a soldier that everyone aspires to be, strong, brave, and compassionate about his duties to the king. In act one scene two, Captain says, “...For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-...” This shows that he is a likeable person who has only the objective of serving his king. After meeting with the witches and hearing his prophecy, Macbeth starts to think about what it would be like to be king of Scotland.

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The play Macbeth authored by William Shakespeare emphasizes a theme of guilt and regret in relation to unnatural acts, through the character change of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, their relationship and how it can cause emotional breakdown loss of personality and ultimately, loss of sanity. The play was written in the early the 1600s and is set in Scotland. It focuses around the life of Macbeth a Thane, and future king of Scotland, who seemingly does whatever it takes to achieve this prestigious role. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth is steely in her mannerisms and appears to be willing to do anything in order to achieve what she ultimately desires. However, in the final act of the play her steely and cruel nature breaks down due to the

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Macbeth is a play that is written by William Shakespeare in 1606 and the main goal is to make the audience members or readers think that excessive ambition will have horrible consequences in the end. Over the course of the book Macbeth receives prophecies from multiple people, his wife tries to make him something that he is not, by getting him to kill anyone that she wants him to. Throughout the book the main character Macbeth drastically changes from being brave to being cowardly. He also changes from being loving to being greedy, and last he changes from being very trustworthy to being very untrustworthy. As a thane of Scotland, Macbeth loves and serves King Duncan even if it means his own death.

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The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a tale of murder and revenge. When Macbeth is given a prophecy by three witches, his wife Lady Macbeth makes him take action immediately so that the prophecies can come true. This leads Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to do things they will later regret. The actions that take place in this play are controlled by many different emotions. Lady Macbeth is driven by the emotions of greed, anger, and guilt in the play.

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The Witches use words to spark the deep desire within Macbeth to become king. They prophesize that he will one day become king, but, they also prophesize that although Banquo may not be king himself he will produce a long line of heirs to the throne. Macbeth sees this as a threat and he ultimately ends up murdering Banquo and his family. The Witches words spark the conflict within the play. Words are also used to inspire people to bring an end to Macbeth’s tyrannical reign.

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Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

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Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, analyzes the tragic downfall of a man who pursued his prophecy given to him by three witches, and suffered the downfall because of it. Told his power was inevitable, Macbeth explores the idea of murdering the King to achieve his goal of becoming King himself. Macbeth continually faces this, contemplating the moral issue of committing murder to in turn, fulfill his powerful destiny. While facing this internal conflict, Lady Macbeth developes an influence over Macbeth as well. Driven by her own desire to be Queen, Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to commit the murder, by challenging his manhood and often reminding him that it is, in fact, his destiny.

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