Lady Macbeth: Catalyst For The Murder Of Duncan

Lady Macbeth

“Macbeth “by William Shakespeare was written and set in the Elizabethan era. Lady Macbeth, Macbeths wife is arguably the catalyst for the murder of Duncan. She is shown as a strong and ruthless woman, with vaulting ambition and courage, able to manipulate her husband, ‘brave Macbeth’ to do anything for her (including murder Duncan).

Shakespeare first introduces us to lady Macbeth, in act 1 scene 5, in this scene lady Macbeth learns that Macbeth is going to be king. She is sure that he is too “full of human kindness” to murder Duncan and says, “Come you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.” The verb” unsex” suggests that lady Macbeth wishes that the spirits would take away the weakness that is associated with

worthy Cawdor!”. The adjectives “great “and “worthy” suggests that lady Macbeth is trying to flatter Macbeth and is trying to use her so called love to coax him into murdering Duncan. This is also evident, when she tells him to “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t” this simile suggests that lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth to deceive Duncan, she is telling him to conceal his murderous intentions with innocent behaviour, like a snake lurking beneath a harmless flower. Macbeth dismisses her which suggests to the audience that lady Macbeth has not succeeded in full

She begins to sleepwalk in which she says “out damned spot, out I say! “the symbolism of hand washing is to represent the guilt she feels because of the murder of Duncan blood in Elizabethan and, particularly Jacobean, drama is one of the most dominant images in those texts. They serve such themes as courage, romance – particularly sexual passion – youth, family ties, violence, and, in Macbeth, guilt. She also says “Yet who would have the thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” A rare hint of compassion from Lady Macbeth, an unconscious moment that shows her guilt and regret at their actions in this scene She speaks in prose in this scene, slipping from the iambic pentameter of earlier in the play. Prose was traditionally used in the Elizabethan era to express madness; the ordered structure of the iambic rhythm is broken down by the troubled mind of the