Lady Macbeth Essay

Describe the role that Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and The Witches have in the outcome of the play.

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, there are five characters which all have important, pivotal roles in the play. They play a part in the eventual outcome of the play, each in their own unique way. These characters are: Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the Three Witches. Macbeth does this through action, Lady Macbeth through pressure and greed, and The Witches through their prophecies and visions. Without them there would be no play, and they each influenced the ending.

Macbeth is the main character, so it makes sense that he had a big impact on the final ending of the play. It was he who believed in The Witches' prophecies, he who became paranoid

Her ability to manipulate her husband, her ambition for power, and the guilt that she eventually experiences all managed to change the ending. Upon hearing that her husband was going to be king in the future, she immediately decided that the only logical next step would be to have Macbeth kill Duncan. Although her train of thought was simple, this drastically altered the final result, and ended with Macbeth being killed and Lady Macbeth committing suicide. After devising a plot to kill Duncan, she acts as the perfect hostess, king and diligent, knowing perfectly well that he would die in a few hours. She later helps establish an alibi for Macbeth, even going so far as to hide the knives by the attendants so that it seems as if they killed him. She is willing to do anything to protect her husband and herself while gaining the most out of everything. Later at the banquet (Act 3 Scene 4), she saves face for Macbeth and uses her ingenuity to stop him from admitting his guilt due to the presence of Banquo’s ghost. By making sure that Macbeth is not blamed for Duncan’s nor Banquo’s deaths, she ensures that they stay in power as king and queen, and do not fall from their pedestal. However, her conscience eventually catches up to her and makes her sleep walk and begin seeing visions. Some literary scholars even argue that she develops obsessive-compulsive tendencies when she starts washing her hands over and over, seeing

Because Macbeth hears The Witches prophecy, the very notion that he could become both king and thane of Cawdor incites the ideological idea that he could be the most powerful man in Scotland. If he didn’t hear about the prophecy, he would have never had the idea to kill Duncan in the first place. The Witches are also convincing, as they first say in (1.3.48) “All hail Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!”, and then hail him as “Thane of Cawdor '' (1.3.49) and lastly “King hereafter” (1.3.50). Macbeth knows that the first is true, the second comes true shortly after since it was decided that he should be Thane of Cawdor in Act 1 Scene 2. This leads him to believe that if the first two are true, then he will become King in the future. The Witches never explicitly say that Macbeth must kill Duncan to be king. Since the first two parts of the prophecy came true, it is likely that if Macbeth hadn’t interpreted these statements in this way, he could have been king through a natural pathway. It was entirely left up to the interpretation of a somewhat mentally unstable man, something that The Witches likely knew. This makes it seem that they deliberately wanted to see what would happen if they told him this. They arouse the greed in Macbeth, and they don’t lie - Macbeth eventually becomes king of Scotland, but it is still a half truth that later makes Macbeth turn away from the noble character we are told