Lady Macbeth Guilt Essay

William Shakespeare’s play entitled ‘Macbeth’, is a tragedy written in 1623 following a Thane and his wife. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is described as brave and heroic but by the end, he is quite the opposite. His wife, Lady Macbeth, is a catalyst in the story and is viewed as manipulative and powerful. Shakespeare demonstrates how guilt is indiscriminate, guilt can affect anyone, no matter how powerful, ambitious, or manipulative a person can be. A human’s guilt can drive them to paranoia and regret. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as assertive, driven, and knows exactly what she wants and how she’s going to get it. Through the character of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare challenges the perception that women

Furthermore, she calls upon the spirits to “unsex” her, the verb ‘unsex’ suggests she wants to rid herself of all the attributes that make her a woman. Stereotypically, women are nurturing, kind, and innocent so using the pre-fix ‘un’ shows Lady Macbeth would like to separate herself from ‘regular’ women who are nothing like her. Additionally, she uses the phrase ‘direst cruelty’, the adjective ‘direst’ displays the absoluteness of her evilness and the urgency to be filled with pure cruelty. This is another example of her straying away from the perception of women. Lady Macbeth wants to be able to be as ruthless and as careless as she wants without being pressured by the expectations attached to her gender. Shakespeare may have written Lady Macbeth this way to demonstrate the dangers of giving women power or influence, implying they

Prior to Duncan’s murder, she delivers a speech to Macbeth, calling him a coward and saying, “when you durst do it, then you were a man.” The adjective ‘coward’ means being scared to take risks, she uses this word because it has negative connotations and belittles him. Men, especially war heroes, are supposed to be brave and fearless, so suggesting that he’s the exact opposite is a sizable accusation. Lady Macbeth used his fears against him. Moreover, she used that fear to get him to do exactly what she wanted, without having to threaten him or hurt him. Rhetorical questions are another device used to persuade him, leaving him with the questions floating around in his mind, constantly changing his perspective to how she wants him to think. “Art thou afeard?” is just one example of this. Directly before Duncan’s death, Lady Macbeth states that the alcohol she drank has given her “fire” and made her “bold.” Through the use of the noun “fire”, we can tell that she feels energetic and devious. Fire is destructive and it works fast to destroy anything in its path, it’s extremely powerful and it will do detrimental damage. In this context, it is being referred to as fuel to help her go through with her immoral