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Lady Macbeth Spoken Language Essay

532 Words3 Pages

Una Lake
Ms. Souza
Honors English 2 Per. 1
6 May 2023
The Contrast of Language in Macbeth Between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
TS: In Macbeth, Shakespeare has Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switch their language to show how guilt and greed affect one’s identity and lead them to use manipulation. While trying to convince Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth uses layered language to persuade him despite his guilt regarding the murder. Lady Macbeth converses, “Look like th’ innocent - flower. - But be the serpent under’t. … Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom” (Shakespeare 1.5 76-82). Shakespeare uses the metaphor of Macbeth becoming an innocent flower, to show how Lady Macbeth is manipulating Macbeth into murdering Duncan by hiding behind a false identity. Her greed …show more content…

It similarly adds to the metaphor of Macbeth needing to hide behind a false identity. Additionally, the alliteration in the phrase “solely sovereign sway” illustrates the hypnotizing effect that Lady Macbeth’s words are having on Macbeth. The phrase uses the repeated ‘s’ sound at the beginning of each word to cause a deep emphasis on understanding the phrase in which Lady Macbeth is explaining to trust only her judgment. Contrasting Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s previous dynamic, after Macbeth kills King Duncan, he grows greedy. Believing that he will fulfill his prophecy he begins to switch the narrative previously set and a guilt-ridden Lady Macbeth is manipulated by Macbeth’s language. Macbeth says, “Must lave our honors in these flattering streams - And make our faces vizards to our hearts, - Disguising what they are. [Lady Macbeth] You must leave this - [Macbeth] O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife” (Shakespeare 3.2 37-41). Shakespeare uses both mirroring language and metaphors to show the switch between Lady Macbeth's and Macbeth’s language in relation to both their greed and guilt. Macbeth says that the two of them must wash their honors in streams,

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