ipl-logo

Lady Macbeth's Character Essay

518 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Death in macbeth key role

Lady Macbeth’s persona in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is unlike any other conventional female character from the Elizabethan times. A conventional female character portrayed in Shakespeare’s many literary works is characterized as obedient, submissive, unpowerful, and extremely affectionate and warm-hearted. On the contrary, Lady Macbeth exhibits quite a few sinister and strikingly odd characteristics despite her role as a female character in a Shakespeare play. For example, after Lady Macbeth finds out that Duncan and Macbeth are coming over, she speaks to spirits and says, “Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty.” Here she is asking all the murderous spirits to make her feel less emotional and …show more content…

This again shows how she wishes to be more manly and less motherly to carry out her plan. She is ambitious to murder Duncan and hopes for her body to be filled with more cruelty than ever to act upon her brutal ideas. Unlike most female characters in Shakespeare’s plays, Lady Macbeth desires to be less maternal and affectionate. She hopes to gain more power mentally as she prays for spirits to fill her with sadism and brutality. One last disturbing quote from Lady Macbeth is when she is proposing Duncan’s murder to Macbeth and says, “Will I with wine and wassail so convince/That memory, the warder of the brain,/Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason/A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep/Their drenchèd natures lie as in a death,/What cannot you and I perform

Show More
Related
1024 Words | 5 Pages

In Macbeth Act 4 Scene 2 Shakespeare shows three themes within this act with Lady Macduff and Ross her son. (Miller)Miller states about this scene that it is shakespeare's way of reflecting back on the play so far “Lady Macduff's much expanded role and the death she suffers, in contrast to her counterpart in Shakespeare's Macbeth”. The first theme that is showed is flying and it is showed in the first line of the scene by Lady Macduff with her talking to the messenger Ross when he arrives. In the following lines Lady Macduff expresses the second theme which is cowardice when she is talking to Ross the messenger she talks about how Macduff abandoning her and her son, she talks to Ross she calls Macduff a traitor. One of the last themes showed

Read More
1406 Words | 6 Pages

Archetypes are universal symbols that hook readers. They develop characters and help readers get a better understanding of the story. A commonly used archetype is the temptress, also known as being dangerously seductive. In the book Macbeth, Shakespeare gives us a perfect example of the ‘woman as temptress’ archetype. This example is Lady Macbeth because she uses her forms of manipulation to make her husband do evil things.

Read More
358 Words | 2 Pages

Act 5 Scene 2 of William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is a crucial scene that shows how other people think of Macbeth. While many of these characters are less important, they reveal a lot about Macbeth and how he is losing a lot of the power that he caused bloodshed for. One example of this is when Caithness declares “Meet we the med’cine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we in our country’s purge Each drop of us”(5.2.27-29). Shakespeare uses a metaphor to show the reader that Macbeth is the country's “disease”, and Malcolm is the country's “medicine”. Through this example, it can be inferred that Macbeth is not viewed as a good leader throughout most of the country.

Read More
454 Words | 2 Pages

After reading and analysing the passage of Act 1, Scene 5 in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, I think that Lady Macbeth’s desires of overtaking the power with her cruelty actions and her evil characteristics will drive the themes of good and evil, darkness and denial throughout this play and gradually lead to her death. Firstly, when she is directing the cruel actions to kill the current king, Duncan, her use of words in this section demonstrates her evil and cruel personality in which many dark themes are transferred to the audience. When Duncan enters the entrance, she is planning the murder of Duncan and says “ Come, thick night/ And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/ That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,/ Nor heaven peep through the

Read More
1503 Words | 7 Pages

Shakespeare, like any other man in the 16th and 17th century, saw ambitious and dominant women as evil and even disturbing or disturbed. From Macbeth, we can see Shakespeare feels women should be challenged and punished because they are trying to change society. Nowadays these ambitious and dominant women are regarded as brave and respected because of their ambition, such as Lady Macbeth’s ambition to become Queen. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as mentally disturbed.

Read More
789 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a power hungry and vindictive women, whose character is against the stereotypes of a Jacobean woman. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a deceptive woman, who uses the fact that she is a woman as a weapon. ‘Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think.’ Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth.

Read More
3313 Words | 14 Pages

Peer Evaluation (monologue): I will be evaluating Jennifer and her use of skills while performing her monologue from “Macbeth”, as Lady Macbeth, I will aim to give constructive feedback. From the beginning, Jennifer’s characterisation of Lady Macbeth is established well, immediately presenting to the audience that Lady Macbeth is a powerful and bold character. Jennifer purposefully stands up when saying the line “what thou art promised”, automatically capturing the attention of the audience. Jennifer walks slowly, clearly indicating that she has thought about the pace of her movement and how important establishing Lady Macbeth as a powerful character is. Jennifer also effectively used movement during the line “come you spirits which tend on

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

The scene Act 3 scene 2, conveys the theme that killing someone isn't the most proficient way in dealing with problems nor does it make life simpler, instead it creates more complications. Ironically, In this scene Lady Macbeth and Macbeth discuss the death of Banquo; both of them begin to show signs of fear & guilt. Both of them realize the troubles that come with killing Banquo, and recognize that troubles follow; his son Fleance can still cease the prophecy. This is demonstrated in the metaphorical quote “We have scorched the snake, not killed it.” Macbeth refers to Banquo as a snake, who has not yet been killed and is still able to “attack” them.

Read More
1028 Words | 5 Pages

The act of creating texts in its nature involves experimentation and adaptation of different language and texture elements, while sustaining the value of original literary works. Authors express themes in their writing by using expression and varying techniques. William Shakespeare, a famous poet and playwright, is famous for his writings that portray key themes of tragedy, power, identity and love. Shakespeare conveyed these themes in his work on Macbeth and his influence on Mark Bronzel in his adaptation ‘Macbeth retold’. Because Macbeth's retold was created in a different era its value and morals had to shift to suit the beliefs of modern society, but regardless of the changes made in order to suit the different time period, both texts emphasize

Read More
477 Words | 2 Pages

In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses the subversion of gender roles to reinforce Elizabethan notions of female and male behavior through the characters of Lady Macbeth, the three witches, and Macbeth. The ideal woman in Shakespearean times was submissive and docile. She is expected to be a mother and hostess, and little else. However, Lady Macbeth is the exact opposite of this notion. She constantly challenges and manipulates her husband to feed her ever-growing ambition.

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

Who is the true hero of the play?   How is he/she different from Macbeth?   In the story, Macbeth by William Shakespeare there are times where numerous people play the role of a Hero in minds of many people, but there can only be one true hero. Macduff is the definition of a true hero.

Read More
615 Words | 3 Pages

Lady Macbeth’s qualities show her to be more of a manly character then a feminine, she tries to present herself as ambitious, manipulative, and emotionless. These traits are shown in act I when she is planning the murder of King Duncan. “Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear: And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round” (Crowther, I,v., 2005). This shows her

Read More
1959 Words | 8 Pages

“Come, you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts,/unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of dire cruelty” (1.5.41-44). Lady Macbeth is the personification of male dominance, ruthlessness and violence. She hopes that she could take control of all action. She yearns to be a man and her implication is that she is more masculine than Macbeth. Her drive and violent nature is more akin to men and their masculinity.

Read More
1013 Words | 5 Pages

Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.

Read More
593 Words | 3 Pages

William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character; Macbeth, is seen as an evil character. The play is based off of Macbeth’s decisions and his actions to become King. In the beginning Macbeth starts out as a hero in Scotland’s war with Ireland and towards the end he is transformed into a murderer. Macbeth is not wholly evil because of is heroism in the war, his love for Scotland, and because he didn’t want to kill King Duncan initially. Macbeth was brain washed by his wife and tricked into killing the King.

Read More

More about Lady Macbeth's Character Essay

Open Document