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William shakespeare portrayal of women
The portrayal of women in literature
The portrayal of women in literature
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In act one scene seven, in the play Macbeth, shakespeare uses diction to reveal Lady macbeth's complex thinking and ruthless ambition of gaining power by having macbeth kill king duncan. Shakespeare demonstrates this through many conversations between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. The diction shakespeare uses also expresses Lady Macbeth’s motivation towards killing king duncan and how it influences Macbeth. Shakespeare also uses metaphors, and persuasive language to depict Lady Macbeth's obsession for power and authority along with Macbeth’s reluctance to agree with Lady Macbeth's plan to kill king Duncan. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship is very strong.
In Lady Macbeth's soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5, she uses the motif of milk to create a tone of determination. This is seen when she cries, “Come to my woman’s breasts/ And take my milk for gall,” (1.5.37-38). By describing milk turning to gall, which is a poisonous acid, she is turning a motif that usually means something life-sustaining and inverting it to something fatal. This shows the tone of determination in how she deliberately rejects the normal interpretations of milk to turn it into something more powerful and deadly.
The voices he hears that threaten: “Macbeth shall sleep no more” indicate a relationship between guilt and madness. Therefore, the manifestation of the dagger suggests that he feels guilty because of his attempt to murder Duncan. There are three major transitions of thought. First, he contemplates about the dagger’s existence; the second is the invocations of dark images; finally, there is the bell that cuts off Macbeth’s contemplations. The transitions between topics indicate that while Macbeth feels guilty for the murder, his determination makes him ignore
When Macbeth first hears this prophecy, he is skeptical of the witches power, but as the play proceeds, he becomes obsessed with fulfilling the prophecy. This obsession leads to his downfall. Another example is the use of the owl as a symbol of death . In Act II, scene2, Lady Macbeth says, “ It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st goodnight. He is about it: The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms Do not mock their charge with snores: I have drugged their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die.”
In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses many motifs and symbols to help develop the theme. The most effective symbols and motifs that Shakespeare uses are the birds, blood, and sleep. In Macbeth, birds are mentioned many times. "The raven himself is hoarse /
The memories still keep me from my slumber. When I awake from my slumber its as though I have not slept. Why did the old man have so much blood in him. I would have killed him myself did he not look so much like my father while he slept. i thought that with the washing of my hands i could remove myself of the crime but my fitful state argues that thought.
Abundantly strange occurrences have been happening over the past few weeks. I have over heard numerous people whispering about who they speculate killed Duncan, Banquo, Lady Macduff and her younglings. The name I have heard so exceedingly much is Macbeth. I fear working in their home. Lady Macbeth appears to slowing be going mad, and I am starting to believe Macbeth has done these ungodly deeds.
Lady Macbeth begins her soliloquy using a metaphor which denotes the raven to be an omen of evil. This raven, which “croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan / under my battlements” (1.5.36-37) symbolizes to her that it is destined that the king should die under her roof. Taking this as a clear sign, she begins to call on the “spirits / that tend on mortal thoughts” (1.5.37-38) asking them to “unsex me here / and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / of direst cruelty” (1.5.38-40). In these words, Lady Macbeth seeks to not only rid herself of feminine weakness, but of the natural human response of guilt that would accompany
William Shakespeare portrayed the character Lady Macbeth to be extremely ruthless, malicious and manipulative. Thus, being the reason she could easily convince Macbeth to do her will, yet still put on such a convincing performance in front of those who knew nothing of her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth shows her complexity constantly throughout the story when she shares her view-point on masculinity by demasculinizing her own husband, when she strategically plans the murder of the King Duncan, and finally when she finally goes crazy because of the guilt she possesses for not only her own actions but also turning her own husband into a
In the passage , Lady Macbeth says, “Come to my woman’s breasts / And take my milk for gal, you murd’ring ministers” (1.5.54-55). Lady Macbeth is telling the murdering demons to go to her female breasts and turn her milk in acid. She wants to change the female part of her into something destructive. With removing her female aspects she is able to commit the murderous acts because only men can deal with the violence.
This conveys Macbeth’s character at the beginning to be a misrepresentation because for him to have killed Duncan who was his king and cousin as well as Banquo a friend and man who he fought alongside in the war is not the actions of a noble man. However, he first acts on his ambition in (2.1) when Macbeth makes his “is this dagger before me” speech; he acknowledges that what he sees is not real, but through this vaulting ambition he visualizes the dagger as sign that he should kill Duncan. After he kills Duncan it is apparent that his
In literature, birds often represent beauty, freedom, and grace. Shown soaring through the sky, these creatures remind us of freedom and life. However, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, birds represent chaos, the moral and physical destruction of Shakespeare’s characters. As the play progresses and the kingdom crumbles, Shakespeare presents birds alongside the destruction, thus transforming such elegant creatures into symbols of doom. Even though birds do occasionally display order, that order is ultimately crushed as more birds appear, suggesting that all order ultimately breaks down.
Lady Macbeth plans to invite king Duncan over for dinner, but really she is convincing Macbeth to murder him. She influences him to kill Duncan because he is the only one standing in the way of Macbeth becoming king. Lady Macbeth plans the killing but convinces Macbeth to do the dirty deed. Lastly, Lady Macbeth is one of the causes of Macbeth’s failure because she repeatedly questions Macbeth’s manhood until she persuades him to make a bad choice. “When you durst do it then you were a man” (1.7.53-58).
Her ambition is not only for herself but also for Macbeth. Nevertheless, with all her fervor, she wants him to be as strong as her. “Make thick my blood./Stop up the access and passage to remorse,/That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my fell purpose/Come to my woman’s breasts,/And take my milk for gall” (1.5.44-49). Lady Macbeth never wavers in her goal.
Macbeth’s ambition is one of the most prominent things that drive Macbeth in the play and truly becomes evident when he hears of the Witches prophecies. When the witches stop talking, he demands to know more. “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” (I, III, 73-74). This portrays his excessive curiosity on the subject as well as his craving for more desirable prophecies. This ambitious nature and craving for power is also demonstrated only moments after hearing the witches, when he starts formulating a plan to kill Duncan in order to make the third prophecy come true.
