Who Is Responsible In Macbeth

Who is usually guilty? Is it the one whom everyone suspects, the one in the sidelines, or the person that no one ever pays attention to? The person that is always overlooked usually has the most motive and desire to be known. But who is overlooked in the society of Macbeth? The woman since Lady Macbeth seems to be the only one prominent women in this play. No other woman seems to be important or worthy enough to hold any sort of unsurpassable power. That is what makes her more culpable than the rest, her circumstances give her the most motive and ambition for never ending power. Lady Macbeth bears responsibility for the demise of Macbeth and Duncan’s death, and is most culpable of this due to the nature of ambition and power; furthermore, she

From this first moment it is apparent that she had ulterior motives in order for Macbeth to gain success. She first states “(he) is too full o’th’milk of human kindness” (I, ii, 15). This metaphor of Macbeth being the milk of human kindness hints at the idea that he doesn’t yet have what it takes to get what she wants from him, and she goes on to explain that he wouldn’t act unfairly. The metaphor used is powerful as it tells the audience that in her mind Macbeth is naive and immature. He can be compared to a child who is dependent on milk, and the milk may represent the innocence that is human kindness; Macbeth still has that kindness that a child is not only born with but is indoctrinated to believe in.

That is the case for Lady Macbeth as her persuasion is the key to Duncan’s death, and her persuasion is the key to Macbeth’s ruin as her own ambition leads to Macbeth’s overconfidence. The usage of her persuasion is apparent through her use of rhetoric when Macbeth is questioning whether to go ahead with killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth questions, “Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would?” (I, ii, 44). She attacks Macbeth by calling him a coward automatically persuading him that he needs to complete the task. First it is evident that Macbeth is unable to carry out the murder as he is questioning his own morality; therefore, only through Lady Macbeth’s persuasion he can go on, making her guilty. Her persuasion led to Duncan’s death. Lady Macbeth goes on to question his manhood by saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man” (I, ii, 49). In her argument she is using pathos an emotional appeal by trying to hit him where it would hurt the most so that he would be motivated to perform the task. It connects with the nature of power since questioning his manhood requires him emotionally to execute his plan. If she never persuaded him, then Duncan would never have died. She is most guilty. If Duncan would have never