Lady Macbeth Essay Research Paper Lady Macbeth 2

Lady Macbeth Essay, Research Paper

?Lady Macbeth is a powerful and dramatic character, but her death at the end of the play is no surprise to the audience.?

Discuss this statement with close reference to the text.

?Macbeth? is one of the most famous tragedies written in the Elizabethan times by William Shakespeare for King James 1. Set in Scotland, it details the story of man, so desperate for the status of king, that he will do anything to achieve it. As an established ?good and hardy soldier?, and quite content within that role, Macbeth is surprised to find some witches who predict his reign as king.

?All hail Macbeth! who shalt be king hereafter.? (Act 1 scene 3)

On informing his wife, Lady Macbeth, he soon embarks on a killing spree that doesn?t end until both partners? demise. However, Macbeth could not have committed the first few crimes without the help and insistence of his wife. She acts as the fate the witches spoke of to make him king and yet ironically is mainly responsible for aggravating Macbeth?s struggle between morality and ambition. She has a hugely diverse character, and this helps plant the seed of Macbeth?s, and her own, eventual downfall.

Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth at the beginning of the play, telling her of his experiences with the ?weird sisters?.

?They met me in the day of success: and I have learned by the perfect?st report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge.? (Act1 scene 5)

After she has read the letter, she is determined to make the witches? prophesy come true. She imagines that she has the capability to be a remorseless and determined villain. However in reality this is just an act, and in fact her true self possesses no such traits. This is obvious when she makes a huge effort to get herself into a murderous state of mind, crying out, ?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!? Lady Macbeth wants to lose her femininity so she can be cold-blooded and commit murder like a man does. However, more than anything, it appears that Lady Macbeth is a very greedy woman, desirous of things that seem very much out of reach.

She also prepares herself to work her husband into a murderous state of mind, as she believes him to be ?too full o? the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way.? Within the first act, she deems herself to be the more authoritative person in this couple. She believes that even if Macbeth is too scared or unwilling to kill the current king, Duncan, she can make him do it if she ?may pour her spirits in thine ear.?

The domineering aspect of Lady Macbeth?s character becomes even more evident when she is told Duncan is coming to stay with her and Macbeth that night because of the victory of the battle that day. When Macbeth arrives home, she advises him to put on an innocent face and leave the rest to her.

?look like th?innocent flower, But be the serpent under?t.? (Act 1 scene 7)

Lady Macbeth is very committed to carrying out the crime. King Duncan greets Lady Macbeth at the gates of Macbeth?s castle, and in a display of hypocrisy, she gives a warm welcome to the man she is planning to murder. In Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth recites a famous soliloquy, during which he reasons himself out of killing Duncan, and then tells Lady Macbeth by saying that they ?will proceed no further in this business.?

She immediately labels her husband as cowardly as a method to get him to change his mind. She makes the example that it is unmanly to go back on promises which she claims Macbeth has made to kill King Duncan. She says if she were the mother of a baby, she would have the ?nipple pluck?d from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out? had she made a promise to do so. It seems her tactics have worked, as Macbeth is comforted by the fact that even his wife, a woman, is not disheartened by his fears. However, this quote already shows a glimpse of Lady Macbeth?s unstable mind. Such a horrendous description shows Lady Macbeth?s desperateness for Macbeth?s commitment. She intentionally tries to ignore the possible consequences of their act and concentrate on securing her place as queen. She looks to the ?quickest way? to shorten the pair?s path to the throne.

Lady Macbeth at this point in the play is quite certainly unaware of what she is getting herself into, having never contemplated anything of this degree before, let alone carried it out, and so is unequipped to foresee the madness that will later ensue. To her, the death of Duncan is the only thing that must be done, and then the couple will lead a life of luxury. However, the actual deed of the murder is too much for Lady Macbeth to do herself. ?Laying the daggers ready? is all she can manage, even though she claims ?had he not looked like my father as he slept, I had done?t.? She shows here her inability to be as evil as she would have liked.

As Macbeth commits the murder, Lady Macbeth says, ?that which hath made me drunk, hath made me bold.? This quote shows that she may have not felt fully confident with the plot, as she needs alcohol to make her confident with what she?s doing. After Macbeth has done the deed, he is in a trance, and it is left up to Lady Macbeth to place the dagger he used next to the guards and smear them with the kings blood. She the