There is one major point of comparison between Lady Macbeth and Roger which shows the major difference between them. This is the feeling of guilt. Unlike Roger, Lady Macbeth seems to feel some level of guilt, when she slowly loses sanity due to feeling guilt over the murder of Duncan, and the greed for power she can’t control. “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” This famous speech of Lady Macbeth’s clearly displays her minds’ path through extreme trauma and into insanity as she begins to feel remorse over what she has caused. However, although she begins to feel guilty this close to the end of the play, at the beginning of Act 5, she previously shows that she feels strongly that neither she nor Macbeth should feel any regret or guilt over the murder they had planned. In Act 3, scene 2, she abruptly tells Macbeth, “...what’s done is done.” She means for Macbeth to accept what he has done and not allow himself to hate it. These two points give the reader/viewer reason to wonder what her real thoughts are on the matter, and whether she really did turn insane throughout the course of the play or whether she was in fact not in her right mind from the start, as although her thoughts seem to suddenly change more frequently nearer the end of the play she displays signs of being unable to keep focused on the same points and ideas from quite early on.…
Lady Macbeth enters the play in Act 1, scene 5 were she is perceived as a powerful, controlling and an independent women. She is ruthless and tries to make sure Macbeth becomes king by planning the deed, and also getting her own hands dirty. While Macbeth feels guilty about the blood on his hands, she says, "My hands are of your colour, but I shame / To wear a heart so white,” (2.2.64-65). However, Lady Macbeth makes a complete 180 turns in Act 5 when guilt and repentance come to haunt her. She is sleepwalking and muttering about the horrible act of killing Duncan. The paranoid…
In Shakespeare’s, Macbeth, the character lady Macbeth appears as an innocent woman, when in reality she is corrupt and evil, revealing that things are not always how they seem. As Lady Macbeth says “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty!” This shows how she is starting to fall apart. By Lady Macbeth wanting to completely change her sex also shows how she doesn’t feel complete being who she is and she feels the need to be more masculine. Lady Macbeth slowly shows how she is becoming more evil through the quote “My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.” This represents how Lady Macbeth was able to get her hands bloody despite the evil murdering…
A thorough exploration of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ reveals that the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is a relationship that involves lots of ambition, affection and change which then leaves their fall terrifying and resounding and really shows that the common saying ‘the bigger they are, the harder they fall’ is true. Firstly, the Macbeth’s are highly ambitious and always want the best for themselves. Secondly, the relationship between the two is very affectionate and then changes drastically. Lastly, because of the big build up leading up towards the end, the journey they went on and everything they had to go through it all leaves the reader stunned and shocked at the end.…
As the main motivator to Macbeth’s actions, Lady Macbeth is a character whose ambition and greed lead her and her husband to their inevitable fate of death. Lady Macbeth’s relentlessness, as well as her longing for power generate an emotion of pain and suffering. After hearing the prophecies of her husband, Lady Macbeth is intent on making her husband King of Scotland, as she will not let anything get in her way; even if she needs to resort to murder. After Macbeth’s murder of King Duncan, she is fearful that his loyalty and consciousness will overcome their “priorities”; however, as the play progresses, we are able to see that ironically, it is her that slowly becomes insane for she is being consumed by guilt and fear. This is distinctly apparent as Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and perpetually attempts to wash the blood aka the guilt of killing King Duncan, off her hands. In this quote from Act 5 Scene 1, Lady Macbeth states, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!— … —What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that…,” we can perceive that she is near lunacy as she can no longer comprehend her actions and what she can do to eradicate the constant sense of guilt.…
Lady Macbeth is an ambitious and ruthless woman who desires power and status. She appears stronger and more callous than Macbeth as she manipulates him to assassinate Duncan. However, as the bloodshed continues, her guilty conscience becomes more affected than Macbeth’s. Unlike Macbeth, who grows insensitive to the murders that he has committed, she descends into madness and (apparently) commits suicide as she becomes less capable to withstand the horrors of her crime.…
Lady Macbeth enters the room and says, “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! oh! Oh!” (5. 1. 43-45) This is where the audience knows that Lady Macbeth finally realizes she is guilty of these murders. This lead to an example of external conflict, starting where she was sleepwalking telling on herself, to where she killed herself over this. When facing something like this one can only wear a mask for so long. Lady Macbeth kept seeing the blood stains on her hands because once an image like that gets to you it does not go away. Blood literally stains not only clothing but mentally also. Even though all of this was Lady Macbeth’s idea she blamed it on Macbeth until she told on herself. Some way or somehow the truth always comes out no matter how hard you try to hide it. This example of external conflict is so important in this book because it shows the readers that Lady Macbeth’s character changes throughout the book and that she is not as strong as she seemed to be. Her character is very dynamic, she undergoes an internal change that affects her externally. During the beginning of the story she is very demanding and heartless, throughout the book she starts to soften up. Lady Macbeth’s true character comes out during this scene. This also shows the readers how weak she is when she was…
Lady MacBeth and MacBeth are both characters deep in blood throughout the entire story, as MacBeth is at the beginning portrayed as a sort of nervous to kill the King at first, being his first murderous action. This entire act is sort of the stepping stone for MacBeth leading to his bloodthirsty lunacy. Kind of like a virgin serial killer making his first kill in a way. Although Lady MacBeth is also sort of portrayed to be new to the murderous bloodthirsty lunacy scene she’s seen as more the bolder character for most of the play, and kind of a reversal for Lady MacBeth happens were she goes from kill anyone who comes in our way of achieving the ultimate goal later on towards the end of the book she enters more of a…
As a result, her desire for power allows her to be stronger, more remorseless, and more driven than Macbeth. In fact, she is fully aware of this when she declares that Macbeth is "art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” This is why Lady Macbeth acts not only as Macbeth's confidant, but his also his controller. Consumed by her desire to become Queen, Lady Macbeth herself plots the murder of Duncan and when Macbeth questions the idea of regicide, she manipulates him with her powerful soliloquies. This is done by condemning her husband’s biggest insecurity; his manhood. She states that Macbeth would be “so much more the man” if he were to follow through with the plan. Lady Macbeth even points out that she herself would even kill her own baby as a means to reach her goals. This drives Macbeth to the point where he is “settled and bend-up” to prove himself. Her condescending inspiration is the first to trigger a change in his morals and attitude. However, as Macbeth’s own ambition starts to flourish and facilitate an obsessive and power hungry killing spree, Lady Macbeth’s character changes as well. She becomes helpless and is reduced to a weak figure that sleepwalks and is constantly trying to wash nonexistent blood from her hands. This is because she is so overwhelmed by the guilt of her treachery that a…
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are depicted very differently and simply wanting kingship are among the few similarities. It is also interesting how the differences between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are caused by other differences in their traits, starting chain reactions of contrariety.…
To begin with, Macbeth is greatly influenced by Lady Macbeth. She “is depicted by Shakespeare as an equal of Macbeth in the realm of ambition and ruthlessness; without her, in fact, Macbeth's courage may never have reached the ‘sticking-place’” (Moss & Wilson 7). She convinces him to commit the murder of King Duncan, as well as convinces him that murder is the only way to achieve their ambition. Rather than listening to his own conscience, which tells him to “...proceed no further in this business” (Shakespeare I.VII.34), Macbeth allows his wife to manipulate and convince him by accusing him of not being a man and expresses that she would “...dashed the brains out...”…
From the beginning Lady Macbeth is viewed as very controlling, strong, and certain. “First, she has very little regard for her husband's humanity and actually derides him for being "too full o'th' milk of human kindness” (Thompson 1). This shows how cold Lady Macbeth is, as milk is the food of new born children, she is implying Macbeth is too much like a kind child to murder anyone. Once Macbeth has the courage to tell her he does not want to continue with the murder she rallies, calling him a ‘coward’, saying that if he could murder Duncan ‘he were a man’. This to Macbeth, a proud and mighty warrior is a deep insult, and he soon is convinced that he will carry out the murder.…
In times of both personal reflection and interaction with other characters of the play, Lady Macbeth exhibits periods of distress for her and her husband’s actions. She lives with the weight of the knowledge that her husband has become responsible for the disruption of the peace they once experienced. The manifestations of guilt truly bring out the level of redemption possibly attained. Lady Macbeth’s coping abilities degrade and as a result, readers see the issue as to the true feelings she has about the direction her husband has taken the situation. Lady Macbeth’s efforts in the early acts of the play were, in the end, clearly a temporary loss of her values and not her true persona. Her inabilities to incorporate these acts into her true sense of self ultimately lead to her…
Lady Macbeth’s questionable mental status becomes apparent the first time the reader is introduced to her character in Act 1, Scene 5. In this scene, the lady has just received a letter from Macbeth informing her of the weird sisters’ prophecy that he shall become King of Scotland. She immediately begins to plot the murder of Duncan, and starts off on fantasies and delusions of her husband ruling the country. Her misled intentions are first expressed in the lines “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet I do fear thy nature. It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” (Iv.15-20). Upon observations of Lady Macbeth, I have diagnose Lady Macbeth with post-traumatic stress that is characterized by anxiety that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened, not only to this person but to others as well. Although we see two different sides of the Macbeth family, we cannot just assume that they caused each other’s downfalls; but because of their mental disorders, they devised their own…
Macbeth in the beginning of the play is a noble, humble and honourable person who, without question would sacrifice his life for the liberty of his King, Duncan. As the play progresses he attitude towards life in general changes completely, mainly due to the pressure that Lady Macbeth inflicts on him. However, Lady Macbeth has quite a surprising personality as she is not the stereotypical Elizabethan woman. Lady Macbeth is expected to be fragile, meek, innocent and comforting but in this unusual circumstance Lady Macbeth would very much rather “dashed the brains out” of an infant child. This is plain evidence to suggest that Lady Macbeth is of no stable condition. In addition to this surprising fact Lady Macbeth is cunning and bloodthirsty. She demands Macbeth in Act one, Scene Five to “look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. It is very common for a man to demand a female to pursue tasks but for a woman to demand a man, especially of something like sacrilege, is very unusual. This could mean two things, Macbeth is weak and is unable to depict his own decisions or/and that Macbeth is mentally deteriorating. Macbeth reason with Lady Macbeths orders in his soliloquy in Act one, Scene seven and from the things he…