Lady Macbeth Psychological Analysis

Secondly, Macbeth is easily manipulated by external and internal controlling influences. In this external case, Lady Macbeth uses cowardice, manhood, and guilt to manipulate Macbeth into killing King Duncan. Macbeth initially does not want to murder King Duncan as he feels that this virtuous, and well respected leader deserves to live, while Lady Macbeth consistently believes that Duncan must be killed so that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can become King and Queen. To convince Macbeth into murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth accuses him of cowardice: Art thou afeard/ To be the same in thine own act and valor /As thou art in desire? 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’” (1.7.42-47). The audience is exposed to Macbeth’s
Lady Macbeth clearly states, “How tender it is to love the babe that milks me/ I would, while it was smiling in my face/ Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums/ And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this” (1.7.60-65). Lady Macbeth hypothetically puts herself in Macbeth’s situation and concludes that if she felt the same emotions of fear, and confusion that Macbeth is feeling, she would still keep her promise to kill Duncan. In Lady Macbeth’s favor, the infliction of guilt in Macbeth causes him to reflect deeply and convinces him to murder King Duncan. An instance of internal manipulation is displayed through Macbeth’s own indecisiveness in his imaginations that make him vulnerable to manipulation. Before murdering Duncan, Macbeth in his soliloquy ponders, “Is this a dagger which I see before me/ The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee/ I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. / Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible/ To feeling as to sight? or art thou but/ A dagger of the mind, a false creation”