Preview

Macbeth: Lady Macbeth and Evil

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
908 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Macbeth: Lady Macbeth and Evil
Macbeth: Lady Macbeth and Evil

In a play that is abundant in evil occurrences, Lady Macbeth is the overriding source of evil in the first act. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan, despite Macbeth listing eight reasons against the murder. When
Macbeth is alone, we discover that he is a loyal thane to Duncan, not a murdering savage. When Duncan is in his house at Inverness, Macbeth comes to a decision not to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth, who decided strongly against murdering Duncan, to go ahead with their plan to murder Duncan.
Lady Macbeth is very successful at persuading him to do things that he knows are wrong. Macbeth is not an evil person, but when he is allowed to be influenced by
Lady Macbeth, he is vulnerable to committing deeds he knows are wrong. Lady
Macbeth entirely breaks the stereotype of women being kind and benevolant in the first act. After Macbeth writes home telling of his murderous plans, Lady
Macbeth begins talking to evil spirits. Because women often lack the ruthlessness to kill someone, Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to make her male.
One of the most vivid descriptions of Lady Macbeth's wickedness is directly after Macbeth announces to her he does not want to kill Duncan.This speech epitomizes Lady Macbeth's evilness. She is ruthless, and her evil accounts for the murders that occur throughout the play Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is far more savage and ambitious than her husband, yet she convinces Macbeth to commit the murders that will make them king and queen.
Macbeth is without his wife's cruel and uncompassionate attitude towards life.
Lady Macbeth is aware that her husband is genuinely a gentle person. However, she is able to manipulate Macbeth into committing evil deeds in order to achieve her desires. Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth lacks enough courage and killer instinct to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth might be a more vicious individual, but she is more afraid than Macbeth about killing Duncan. She never

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth Quotes

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lady Macbeth can be described as a dark and manipulative character as she urges her husband the naïve Macbeth into killing Duncan by questioning his honor and strength as a man. She manipulates him with such great effect that it causes him to override all his objections, when he still hesitates to kill Duncan she repeatedly questions his…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth Is Evil

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Page

    Lady Macbeth’s ability to influence Macbeth does affect the way she is perceived as evil because she was able to convince Macbeth to commit sinful actions and change his mindset. Her gender does not play a role in this perception because in multiple lines, she references the fact that she wants to take on more masculine features. Macbeth is more evil than Lady Macbeth because Lady Macbeth is influenced by fate and therefore Macbeth chose to murder people in order to gain power, even though he was influenced by Lady Macbeth. Macbeth writes to Lady Macbeth after he receives the prophecies from the three witches and reveals:“that thou might’st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee” (1.5.11-13). Macbeth…

    • 162 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Lady Macbeth

    • 303 Words
    • 1 Page

    Such I account thy love. Art thou afeardTo be the same in thine own act and valorAs thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have thatWhich thou esteem'st the ornament of life,…

    • 303 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth Analysis

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shakespeare creates a facade when he coats Lady Macbeth with feelings of love and compassion for her husband Macbeth. However, when Lady Macbeth finds out the witches prophesied Macbeth was to become king she immediately thought of ways she could achieve her ambition, committing the sinful act of killing King Duncan was the first to come to mind. Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeths manly hood by stating “It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness” The noun “milk”, a word of purity and motherly love is used to describe how she thinks Macbeth is too soft hearted and cowardly to kill King Duncan, she bullies Macbeth into going along with the plan. Lady Macbeth knew that Macbeth was a warrior and has killed before so she tries to unleash that inner…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a character that is portrayed as evil is Lady Macbeth. Because of her controlling nature and immense want for masculinity most readers see her as evil. She is not evil because she does not commit murders herself and she also displays feelings of remorse and guilt towards the end of the play. Lady Macbeth is not truly evil because the evil she portrays is a facade; initially Lady Macbeth calls upon evil spirits because she wants to be evil then guilt causes her to kill herself.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lady Macbeth loses her sanity totally by act 5. Her insanity is foregrounded in the first scene of the act in Macbeth.The gentlewoman serving Lady Macbeth feels simultaneously sympathy and a sense of bitterness to such heinous path Lady Macbeth along with Macbeth chose to achieve success. In act 5, scene 1 of Macbeth, it is presented that Lady Macbeth has lost her senses, and suffers from sleepwalking. She seems to have also a mania regarding her feeling of having blood in her hands. In the beginning of the scene, it is evident through the conversations between the doctor and the maid that she is going through an intricate problem. As the actions proceed, it is clear that she does walk in sleep frequently. Not only that, she has lost senses and has been a sort of maniac since she tries to wash her hands rubbing them as if there was blood there. She has a psychological illusion that the blood of King Duncan is stuck to her hands. Her inner guilt and constant trepidation result in insanity. Because it is she who is the closest observer, confidante, and to many extents, a partner of the brutal tyrant Macbeth in his monstrous crimes. She has instigated him and knows what dreadful deeds Macbeth has done by now. And she also knows it well that: "What's done cannot be undone". In fact, now, there is an indication that she seems to find her surroundings a hell which is a dark place. Probably that is why she keeps "light by her continually".Her abrupt speech like: "who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him" or "All the perfumes of Arabia couldn't make my little hand smell better" is not only meaningless lunatic utterance; rather, the feeling of her that the blood is irremovable and her constant rubbing to wash it away, are the symbolic expressions of her continuous mental agony and sense of guilt.…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Macbeth: Time and Evil

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Shakespearean tragedy of Macbeth is one of the shortest of all his plays. The story of one man's determination to secure his position as king has become a literary classic around the world. Many critics have applied their input on what they believe to be the proper analysis of Macbeth. However Phyllis Rackin's interpretation of the play has become the counter balance to which I place my critique. Rackin's criticism of Macbeth employs both the importance of time and the overwhelming power of evil; these ideas are only two of the many themes displayed in Shakespeare's illustrious tragedy. <br><br>Rackin analyzed that time was a major factor in Macbeth and all his actions were a "race against time"(108). She also noticed that Shakespeare started his play with a question about time, "When shall we three meet again…?"(Act I, scene I). Rackin viewed Macbeth's reign at king as a pause in time, at which moment the sun ceases to rise and darkness engulfs Scotland. At the death of Macbeth and the end of his sovereignty, Macduff pronounces, "time is free"(Act V, scene VIII). The issue of time has been strongly supported by Phyllis Rackin, however I view this issue as an insignificant matter in the story of Macbeth. Time is an issue in all plays and would function the same in any other suspenseful thriller. <br><br>Along with time, Phyllis Rackin critiqued the use of the compelling manipulation of evil. In Macbeth, the main character becomes enraged with an evil urge to maintain his status as king. Macbeth's cravings begin when he is no longer capable of waiting for the witches' prophesies to come true and murders the king. He continues he rampage with the murders of Banquo and Maduff's intermediate family. This can all be foreseen after Macbeth kills Duncan and cries out that "the deed will not be 'done when 'tis done,' that it will be no 'end-all' but instead a beginning"(113). Unlike Rackin's view on time, I agree with her view on Macbeth's evil entrapment. It is…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth's Madness

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page

    One way that Lady Macbeth is able to get him to do what she wants is by questioning his willingness to go through with his plan. In the drama, Macbeth’s enthusiasm fluctuates between the eagerness to receive power and the hesitation on what he must do to be able to get the power. At the…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth the Tyrant

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages

    A wise man once said, “Dreams do come true. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything for it.” In the play Macbeth, sacrifice is the driving force in ensuring dreams become reality. There are numerous sacrifices including: Macbeth who sacrifices his morality to take the throne, Macduff who sacrifices his family and clear conscience to liberate Scotland and Lady Macbeth, who sacrifices her femininity and relationship to ensure Macbeth becomes king.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    After Macbeth murders Duncan and becomes King, all he cares about is safety - he no longer cares about being King…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A mere thought can be a dangerous thing capable of bringing many lives and nations into ruin. When the seed of doubt is planted; it slowly manifests, eating away at one's reasoning eventually blinding them to all logic. If not recognised and treated as what it is it could destroy your life but it will inevitably change you whether for better or worse. William Shakespeare illustrated this in his play Macbeth. Some may say that the weird sisters within the play are responsible for the actions of Macbeth and that his wife, Lady Macbeth, acted as a catalyst to persuade and manipulate Macbeth to commit regicide, but truly all they did was simply put thoughts into his head. They set the play in motion but Macbeth is fully responsible for his own…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evilness In Macbeth

    • 1962 Words
    • 8 Pages

    There is a distinguishing line between evilness and poor decision making that can quickly become blurred when one looses themselves to action without thought. Martin Luther once said, “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe” (1521). After reading Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart and William Shakespeare’s, Macbeth, it becomes very apparent the unnecessary condition these men found themselves in due to their thoughtless actions. William Shakespeare’s, troubled character Macbeth and Edgar Allen Poe’s unnamed Narrator, both have a conscious, which leads them to feel convicted for their murderous actions, however, the strength of their consciousness varies, allowing one to confess…

    • 1962 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth: A True Hero

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Furthermore, Macbeth like Sir Gawain and Hamlet is a traditional example of a hero, but like Hamlet he has his own shortcomings in his tragedy. In Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth, Macbeth demonstrates his courage when a Sergeant talks about Macbeth stating, "If I say sooth, I must report they were/ As canons overcharg'd with double cracks, so they/ Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe./ Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,/...Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,/ confronted him/...And to conclude/ The victory fell to us" ( I. i. l. 36-39, 55, 57-59). Considering that there were numerous Norwegian canons and fatalities on the battlefield, Macbeth still managed to defeat the Norwegian forces. However, like the heroic character Sir Gawain, Macbeth has his own…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Tragic Hero

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lady Macbeth is very pleased to hear of Macbeth's victory and she is very supportive once he's successfully considered Thane of Cawdor. She sees the horizon for her husband is now broader, and she wants only the best for him. Macbeth then tells her about the witches prophecies, and this gives her scope to an even grander possibility. Lady Macbeth drives Macbeth into following his ambition despite what is right or wrong. She does not allow Macbeth to be coward and she attacks his manhood:…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth Evil

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    William Shakespeare's play 'Macbeth' which is set in Scotland in medieval times, explores the many sides of true and evil characters such as in mainly each Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are being faced and developed to have unusual attributes. However, as these characters are typically viewed as evil, on the other hand, many other characters unlike them are being proposed with effective distinction. Yet, Macbeth and his wife are individually divergent with each other. Thus, we see that they are coming across to cease as existent characters.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays