The Art of Persuasion in Macbeth

The Art of Persuasion

Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, is an emotional rollercoaster full of terror, suspense, and paranoia. Filled with the deathly consequences of unethical and dishonorable actions and the influence of words. Act 1, Scene 7 illustrates a brilliant example where the fundamental ideas of Lady Macbeth are seen in action. In this scene we are witness to the power of persuasion and corruption over moral principal.
Macbeth is introduced as an honorable hero, whose fame on the battlefield wins him respect among his peers and a new title as Glamis of Cawdor. Despite his valor in battle, his ambition is made clear to the audience through his soliloquies and asides. He is determined to seek his deepest wishes, but is too spineless to act. Throughout the play, Macbeth is ambivalent about his wish to be king, especially when Lady Macbeth mocks and questions his honor.
Lady Macbeth is one of the most powerful and notorious female characters in literature. What makes her so terrifyingly brilliant is her lack of humanity, as we all see when she calls upon the “spirits that tend on moral thoughts” to strip her from her female instincts. The probable cause of her madness is the loss of her child, to deal with her loss, she transmits her weakness into ambition, and finally becomes corrupted and evil. Lady Macbeth repeatedly taunts her husband for his pure, “white”

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In this Scene, Lady Macbeth uses every possible appeal to sway her husband off the path of righteousness. The most influential persuasive device used was Pathos, for its immediate and potent nature. Until the end of this scene, Lady Macbeth repeatedly mocks his courage, “Art thou afreard to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire?”(1.7, line 43, pg 41). She ridicules the fact that he won’t act for his desires and compares him to an old, cowardly cat in an old story. Macbeth is affected by her words, and begs her to stop. Regardless, Lady Macbeth keeps going and drowns him with guilt. She uses imagery to create an emotional, aggressive scene of her killing her own fresh and blood to demonstrate her loyalty to her husband, “I would while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out, had I so sworn as you have done this.” (1.7 line 64, pg 43). Macbeth is eaten by guilt for not keeping his promise and feels defined by his cowardly actions. “If we should fail-“ (1.7, line 68, Pg 43) Macbeth states as if he was half way convinced, is cut off with the fact that if he should fail, it would be because of his spineless actions, and the fault would lay heavily on his shoulders.
The most obvious form of persuasion in this scene is Lady Macbeth using guilt and mockery to convince her husband, but Macbeth tries to persuade himself using Logos and Ethos to stray from evil. While his wife taunts him, Macbeth tries to convince himself by using mortality and logic to remain sane, but at the end, Lady

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Macbeth’s method of persuasion becomes more powerful. Macbeth does care about mortality and religion, as demonstrated here, “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.”(1.7, line 13, pg 39), where he list the three reasons why he should not kill Duncan: he is his kinsman and his subject, so he should always try to protect him and his host, so he should close the door in his murder’s face and not murder him himself. He also admits that Duncan has done swell as king, and his virtues would “…plead like angles, trumpet-tongued, against the deep damnation of his taking-off.” (1.7, line 18, pg 39). Macbeth uses logic to counter argue his wife’s hurtful remarks, “I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none.” (1.7, line 51, pg 41) He rationalized, that if he dared to do more than a proper man would, therefore he would not be a man. At the end, Lady Macbeth’s words were too much for the weak mind of Macbeth.
The use of language is extremely important in this scene. If it was not for the ambition and madness of Lady Macbeth, her words would have never enchanted her husband. The inimical details that she chooses to emotionally heighten her husband play a huge part in her influence. The main propose that Shakespeare wrote this scene, is to notify the audience about Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s feelings and thoughts on killing Duncan. In this scene, the audience notices many attributes and flaws in the main characters, such that Macbeth is week against his wife and Lady Macbeth is the dominant figure.

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Act 1, Scene 7, plays a prominent part in Macbeth. The strong personalities of both characters shine strongly in this scene. Lady Macbeth’s strong personality is the driving force that encourages Macbeth to fall in a killing spree, for ambition and power. Through Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare shows how ambition will corrupt the human mind and make men do what is unthinkable. For the use of the appeals, Macbeth is the most important play in the Elizabethan era and, probably, English literature in its entirety. It is a work worthy of global fame.

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