Preview

What Is The Biggest Obstacle In Macbeth

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
160 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is The Biggest Obstacle In Macbeth
In the exact moment Lady Macbeth reads the letter wherein her husband tells about his meeting with the witches on the heath and their prophecy she decides to clear every obstacle in the way of him winning the Kings crown supernatural forces promise him. Everything must fall back to this ambition. The first and biggest obstacle exists in her own mind, and she knows it. She also knows that she can’t conquer this obstacle by own power and therefore she calls upon the spirits of murder to unsex her. By calling upon the spirits of murder she cuts the connection between her and God’s world and concludes a pact with evil. She half persuades and half forces Macbeth to do the same. They reach their goal but only to discover that the disappointment,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth is a controversial figure. She is seen by some as a woman of strong will who is ambitious for herself and who is astute enough to recognise her husband’s strengths and weaknesses, and ruthless enough to exploit them. They see her in her commitment to evil and in her realisation that the acquisition of the Crown has not brought her the happiness she had expected, and finally, as one who breaks down under the strain. Others see her as a woman ambitious for her husband whom she loves. She recognises the essential good in him, and feels that, without her, he will never win the Crown. She allies herself with the powers of the occult for his sake, but here inherent femininity breaks down under the strain…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is very clear from the act if you have read it. Lady Macbeth is full of evil, and is well aware of that. She is evil and she wants to be evil. She wants to forget every connection to humanity and womanhood she shares. That’s why she wants the spirits to unsex her - "fill me from the crown to the toe full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood....Come, thick night and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of Hell, so that my keen knife see not the wound it makes...” She is powerful - in fact i think the most powerful of all Shakespearean female characters. But her strength is the strength of the Devil. She is confident, focussed and downright evil.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare has written many plays during his time such as the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet or the the tale of Hamlet. The one to be most famous for is the tale of Macbeth. This is a play about the quest for power and what people are willing to do to get it, this case is to commit murders in order to achieve victory. Or to hide the true desires behind a “mask”, that camouflages the ambitious trait that is in us all. Throughout this play, Macbeth experiences a rollercoaster feeling of despair. Which means the complete loss or absence of hope. This shows throughout the book and throughout Act 5…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    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.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first two acts of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth shows herself to be a formidable woman with aspirations and a plan. She is clear about her desire to become Queen of Scotland and by way of her internal conversation, she plans her manipulation. By knowingly manipulating Macbeth and applying consistent pressure, Lady Macbeth executes her plan. She encourages Macbeth to see killing King Duncan as the only logical next step to fulfill the prophecy. Lady Macbeth’s intent, blatant disregard for life, and emotional manipulation of her husband make her morally responsible for the murder of King…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion Lady Macbeth is mentally unstable. She longs for power and to become queen. But in the end she cannot handle pressure of murder and guilt on her shoulders. This is why she killed herself. The irony of it is if she didn’t guilt Macbeth into killing Duncan for not taking his chance and being a coward, she wouldn’t have felt guilty about anything at all. Because Duncan would still be alive and none of this would have ever happened. And maybe Lady Macbeth would end up sane in the end if it wasn’t for what she had…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Macbeth Ambition Quotes

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages

    After reading the letter from her husband (which recounts the witches' prophesy), Lady Macbeth's thoughts immediately turn to murder. In her mind, Macbeth must take action if he is to become king. Macbeth, she says, is certainly not without "ambition." The problem, as Lady Macbeth sees it, is that her husband is too "kind" to do what's necessary to achieve "greatness."…

    • 621 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Manipulation in Macbeth

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband on two occasions. “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be, what thou art promised: yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness, to catch the nearest way: thou woulds’t be great:” (I, v). First she flatters Macbeth and soothes his early fears of committing these dreadful acts. During the party she uses her most powerful persuasion, as she begins to question Macbeth’s honor and manhood by saying that he is less of a man if he fails in killing Duncan. Macbeth feels so much shame that he’s convinced that it is right for him to take action. If it weren’t for Lady Macbeth’s harassment, Macbeth would have never gone down this awful road that has an inevitable dead-end. However, the witches are at the roots of all this manipulation.…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Lady Macbeth Selfish

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Throughout the play, readers are shown the evilness and ruthlessness of Lady Macbeth. She is the mastermind behind the murder plot, she is manipulative, and she knows how to get what she wants. When Macbeth is backing out and having second thoughts, she is the one who pushes him to go through with the plan. She even wishes to “unsex” herself, or make herself more like a man than a woman so she can kill King Duncan herself. Despite seeing this side of Lady Macbeth, one must recognize that without her, Macbeth may not have become king. He was not in line for succession, and would not have become king under ordinary circumstances.…

    • 427 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Joyce Carol Oates’ “‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’ and Smooth Talk: Short Story into Film,” Oates writes that Connie “An innocent young girl is seduced by way of her own vanity” and that “she confuses death for erotic romance” (419). Oates clearly defines her point when Connie first discovers Arnold Friend at the drive in diner. She catches Friend staring at her with a big smile and Connie “slit her eyes at him and turned away, but she couldn’t help looking back” (409). The fact that Connie “slits” her eyes and “couldn’t help looking back” (409) shows that she is interested, but does not want to put her true feelings on display. Her more erotic interest comes in the form of his style and physical appearance. Oates illustrates this by using diction and imagery; “she liked the way he dressed” and Connie noticing “the small hard muscles of his arms and shoulders” (419) when Friend First appears at her house. Unlike Connie, the reader sees Arnold Friend in all of his depravity, we see him as the predator. He displays this at the drive in by “ waving his finger and laughing” and saying “Gonna get you baby” (409). Oates again uses carefully thought out word choice to prognosticate that we could see Friend later in the story to possibly confront Connie in a derogatory way. In this way, we can see that Connie is both seduced by way of her own vanity” and that “she confuses death for erotic romance” (419).…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kingsmanship In Macbeth

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages

    At the start of the play, Lady Macbeth was adamant on the murder of Duncan, and desired to be “unsex[ed]” (I.v.44), to lose feelings of compassion before the murder. In full knowledge of the evil she wanted to commit, Lady Macbeth summoned the “dunnest smoke of hell” (I.v.54-55) to hide her sins from the heavens. She had even been persuaded (by temptation) to “”pour her spirits in [Macbeth’s] ear/ and chastise” (I.v.25-26) Macbeth into completing the deed. However, over time, the secrecy of her actions developed a strong sense of guilt within her. A little while after the murder, the troubles of hiding the Macbeth’s deed became a large burden upon Lady Macbeth. In her mind, it had felt as if they had fufilled their “desire without content” (III.ii.7-8), which ultimately made the efforts useless. The guilt of the sin had consumed her to the point where she felt it would better to be the murdered victims, rather than the murderers who had to “dwell in doubtful joy” (III.ii.9). Since this was a tragic play, Lady Macbeth, once seen as a sort of antagonist, had fallen. Once the courageous, manipulative and ambitious woman she was, had become that of a completely lost and disturbed being. In sight, the murder had seemed very desirable. Nevertheless, the temptation and greed of Lady Macbeth blinded…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Nought’s bad, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content: ‘T is safer to be than which we destroy, Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy” (Act 3, Scene 2). Lady Macbeth can’t handle the guilt, so she tries to hide it from everyone but it inevitably swallows her soul. It is only when she is sleeping or when she is subconscious where her inside terrors flow out, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say! ...who would have thought the old man to have so much blood on him?” (Act 5, Scene 1) Her state of nervous exhaustion, her sleepwalking and then her suicide all link to the realm of evil which she had put herself…

    • 955 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Each of the three branches of government have an incredible amount of power. These branches are the ingredients that make our government what it is today. They all hold powers that work together to keep the government working as a whole. There are many checks placed on each branch to make sure that one doesn’t become too powerful, but that does not mean one is not slightly more powerful than the others. Even though the president and Supreme Court judges hold immense power, the legislative branch is the most powerful because of their ability to declare war, use the power of the purse and most importantly, their power to make laws.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    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”…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays