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What Is Lady Macbeth's Ambition

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In August 1606, the play Macbeth – written by the ultimate playwright William Shakespeare- was published. Macbeth discusses how murder and greed can be altered to a point where it becomes a person's way of acting and thinking. Lady Macbeth is the leading character in the play of Shakespeare. Her ambitions and power is the main reason for her corruption. She used her position to gain power and stay strong enough to support her husband and lord, Macbeth, however it drove him to evil, causing him to murder and cause distractions. As a result, their relationship feeds the story and pushes the engines of the play's tragedy. The subject or theme of the play is ambitions as we can see this with both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In the beginning of the …show more content…

The thought of being a queen pushes her and make her act despicably. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both agreed to kill King Duncan, however Macbeth was slightly hesitant about the plan of committing a regicide as he kept thinking of the consequence of this sin. Lady Macbeth is trying to encourage him to overcome his nerves in order for her plan to be accomplished. By doing that, she used a metaphor to belittle his confidence and insult his abilities, as she says: "But screw your courage to the sticking place and we'll not fail". She's comparing Macbeth's courage to a music instrument in which the peg should be tightened up until it sticks in its place. Although, if you tighten up the peg too much, it can result to it breaking and this can foreshadow the breakdown of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth after they perform the regicide. "Screw" can also mean to secure his courage as if he is taking a screw or nail to hold it in place; this place can be a "sticking place" because it will hold his bravery like a screw will hold the thing attached to it. Lady Macbeth's metaphor was so effective because shortly after, Macbeth goes ahead with the …show more content…

She tells him: "A little water clears us of this deed" whereas he claims: "This my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red". These contradictory images show the first break in their relationship by highlighting their completely different opinions of the murder. Lady Macbeth sees water as a way of hiding their guilt, but Macbeth is so traumatized that he can only imagine blood turning all the water in the sea red, foreshadowing that they will never be able to hide their crime forever. Their relationship then continues to worsen as their misunderstanding widens, as Macbeth loses control and begins to take action without telling his wife, for example the murder of Banquo. He does not reveal what his problems are to his wife, showing he no longer wants Lady Macbeth involved. Lady Macbeth then gradually begins to bear the guilt "where our desire is got without content 'tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy". She says in a soliloquy, which Shakespeare uses to portray her deepest thoughts as she is afraid of killing more. Lady Macbeth feels that nothing was gained by killing Duncan because even though she and Macbeth got the crown, it wasn’t worth it because they can never be truly happy about it. She thinks death is better to have than living a life with questions of their future

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