When ambition is overlooked, it has the ability to become extremely dangerous. Macbeth from Shakespeare is a clear example of this. As he rises to power, he becomes more and more of a threat to those around him, killing those he was once loyal to. Destruction when ambition goes unchecked is present throughout the play because of Macbeth’s strong desires that ultimately lead to the deaths of Duncan, Banquo, and nearly Macduff. The death of Duncan was the first corrupt act stemming from Macbeth’s ambition.
To continue his family’s name but also assuring he has a lot of power he had to kill King Duncan as shown in Act 2 Scene 1 lines 33-35 Macbeth says “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” this was when he was on his way to murder Duncan. Macbeth also had to murder his companion Banquo and others to keep his ambition going.
Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.
Lady Macbeth is the Real Murder People can be persuasive to do thing based on others influences. These people are typically close to them and may even be related. In the play Macbeth no is closer to each other like Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. And even though people are responsible for our actions, they may not always be responsible for what made them do those actions. Although in the play Macbeth many people think that Macbeth is the one who is responsible for all the murders it is truly Lady Macbeth because of the influence that she puts on Macbeth and the verbal torment she gave him before murdering King Duncan.
Inside Macbeth did not want to kill the King. He loved his king although he also loved his evil wife. Although Macbeth let his wife peer pressure Macbeth into killing King Duncan. If Lady Macbeth did not influence Macbeth into killing King Duncan it would not have been done. We know Macbeth regrets his decision because it literally drives him crazy.
Lady Macbeth plans to invite king Duncan over for dinner, but really she is convincing Macbeth to murder him. She influences him to kill Duncan because he is the only one standing in the way of Macbeth becoming king. Lady Macbeth plans the killing but convinces Macbeth to do the dirty deed. Lastly, Lady Macbeth is one of the causes of Macbeth’s failure because she repeatedly questions Macbeth’s manhood until she persuades him to make a bad choice. “When you durst do it then you were a man” (1.7.53-58).
She insults him and calls him a coward while also questioning his manhood which makes Macbeth come to a realization that not killing the king is the way of a coward and he is motivated to carry out the plan and murder the king because of Lady Macbeth’s insults and speech that she gives him. By successfully persuading Macbeth into murdering the king this shows that Lady Macbeth is controlling towards people and she can be a very manipulative person. It shows that she is the type of person that gets things done by manipulating other people to do her dirty work for her. Lady Macbeth can simply achieve her own goals by getting into anyone’s head and turning their own conscience against them in, which is essentially what she did to her husband. Macbeth would have never went through with killing King Duncan if Lady Macbeth had never persuaded him because he really does have a soft heart and is good and honorable.
Macbeth Act II Study Questions Act II. Scene i 1. Macbeth meets Banquo just before he goes to perform the murder. The two talk and Macbeth tells Banquo, “If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis,/It shall make honor for you” (2.1.34-35). This increases the dramatic tension of the scene because Macbeth is hinting that one day he will be king.
In play Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals that an individual’s great desire for power will lead him/her to perform consequential deeds that will scar his/her conscience and change the outcome of his/her life eternally. Macbeth is informed by three witches that he is going to become king and this initiates Macbeth’s thought of becoming powerful. Macbeth doesn’t act on his thoughts until he tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, that he could become king. Lady Macbeth is extremely power hungry and does all she can to convince Macbeth to be just as desirable as her. Together, they come up with a plan to murder King Duncan, so that Macbeth can become king like the witches foretold.
She was so paranoid over the ordeal that she eventually killed herself. Even though she died before Macbeth, she still had an influence on what he did. Eventually, it leads to his death and treason. In conclusion, Lady Macbeth is more responsible for King Duncan’s murder, and Macbeth’s treason, than Macbeth himself.
Lady Macbeth tries to mask her guilt by covering up for her husband, but eventually comes to grips with her own instability. In Macbeth, Shakespeare asserts that power drives the title character and his wife to insanity, particularly after their conspiracy to kill Duncan. For starters, prior to killing Duncan, Macbeth imagines the likely consequences of his future actions and whether or not they signal his destiny. At the beginning
She pushed Macbeth into killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth had an opportunity to kill Duncan herself, but Duncan reminded her too much of her father “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t ”( act 2 sc 2 lines 16-17) “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it,” Lady Macbeth (act1 sc5 lines 15-20). After hearing this, Macbeth decided to murder Duncan.
Macbeth evidently undergoes a mental process by which he come round to the idea or murdering Duncan. He does this as a result of his wife’s manipulation, her leverage being his manliness. Without the role of Lady Macbeth, the murder of King Duncan would never have occurred in the play. Lady Macbeth had already been plotting for the murder since she received the letter concerning the three prophecies by the witches. Although Macbeth had sinister thoughts about having the throne, Macbeth would have never dared to take it upon himself to kill King Duncan and steal the throne from
At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth tries to control Macbeth and tell him what to do. As time goes on, Lady Macbeth becomes less ambitious and she begins to feel guilt for the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth and her husband switch roles to where he is now the strong ambitious murderer, while Lady Macbeth becomes scared and guilty. Since Lady Macbeth is driven by her ambition her decision to have Duncan killed creates guilt by the end of the play.
This perversion of one of the most sacred acts of motherhood enhances the horror of the length she would cross to achieve her goal. However, it also implies that considering Lady Macbeth as merely a brutal, malicious woman stirring her husband to slaughter a poor old king- is a misevaluation and understatement of this character. In Defense of Lady Macbeth An attempt to investigate who actually planned the murder of Duncan, can be referred to the findings of A. C. Bradley in the essay, “When Was the Murder of Duncan First Plotted”, in his Shakespearean Tragedy: A good many readers probably think that, when Macbeth first met the Witches, he was perfectly innocent; but a much larger number would say that he had already harboured a vaguely guilty ambition, though he had not faced the idea of murder.