Driving Ambition In Shakespeare's Macbeth

She persuades Macbeth into murdering Duncan. Macbeth was reluctant to commit the murder. During Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s conversation he mentioned, “If we should fail?” (1:7 59) and Lady Macbeth replied with a long statement explaining that they will not fail. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth then configured their plan: Lady Macbeth was to make the guards drunk and ring the bell once it is safe for Macbeth to go kill King Duncan. Once Macbeth completed his mission, he went back to Lady Macbeth with the bloody daggers and proudly stated, “I have done the deed.

Well Lady Macbeth, who is dead set on having absolute power, disagrees with that. She convinces Macbeth to kill, to cover up the murders, and tries to convince him that these murders will get them to the top. Lady Macbeth calls upon the witches and states, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Macbeth Act 1 Scene 5 lines 31 and 31). This shows that while in the pursuit of power, Lady Macbeth wanted it so much that she asked the witches to “unsex” her and make her more like man. But along with that you see the theme of gender roles are uncertain which ties into Lady Macbeth leading Macbeth in this pursuit of power, also giving him the ambition that she wants him to

Macbeth states to Lady Macbeth, “we will proceed no further in this business” (I, VII) since he almost finally decides to refuse to kill Duncan. However, Lady Macbeth uses different manipulative methodologies towards Macbeth and persuades him to consult the killing of Duncan. “So green and pale” (I, VII), Lady Macbeth even called him a coward. From the same scene, she mentions, “From this time, such I account thy love”, implying that if Macbeth cant stay steady concerning the murder of the king, then she will consider his love for her to be as similarly conflicting. Later in scene, Lady Macbeth states that if she had made such a promise as Macbeth did to her, she would “dash the brains out” of her own child as “it was smiling in her fail”.

Lady Macbeth persuades and manipulates Macbeth by pointing out his insecurities successfully and pressuring him into murdering the king. Along with this, Lady Macbeth also questions Macbeth’s manhood and masculinity when he does not want to carry out the plan when she says “When you durst do it, then you were a man;//And to be more than what you were, you would//Be so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.49-51). By saying these things, Lady Macbeth persuades her husband to believe that murdering the king will be his redemption from being a

Macbeth had many things to motivate him to do his killing from the prophecies, to his wife; However, the realization of becoming king as a whole pushed him to his worst. His motivation started when Lady Macbeth reminds him how becoming king will be good for the both of them. She manipulates Macbeth when she tells him, “Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it” (1.5.6-7).

Macbeth is a brilliant solider and patriotic to King Duncan. The king refers to Macbeth as, “Valiant Cousin,” thus showing that the two have a very close relationship. Macbeth is faced with a moral crisis that he should kill King Duncan and take to the throne or leave him and carry on being the Thane of Cawdor. Lady Macbeth entices him to commit the murder because she is just as ambitious as her husband and she persuades him by questioning his manhood. She even calls upon the dark spirits to take away her soft womanliness.

This shows Lady Macbeth going through lengths just to become royalty and this shows she is ruthless because she is only thinking about herself. Besides, the idea of dashing out the brains of a child deliberately shows Lady Macbeth is willing to killing her own blood, which is cold because usually mothers have a stronger and more intimate bond with their babies. Therefore, Lady Macbeth is shown as a ruthless person, who is very controlling, however there is a shift in her character at the end of the play, she becomes weaker. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth manipulated Macbeth into doing things he didn’t want to do, by targeting is insecurities (his masculinity). But, now her persuasion no longer works on Macbeth, for example at banquet Macbeth was acting crazy and Lady Macbeth challenging his manhood by asking him if he were a man.

While Lady Macbeth dies in guilt and repentance, Macbeth dies in selfish submission to evil, fighting with what little he has left to retain for himself the throne. Just before his murder, Macbeth declares to Macduff that he will not give up and will fight to the end, indicating that he does not die in guilt but rather in trying to satisfy his evil desires (5.8.32-33). When compared to Lady Macbeth’s remorseful attitude prior to death, Macbeth’s unrelenting behavior supersedes in level of villainy. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both display villainy in that they choose the path of evil and deceit to gratify their desire to seize the throne. Lady Macbeth puts on a fierce and intimidating front but proves incapable of the egregious act of murder.

This is his wife and the woman he loves. To not listen to her is as hard as listening to her for Macbeth. She is persistent on Making him carry through with this dastardly deed. She is his equal and “What cannot you and I perform upon the unguarded Duncan?”(LL Lady Macbeth ( Macbeth’s castle)). She is very willing to help him in the action of killing the

A key reason for why Macbeth killed King Duncan is because of the manipulation and control from Lady Macbeth, ‘that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valour of my tongue ‘. This quotation influences the reader and shows us that that Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to get back, so she can ‘pour’ all her ideas and thoughts into his mind. Lady Macbeth is encouraging her husband to disregard his chivalric code of honour. The code of chivalry was a moral system that went beyond rules of combat and made qualities like bravery, courtesy and honour more idealised, but because she knows Macbeth is so honourable she, like the witches, tempts Macbeth with power. At the beginning of the play, we believe that Lady Macbeth is strong and very masculine, but by the end of the play, her guilt has taken over her, a quotation that conveys this is, ‘Out, damned spot!