Lady Macbeth’s strong character portrayed in Act I Scene V creates suspicion of dark events later in the play. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth reveals her true character in her speech and foreshadows King Duncan’s death. Throughout her speech, Lady Macbeth reveals her lust for power and desire to kill Duncan to become queen. Although Lady Macbeth’s character is recently introduced into the play, she reveals her true self as a sadistic and covetous person which foreshadows the murder of King Duncan and Macbeth’s prophesied future. In Act I, Scene V, Lady Macbeth reveals her sadistic and covetous character.
Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s manhood when he had doubts towards killing Duncan, saying “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”(1.5.46-48).When Lady Macbeth’s ambition to be queen begins to overpower her morals and her ability to see the wrongs of her actions, she becomes furious that Macbeth is not as driven to kill Duncan as she is. Lady Macbeth also acts as an instigator when she exclaims “I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this.” (1.5.55-60) to Macbeth, guilting and pushing him to murder Duncan. She insists that Macbeth promised that he would be king, and that he needs to kill Duncan in order to take the throne and fulfill his promise to her, because she would go to just as drastic of measures to fulfill a promise to him. Lady Macbeth’s instigation and ambition to be queen corrupts Macbeth and pushes him to kill
Lady Macbeth who had strengthened her will and hardened her heart by ‘’ murdering ministers’’ influences Macbeth to murder Duncan by challenging him to prove his worth as a man. Conflicted Macbeth sees no real reason in killing Duncan, apart from ‘’Vaulting Ambition’ ’Macbeth’s conscience is deeply troubled, he decides not to go ahead with the murder ‘’We will proceed no further in this business’’ but following his wife’s condescending interventions he resolves to murder, showing weakness in his character and how easily swayed Macbeth can be. Just like with the witch’s prophecies he is eager to find out what lies ahead. With this we learn that Macbeth is a feeble character who is easily persuaded emotionally by his wife, who knows of Macbeths insecurities and hence targets them. Courage and physical power are Macbeths major claims of self esteem; without them he is nothing.
When King Duncan is on his way to Inverness, Macbeth begins to panic and tries to back out of the plan. It’s not until his wife questions his manhood and belittles him that he agrees to do it. She always shamed Macbeth into feeling like he was less of a man if he didn’t do what she wanted and that’s what was the driving force of the play. Lady Macbeth tells him that he is “too nice” to do what it takes to become king. She ultimately gets what she wants when her husband goes through with killing Duncan, but even then she can’t be satisfied.
She requests that "direst brutality" debase her. She assembles everything that is detestable inside her body to perform the underhanded deed of killing Duncan. In the event that Lady Macbeth is truant from the story, the murder of Duncan would not occur. The fact that amid numerous parts of the story, Macbeth has vulnerability of whether it is noble to take the life of such an extraordinary ruler with a specific goal to nourish his strive after force. Regardless of Macbeth questioning regardless of whether he ought to acknowledge the murder of Duncan, he is constantly persuaded by his wife that killing Duncan is fitting.
Suddenly she gets a little soft when she sees King Duncan sleeping. She says to her husband, “Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done ’t” (II, ii, 12-13). This is a big change for Lady Macbeth because up to this point, we have only seen her as a heartless woman who will do anything for the thrown. Out of nowhere she is compassionate towards King Duncan stating she could not kill him because he looked too much like her father. She still wants him dead but she knows if she did it she would feel guilty for her
Steinbeck uses an imperative, which shows us that Curley’s wife thinks that she is powerful? This may suggest that Curley’s wife marries Curley because he is the son of the boss so she thinks that she can boss people around. Shakespeare intended the reader to feel sorry for Macbeth because his wife is controlling him telling him to do the deeds he does not want to do for example killing the king. Curley’s wife is projected as an ambitious scheming and a vile lady. Steinbeck’s novel was set in 1937 against the backdrop of liberalism.
When Macbeth displays uncertainty regarding the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth uses his fear of not adhering to the masculine gender role of being cold-hearted and ambitious and only “when [Macbeth] durst do it, then [he was] a man”. (1.7.56) Upon first glance, it would seem as though Lady Macbeth is strong and powerful. However, Shakespeare uses the downfall of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to display that women in power are dangerous and corrupt. Due to Lady Macbeth’s coercion into the murder of Duncan, she allows and essentially encourages Macbeth to ravage all of Scotland. Lady Macbeth descends into insanity caused by lack of sleep and guilt.
However, he starts to believe that there is no need to take any actions in order to become the ruler; “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.” (I, III) While, Lady Macbeth, when she received the prophecies, she immediately thinks that Macbeth must kill Duncan in order for Macbeth to replace him. “too full o’ the milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way.” (I, V) Here, she is talking about Macbeth being overly nice to kill the king. Throughout her monologue, Lady Macbeth mentions how she needs to do something wicked to take the king’s place. Later, when Macbeth and
As his wife, Lady Macbeth, urges him to kill king Duncan so he can become king, his urge for killing only grows and transforms him into a serial killer. There are many different aspects of this play that could have contributed to Macbeth’s tragic end, including characters. The three witches in the play could be to blame for this. They predicted his future which influenced him greatly. However, the main person to blame for Macbeth’s downfall is Lady Macbeth for three reasons: her insult on his manhood, her her manipulative tricks, and her influential qualities.