Ambition can be used for good or evil. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth uses her ambition for cruelty and wants to gain power. Lady Macbeth shows her cruelty by saying, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty!” (1.5.38--41). What she means by this is that if Macbeth is too scared and cowardly to kill Duncan then she wishes that she was not a woman so that she could do it herself.
Within this excerpt from William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth gives a monologue expressing her dark desires. Lady Macbeth’s desire for the removal of her nurturing qualities to murder King Duncan is expressed through alliteration, metaphors, and pleading diction. The alliteration and metaphors used by Lady Macbeth accentuate her desires. Speaking to spirits, she requests, “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top- full of direst cruelty”.
In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth uses two primary methods in order to convince Macbeth into committing the deed. Initially, Lady Macbeth begins to test Macbeth's manhood in order to persuade him to kill King Duncan. In a conversation between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, Lady Macbeth convinces him into thinking that only through the murder of Duncan will he be considered a man to her and states “That made you break this enterprise to me? 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 i, vii). During this period, men were admired and were held up on society based upon their manhood.
This becomes more notable as the story progresses especially when the monster states that his “heart was poisoned with remorse” (Shelley 186). In this vital statement said by the monster, his intense regret for his murders is clearly conveyed. He even goes to the extent to metaphorically hyperbolize his feelings of remorse by stating that they have “poisoned” his heart. He adds on by saying that his heart was “fashioned to be susceptible of love and sympathy” (Shelley 186), which even further supports the idea that the monster truly believes that he was originally intended to have the traits and mindset of a human. However, the rejection brought against him by society destroyed his human traits leading him to murdering people.
Lady Macbeth plays a key part in driving Macbeth’s motivations and encourages Macbeth to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action on the prophecies. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that he is “green” (I.VII.40) and “a coward” (I.VII.46) and that he resembles the proverbial “poor cat”. (I.VII.48) The willingness of Lady Macbeth to reach the epitome of betrayal is displaced that heightens the understanding of the overpowering and strong nature of Lady Macbeth as well as the deep and murderous motivations she wishes to impose on her husband. Shakespeare exposes to the audience to the persuasive and emotive techniques Lady Macbeth uses to manipulate and drive Macbeth's motivations. This
An Eye for an Eye ¨An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.¨ The speaker of this quote, Mahatma Gandhi, was trying to express how evil revenge can be. When someone feels as if they have been wronged, they will stop at nothing to get their way and prove they’re not someone to mess with. The situation can only get worse because everyone has been blinded by their hatred. Actions can irritate someone even if they weren’t intended to.
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
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.
Murder's Impact: Empathy and Blood in Macbeth Throughout the play “Macbeth”, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s characters change as a result of murder and the trauma of bloodshed. Lady Macbeth thinks she can turn off her conscience and convince her husband to kill Duncan, which results in her crippling guilt and insanity. Macbeth feels no remorse of this kind, and instead fears the consequences, consistently referencing his safety. As the play progresses, we see examples of blood being used to communicate the guilt and remorse Lady Macbeth feels.
Power isn't always a good thing and shouldn't be what his/her goal is in