In Macbeth’s Act 1 scene 7, Macbeth is unsure on whether he should kill King Duncan. As He begins to analyze King Duncan’s honorable character and the betrayal he’ll be known for if he executes the King, he keeps a doubtful and pitiful tone. Lady Macbeth is able to convince Macbeth to follow through with their plan by attacking Macbeth’s character and persuading him to follow his desires. She keeps a seductive and demanding tone. The appeal used in Act 1 Scene 7, is both ethos and pathos; while still using rhetorical strategies such as repetition, diction, irony, metaphors and imagery. In Macbeth’s speech he begins repeating words such as “if, then, would” allowing the audience to see his confusion on whether he …show more content…
Macbeth may be vulnerable and indecisive but his prerogative is already in motion. In lady Macbeth’s argument she holds a seductive and demanding tone. She believes in Macbeth’s ambition and wants him to kill the King once and for all. Lady Macbeth begins to attack Macbeth’s character and provokes him to kill King Duncan by saying, “What beast was ’t, then, 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,” (Lady Macbeth,1.7,47-51) Through this quote it’s easy to see that Lady Macbeth is aware of Macbeth’s vulnerability so she attacks his manhood making him feel less of a man for going back on his word. In order to put her plans in action she uses a heavy pathos appeal in the following lines, “From this time Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire… ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” (Lady Macbeth,1.7,39-44) Through this quote Lady Macbeth makes Macbeth feel sympathetic and cowardice for not following his desires, she uses their love and how she will view him to lure him into the plan even more. While Macbeth may still be weary Lady Macbeth uses an ethos appeal by establishing her authority on the topic of killing King Duncan, “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll
Lady Macbeth has seen Macbeth's weakness, his lack of manliness. She is too afraid to commit the murder of Duncan, and must assure Macbeth that it is his duty. She accomplished this goal by making fun of him and arousing his jealousy instincts.
way / With such prophetic greeting. Speak, I charge you." (1.3.75-76). The way Macbeth demands for more information emphasizes his desire for power. Macbeth sees himself as king of Scotland, which in turn makes him speaks to the witches as if weaker than him. Thus, Macbeth's willingness to believe the witches about how he will be king is what encourages him to demand more information on his prophetic power. Also, due to Macbeths willingness to believe the prophecies he disregard's his loyalty to Duncan. After Macbeth is informed he will be thane of Cawdor he says in his aside, " My
Through the soliloquy, the audience gains insight into Macbeth’s innermost thoughts. He names multiple reasons as to why he should not kill King Duncan, noting that Duncan is his guest, kinsman and a good king. He also admits that the only motive he has is the “Vaulting ambition” residing inside of him. Here he names his own hamartia, his fatal flaw, and acknowledges that to give in and commit such a deed, would result in his “deep damnation”. While still undecided on the matter, Lady Macbeth enters, and, seeing his indecision she decides to manipulate him into the decision that suits her; for after all, she is almost if not as ambitious as her husband. By questioning his manhood, his bravery, even their marriage, she successfully leads him to make the choice to kill the king. We now must realise that although the witches’ prophecies and Lady Macbeth’s taunts were a catalyst for Macbeth’s treachery, they never force him to make these errors in judgement; it must have been something that was already inside of him that caused him to decide this. There must have been some inherent evil already a part of his character.
How does the 1.7 Soliloquy deepen the audience’s understanding of Macbeth’s conflicted state of mind?
Task: - Explain what act 1 scene 7 tells us about the character of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. What is troubling Macbeth at the beginning of the scene and how does Lady Macbeth persuade him to go through with the murder of Duncan?
Lady Macbeth appears evil, but this is proof of her devotion and drive to assist Macbeth rise to the throne. Macbeth is doubtful about their plan to kill King Duncan; however, Lady Macbeth bombards him with comments that question his courage. She goes as far as telling him his love his worth nothing if he refuses, which proves her to be dominant and controlling using his own weakness against him. His love for her. The fact that she belittles his confidence, insults his abilities, and questions his manhood & ambitions showing how manipulative she can be, but also wise because it worked in her favour. She said to him “Screw your courage to the sticking place” (1.7.60). Because Lady Macbeth manages to drive Macbeth to Duncan’s death, this shows viewers that Lady Macbeths own ambition is the real driving force behind most of Macbeth’s actions, because of his strong dedicated love for her.
Lady Macbeth comes off as one of the most oblique, yet determined characters in the play. She had her mind set on helping her husband conciliate the throne and encourages him to pursue his dreams of being crowned as the king. When his weaknesses appeared she remained firm and made Macbeth’s goals her own ambitions. Things do seem a bit outrageous at that particular moment where Lady Macbeth explains to Macbeth how they should kill King Duncan but it shows not only the true love and devotion for her husband, but how she would stop at nothing until he gets what he wants.
Macbeth needed Lady Macbeth to do this, for without her, he would have continued to see the horrible act as something he shouldn’t do. In this regard, Lady Macbeth does this very well, she makes Macbeth see things in a different light, tells him how he is erroneous in his thinking and gets him to think how she wants him to. The following quote shows these domineering and manipulating qualities of hers quite well: “Art thou afeard/To be the same in thine own act and valor/As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that…/And live a coward in thine own esteem,/Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’/Like the poor cat I’ the adage?” (1.7.43-49) This passage of Lady Macbeth also sums up her thoughts quite nicely: “What beast was’t it then/… made you break this enterprise…/when you durst do it, then you were a man,/…to be more than what you were, you would/Be so much more the man.” (1.7.53-57) Both of these quotations display Lady Macbeth’s thoughts about Macbeth: he is weak, and he must be a man, while she is strong and would do the murder without a thought. These thoughts clearly show how ambitious she is, and how determined she wants to influence Macbeth’s actions.
Because she is assertive, she manipulates Macbeth by saying, “shall sun that morrow see.” Before Lady Macbeth said anything, Macbeth was going to let Duncan go but because of Lady Macbeth’s assertiveness, she manipulated Macbeth into killing Duncan. On top of being assertive, Lady Macbeth also downgrades people as a way to show her masculinity and her ability to manipulate Macbeth. When Macbeth and Lady Macbeth argue about the plan to kill Duncan they say, “We will proceed no further in this business... Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?” (1.7.32-37). When Macbeth does not want to go through with the plan of killing Duncan Lady Macbeth has a downgrading tone towards Macbeth. Lady Macbeth uses harsh words like “wherein you dressed yourself” and “Hath it slept since” to manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan instead of using positive words. Because of this, Macbeth kills Duncan out of manipulation. Lady Macbeth uses her masculinity to manipulate Macbeth’s actions.
Lady Macbeth provides a scheme for Macbeth to assassinate the King. She is manipulative and persuasive in corrupting Macbeth s judgement. “What beast was’t then that 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.” (Act I. Sc.VII) In this quote, Lady Macbeth is agitating Macbeth by saying he is not a man if he does not do what he says he is going to do, which is to murder the king of course.
In Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 56-57, "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", Lady Macbeth orchestrates Macbeth’s self-esteem by taunting his manliness when Macbeth doesn’t plan on following through with her plan. Moments later, she tells him how he should act and what he needs to do, in Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 71-75, “When Duncan is asleep...look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.” She successfully augments Macbeth’s ambition and exhorts him to commit atrocities. After Duncan’s murder, Macbeth no longer values Lady Macbeth’s opinions- his actions are rash and selfish because they are made promptly. Interaction between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth falters since Macbeth is now swept up with erasing his tracks. The two perish as individuals- Macbeth is miserable with guilt caused by cold- blooded Lady Macbeth’s attribution of influence and plan. But instead of comforting her husband and talking him out of murdering more people, Lady Macbeth only gives one feeble attempt.
Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to slay the King of Scotland. On Act I, Scene V, Lady Macbeth states,¨Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under ‘t.” We can get an idea that lady Macbeth wants to kill the king but hiding their purpose of killing the king . This scene processes to get darker. In act 1, scene 5, Lady Macbeth quotes,¨Unsex me here.¨ What she means by that she removes all her feminine qualities to make her more evil. This lead to the audience being mortified due to her wanting to asking to be stripped of feminine weakness and invested with masculine resolve.
Lady Macbeth progresses throughout the play from a seemingly savage and heartless creature to a very delicate and fragile woman. In the beginning of the play, she is very ambitious and hungry for power. She pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy. In Act I, Scene 6, she asks the gods to make her emotionally strong like a man in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot. She says, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!” Also, she does everything in her power to convince Macbeth that he would be wrong not to kill Duncan. In Act I,
“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man,” this alliteration is used by Macbeth as he considers killing King Duncan, and it lets the audience know of Macbeth’s fear towards the murder. Macbeth questions his sense of self and loyalty while making his decision. Lady Macbeth does not agree with Macbeth’s refusal to kill King Duncan and influences his choice by questioning his manhood with the use of a rhetorical question, “Art thou afead to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?” This gives the audience knowledge of Lady Macbeth’s attitude towards the murder and gets the audience thinking about why Macbeth chose not to kill the King. Once hearing this question from Lady Macbeth, Macbeth rethinks his decision and ambition finally drives Macbeth into killing King Duncan. The metaphor, “to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other,” shows that Macbeth is driven by ambition and that he makes his decisions to benefit his power. The inner conflict experienced by Macbeth when making the decision to kill King Duncan changed his sense of self and his loyalty towards King
In perhaps the most pivotal scene in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s motives are truly revealed in her manipulation of Macbeth to show how humans have a desire for power and once they get a taste of it, they will go through any lengths to have it, no matter the effect on others. Her lust for power is showcased through how she persuades Macbeth by insulting his masculinity and using emotive language to counter his logical reasoning. This section of the play illustrates the tipping point of each character’s morality with Macbeth having second thoughts about the planned murder and Lady Macbeth diving straight in.