BILAL MANDI
ENG-3U
NIEUWOLT SHAKESPEARE’S EQUALITY IN EVILNESS
To be villainous one must be wicked, and vile, It is often that these attributes are assigned to male roles in classic literature. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth continues to prove herself as the true villain of the play. Lady Macbeth misleads her husband, making him do things against his character, uses her appeal to beguile Macbeth, and sets up a plan to execute the king. These acts are what lead to the various conflicts in the play.
Firstly, Lady Macbeth uses her relationship with Macbeth to influence him and alter his own disposition. When Macbeth first had the thought of murdering Duncan he evidently is not keen on the idea. He
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She states in Act 1, Scene 7:
“How tender it is to love the babe that milks me:/ I would, while it was smiling in my face,/ Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,/ And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this.”
This guilt does seeps its way into Macbeth’s mind and convince him as he begins to consider the mischievous plan more seriously. The last mechanism that Lady Macbeth uses is her allure in order to persuade Macbeth to finally follow through with the plot. Their last discussion at the end of Act 1 ends with Lady Macbeth seductively convincing Macbeth that nothing will come in the way of the plan that she has formulated. Towards the end of Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth is in the palm of Lady Macbeth by the use of all these manipulative techniques and this leads to his agreement to commit the horrid deed.
In conclusion, with no deceitful Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would not have gone encountered so many conflicts throughout the play. Lady Macbeth was able to deceive Macbeth and get him to do things not in line with his character, abuse her own magnetism to manipulate him, as well as set up a plan to kill the king. Although it is often hard to imagine these seemingly innocent personas as deceptive beings, it is through this that it is shown that not only men are capable of malicious acts and ways. Equality in
Lady Macbeth played a large role as Macbeth’s seductress and brainwasher. Lady Macbeth persuaded her husband to kill the King not so that he would himself be King but so that she could be Queen.Although because of her involvement in this web of lies she felt guilty and drove herself insane worrying about what had happened and what would happen to her and her husband for being so dishonest. She was not responsible for the tragedy, she was only a manipulative factor in the scheme of things. Even though it does take two to tango, Macbeth tangoed on his own.
In Shakespare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s destiny is formed by her own actions through mind and free-will. In act I, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to murder Duncan, even though Macbeth was strongly against it. Lady Macbeth is very successful at persuading him to go against his better judgment. She entirely changes the stereotype of women being kind and caring in the first act. After Macbeth writes home telling of his murderous plans, Lady Macbeth begins talking to evil spirits. Because women often lack the ruthlessness to kill someone, Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to make her male. One of the most vivid descriptions of Lady Macbeth’s wickedness is directly after Macbeth announces to her he does not want to kill Duncan. This speech symbolizes Lady Macbeth’s evilness. She is ruthless, because of her evil accounts for the murders that occur throughout the play. Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to commit murders that will make them king
As being the dominated one in their relationship Lady Macbeth uses all her control over Macbeth to make Macbeth murder king Duncan. She also challenges his patriarchy to make him murder the King. For example, when Lady Macbeth says "When you durst do it, then you were a man." Now that Macbeth is trying to back out of it, Lady Macbeth is calling him a coward and torments him to do the murdering. She also says " Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem..." In other words, Lady Macbeth uses the power of love to persuade him. She also says if you love me you would kill him straight away with no hesitation. Lady Macbeth says "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 pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this." In this quotation Lady Macbeth stirs Macbeth even more when Lady Macbeth challenges their love relationship on the basis of the decision, he eventually gives in and murders King Duncan.
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.
Lady Macbeth is the one who instigates most of the mischief in the play. Near the start of the play, we know that Lady Macbeth wants to be queen, and it is evident that her ambition for her husband to become queen is the reason she persuaded her husband to commit all of the terrible crimes. It is obvious that Lady Macbeth is going to manipulate Macbeth when she says, “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. (1.5.26) Lady Macbeth baits Macbeth to kill the king. She questions his manhood, and calls him a coward. Lady Macbeth tries to make Macbeth feel guilty by saying,
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the true villain of the play as she is evil, ambitious and eventually insane. Lady Macbeth masterminded the idea to kill King Duncan and planted the vision into Macbeths mind, she convinced Macbeth to commit such a crime, and her love for her husband was eventually overruled by her determination and lust for power. Throughout the play she starts to show her true colours and the destructive force of her ambition, which inevitably results in nothing but disaster.