Lady Macbeth example essay topic

What Can You Really Believe: Illusion vs. Reality in Macbeth What is reality? Do you honestly believe that everyone shows his or her true selves openly? Think again! Many characters in Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, are two-faced.

Two examples of these people are Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. These characters all put on false faces to impress people or hide things from people. The witches also kept repeating a quote that has a lot of meaning. They continued to say "foul is fair and fair is foul". (I. i. 12) This means that what seems right isn't really right and what seems wrong isn't really wrong.

So the whole play is about false faces and how someone who seems normal and innocent isn't really. The witches also seem to be an illusion. They are in a way human like, but at the same time they are also fake. They talked to Macbeth and told him three prophecies, which caused him to become greedy and kill King Duncan. The first time they told him what they saw was in Act 1. They said All hail, Macbeth!

Hail to thee, Thane of Glam is! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane ofCawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King here-After! (I. i. 1-6) These prophecies didn't seem to be realistic at first. But when he was made Thane of Candor, because the other thane was a traitor, he began to become a little power hungry.

He thought that if one of the prophecies came true, so would the other. He couldn't wait, he told Lady Macbeth, who then made a plan to make it happen faster. Her plan was to invite the king over, kill him, and make it look like his guards committed the murder. The witches are non realistic as shown they made some things up and caused a lot of trouble by doing so. Also, at the banquet for the new king, Macbeth, Macbeth thought that he saw a ghost, although he was the only one who could see it. It was the ghost of Banquo, who should have become king rather Macbeth.

He was sitting in the chair where he would have been sitting had he become king. This is how it was meant to be, with Banquo being king. Another example of the illusion vs. reality theme was when the witches showed Macbeth the three apparitions. They show him an armed head, a bloody child, and a child crowned bearing a tree. Also, they said to beware of Macduff but assured him that no man of woman born can harm him and that he cannot be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane. This time Macbeth didn't get disturbed by what the witches had to say to him.

He thought that if no man of woman born could harm him and that he couldn't be defeated until Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane was a very good possibility that nothing would happen to him. But as the witches said before "fair is foul and foul is fair" means anything that doesn't seem possible can be made possible. Seward and his men disguised themselves and Birnam Wood and planned to attack Dunsinane. Now what seemed unrealistic was becoming realistic, but Macbeth still didn't think he could be harmed because he thought that if no man of woman born could harm him then no one can harm. He was wrong, to his surprise Macduff wasn't a man of woman born. He was torn from her belly.

The whole idea of sleep is an illusion. It is meant to symbolize innocence, while anyone is sleeping they are not guilty. Nightgowns symbolize a mask of innocence. So when anyone is in a nightgown they are also innocent. Macbeth says "Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep"- the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care, The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, Chief nourish er in life's feast".

This quote restates that sleep means innocence. It also shows how Macbeth felt guilty of the murders in the beginning, and eventually thought it wasn't a big deal anymore. Sleep, is a major symbol of innocence throughout the entire play. One of the major themes of Macbeth is illusion vs. reality, which is the difference between what seems real and what is actually real.

Throughout the play, sleep symbolizes innocence and a nightgown symbolizes a mask to hide guilt. Lady Macbeth starts to become a little crazy in Act Five; she begins sleepwalking and talking in her sleep. This is caused by all of the murders that her and her husband committed; she is finally starting to feel guilty about them. Sleepwalking isn't really sleeping or being awake, therefore, she isn't really guilty or innocent she is right in between. She is still innocent because she doesn't realize what she is doing while she is sleeping. But, she is also guilty at the same time because she is confessing to the murders of Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's family, which she and her husband committed.

Lady Macbeth shows that she feels guilty by saying, "Here's the smell of the blood still. All the per-/ fumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, / Oh!" (V. i. 46-48) This means that Lady Macbeth still feels sweet and innocent, even after committing murder. Illusion vs. reality is a major aspect to this play. On the other hand, Macbeth felt guilty in the beginning, but eventually the murders just seemed natural to him.

When planning to kill King Duncan, Macbeth seemed a little crazy. In his soliloquy, he asks, Is this a dagger which I see before me. The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee! I have thee not, and yet I see the still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? (II. i. 42-46) That soliloquy was all about an illusion of a dagger that Macbeth saw floating in front of him leading him to kill King Duncan. Killing just became an everyday thing to happen to Macbeth. In conclusion, almost every one of the characters in Macbeth puts on a false face at some point.

They all act like they are innocent and that nothing is wrong, but underneath they are different people. Sleep was their false face along with their nightgown. Also the witches seemed to be illusions of Macbeth's mind. Macbeth was the most two-faced character in the entire play.