Lady Macbeth example essay topic

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is made to act as the main cause in Macbeth's evil doings. Even though Macbeth is generally the one to have the final say in the many killings that take place in the play, Lady Macbeth plays the role of a villain alongside him. She mocks him throughout the play to do something she has instructed him to do, saying he would be less of a man if he does not follow through on their plan (I. vii. 56-57). She gives Macbeth a short lecture in deceptiveness when they are planning to kill King Duncan (I. vi. 73-78).

She also prepared the daggers for Macbeth to kill Duncan in advance (II. ii. 15-16). Though he was still having doubts, she was in a way, ready to go in for the kill. Lady Macbeth shows the fear of getting caught when she unintentionally gives herself away in her sleep (V. i. 33, 37-42, 44-47, 53-55, 65-67, 69-72). Though her fear can suppress itself during a conscious state of being, she can do nothing about it when she is asleep.

Throughout the play and leading up to her suicide, Lady Macbeth slowly weakens. However, in the beginning of the play, she acts as if she is ruthless and unstoppable. When Macbeth has his doubts and fears about murdering the Duncan, Lady Macbeth chastises him, calling him everything from a coward to a helpless baby (I. vii. 39-49, 53-67).

She even offers to do it herself, possibly to make Macbeth feel that he's even more cowardly because a woman is offering to do "his" job. This pushes Macbeth to kill Duncan, and later deaths in the play. Macbeth tries to convince Lady Macbeth, as well as himself, that she is wrong by "I dare do all that may become a man. Who dares more is none". (I. vii. 50-52) He indeed goes through with the murder anyway. Not only does Lady Macbeth push her husband to do things he does not want to, but she also informs him that his face is too easy to read.

Of course, she does not want her husband or herself to get caught, so she gives him advice. When she tells him to "look like th' innocent flower, "But be the serpent under 't" (I. vi. 76-78), not only is she doing this so that Macbeth will not give himself away, but so that he will not give her away in the meantime. Even before that early point in the play, Lady Macbeth has already demonstrated that she is two-faced. When Duncan first arrives at the castle, Lady Macbeth acts as a welcome hostess, when in reality she has different plans for Duncan than she lets on. Lady Macbeth manages to manipulate her Macbeth so that she may get what she wants.

This being a dead King Duncan in her house basically. Indeed, Lady Macbeth does get what she wants, and ultimately what she deserves, as the play progresses. Usually, though she has to push Macbeth a little before he takes action, Macbeth is pretty much obedient. Lady Macbeth seems to realize that her husband probably will not go through with the murder of Duncan until she pushes him to the point of insanity, so she prepares everything in advance. All Macbeth has to do for his part in the murder, is actually kill Duncan; Lady Macbeth sets out the daggers and gives the guards enough alcohol so that they pass out. She was so eager to have Duncan dead that she almost killed him herself.

"Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done 't" (II. ii. 16-17). Yet she still had her husband commit the crime, whether it was because she was actually scared to do so, or because she wanted him to feel empowered. Either way, Lady Macbeth was definitely ready for Duncan to die.

Despite her excitement earlier in the play, Lady Macbeth seemed a bit afraid that she might get caught later in the play. When she sleepwalks and talks in her sleep, she demonstrates a fear that clearly represents the fact that she is scared of being caught. She talks of going to bed and washing her hands with the famous "Out, damned spot, out, I say!" (V. i. 37) phrase. When she yells about ridding herself of Duncan's blood, she is presenting a metaphor: she does not truly want to be rid of Duncan's blood itself, but rather the fear and guilt that his murder has forced upon her. The constant nightmares she has and the fear and guilt she must live with will eventually become too much to handle.

She commits suicide, proving that she is a villain because she cannot deal with the consequences of her actions. William Hazlitt, (Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, 1817) states that "She is a great bad woman, whom we hate, but whom we fear more than we hate... She is only wicked to gain a great end". Samuel Taylor Coleridge, (Coleridge's Shakespearean Criticism; edited by Thomas M. Rays or, 1959) states that "she shames her husband with a superhuman audacity of fancy which she cannot support, but sinks in the season of remorse, and dies in suicidal agony". As a result of her and Macbeth's actions, Lady Macbeth meets her death at the end of the play. However, most of what happened was because of Lady Macbeth.

If she didn't push Macbeth so hard to do something that he did not originally want to do, then Duncan would have lived and Lady Macbeth would not have gone through such anguish. She was too eager to kill. She seemed to be only interested in her own personal gain and possibly her husband's gain. Lady Macbeth was indeed the villain in Macbeth who intended on winning, but in the end, ultimately lost..