Lady Macbeth Wasn't In The Play example essay topic

? A Dead Butcher And His Fiend-like Queen?? How Satisfactory Do You Find Malcom's Condemnation Of Mac? A dead butcher and his fiend-like queen? how satisfactory do you find Malcom's condemnation of Macbeth and his wife? The above quote comes from the end of the play, after Macduff brings in the severed head of Macbeth. Before we can analyse the quote we should first find the definition of? fiend? and? butcher?

The word fiend according to the Oxford Dictionary means? The Devil; evil spirit; person of superhuman wickedness (esp. cruelty or malignity)? , ? The play is about a leader of men who is portrayed as a loyal, honest and trust worthy person who turns against his own king in a bid to rule the country. I believe the three witches have led him to this decision.

The word butcher has two meanings. According to the dictionary the word butcher means? One who slaughters animals for food, dealer in meat or a person who causes or delights in bloodshed.? Although Macbeth doesn? t slaughter animals for food, he still gains from murdering somebody, like a butcher. A butcher kills animals for gain, in his case to make money. Macbeth also gains from killing, by killing Duncan and Banquo he receives and keeps his position of king.

I do not believe that Macbeth however is delighted by bloodshed although he does cause it. Does this make Macbeth a butcher? As we go through the play the character of Macbeth changes.? For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name), disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, ... ?

... Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chops? The above quotation is one of the first descriptions we hear of Macbeth. It describes Macbeth as a brave soldier, who like a butcher? unseamed him from the nave to the chops.? So we now know that Macbeth could be described as a butcher at the beginning and the end. The cutting from the nave to the chops is a very bloody horrifying image.

However in this case Macbeth is not described as a butcher, he is being described as brave Macbeth.? It is also clear that Macbeth shows Machiavellian traits". Hence it should be noted that in taking hold of a state, he who Seizes it should examine all the offences necessary for him to Commit, and do them all at a stroke. For injuries must be done All together, so that, being tasted less, they offend less " Machiavelli gives this key paragraph of advice to all future leaders who are willing to obtain the status of leader by using criminal means. Macbeth is an example of someone who obtains his kingdom in a criminal manner, as he and his wife conspire together to kill the present king and blame his murder on his drunken guards, then after set about killing to keep control of the throne. The main question we need to ask is who is the real Macbeth?

Is it the Macbeth we know at the beginning of the play who is a? loyal kinsman? to his King, or the cruel? butcher? we know at the end. I will first look at the three witches. FIRST WITCH: ? All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glam is? SECOND WITCH: ?

All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Candor? THIRD WITCH: ? All hail, Macbeth! Thou shalt be king thereafter? This is part of the first meeting with the three witches.

After hearing this Macbeth doesn? t throw the suggestion immediately away, instead he asks for them to? tell him more? This shows that maybe the seed had already been planted, and the witches helped the seed to grow, and with the persuasion of his wife finally come flourish.? It was Sigmund Freud who said? the power from knowledge creates discomfort? "Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear, Things that do sound so fair?" Macbeth's new knowledge makes him uncomfortable. He realises the implications.

His first thoughts considering murdering Duncan appear, which scare him, as he for previous parts of his life has always stood by and supported the King, and for the first time ever his ambition has lead him to contemplate the murder of his King, and in the sixteenth century, first came your God, then your King.? Although Macbeth wants to be king, he does not wish to kill Duncan, and he thinks aloud to himself of his reasons"; First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself". Macbeth does not want to kill Duncan because he is his king and close relation, and because it is his duty as host to protect him. He says he should be killing murderers not be one himself This shows that he is not evil.

If he were, his kinship and duty to the king would offer no obstacle to his decision to murder him. Because of this I do not think the first part of Malcolm's condemnation is correct. As Macbeth goes to Duncan's room a dagger appears before him and points towards Duncan's room. I believe this is in some way meant to represent his conscious, he turns round looks back and sees the dagger has blood on it. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth is agitated and frightened. He forgets to place the daggers near Duncan's guards as he planned to, and is too afraid to go near the place of murder to correct the mistake: "I'll go no more.

I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not". Macbeth wishes to wash his hands of Duncan's blood, and thus the deed, but believes that no amount of water could remove all the blood"; Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No", ? He regrets killing Duncan, wishing that he would wake from his sleep of death: "Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!" . When he begins too feel insecure he visits the witches and asks them what is in store in the future.

The witches then bring up three apparitions. Apparition 1: Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; beware the Thane of Fife.?

Dismiss me.? Enough. Apparition 2: The power of man, for none of women born Shall harm Macbeth. Apparition 3: Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Bir nam wood to high Dunsinane hill Because of this Macbeth again feels secure. So secure in fact that when Macbeth's castle is being attacked in the final stages of the book, he holds back on killing Macduff because he thinks that all people are of women born, and he still feels upset for killing the rest of Macduff's family. "My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already".

Later on we find out that Macduff was? from his mother's womb, untimely ripped? and Macbeth realises that the three witches prophesy is correct, and he is going to be killed by Macduff. After this we begin to see the soldier whom we saw in the opening lines, valiant, and not being scared of death.? Macbeth isn? t the same person we saw in the opening stages of the book, when his wife dies he simply answers? she would have died sometime? , showing that at the end he is a soldier, but a soldier without feelings.? Many people blame Lady Macbeth for the change within Macbeth and she is often thought of evil and maybe as a fiend. If Lady Macbeth wasn? t in the play, Macbeth probably wouldn? t have killed Duncan.

Lady Macbeth is a not an evil person and does have some good in her and however hard she tries, she cannot get rid of it, she asks for demons to? unsex? her and fill her to? the top with direst cruelty? The wants to trade in her feminism for evil, she wants to? pluck the baby from her nipple and smash his head on the ground? Lady [CH 1] Macbeth is a loyal wife with ambitions for her husband. She believes that Macbeth deserves to be King, but thinks that he is too nice to do anything about it. She does not think that he could kill Duncan on his own.

She is supportive of Macbeth, and is willing to do what she can to help him get what he wants. When Lady Macbeth reads in her husband's letter of the witches' prediction, she too, realises that Duncan must be killed for it to come true. She thinks that Macbeth deserves to be great, and should murder Duncan so that this can be so, but she believes that he is too noble and honest to do something so immoral:" Yet do I fear thy nature: It is too full o'the milk of human-kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great: Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it".

She then attacks Macbeth using moral blackmail, saying that if you loved me you would do it, and questioning his manhood. It is Lady Macbeth who is calm and logical tells Macbeth what to do. When Macbeth kills Duncan, his hand's are covered with blood, and she supports him by saying a? little water will clear us of this deed? When Macbeth goes into Duncan's room after the murder, he seems very tense and suspicious, Lady Macbeth tries to take away the focus of attention of Macbeth and faints, to try to protect him. As the play goes on, Macbeth gains power and begins taking over the situation.

It is he who kills Macduff's family, and does it without telling Lady Macbeth. Malcolm describes her as a fiend, and I feel this is an exaggeration. Lady Macbeth couldn? t bring herself to kill Duncan, because she thought he looked like her father, hardly the signs of a devil or fiend.? Overall I do not find the comment very satisfactory, Macbeth isn? t any more a butcher at the beginning of the play than at the end. It is very likely that by labelling Macbeth and his wife as a butcher and fiend, he is trying to solidify his position as king. Also the comment is purely based on what Malcolm knows, i.e. Macbeth killing Banquo, the King not the things Macbeth and his wife said or did, because we are in the audience, we can see that maybe Macbeth and Lady Macbeth aren? t as evil as first seems.

They used to be a loving couple, but were both torn apart by ambition. The sleepwalking Lady Macbeth and the suicide show that she does have feelings, and the Macbeth death proves he is still the die-hard soldier we saw in the first act. Saying that however, how can someone like Macbeth fight people by chopping off various parts, then come home and expect to be a perfect gentleman. If I had to blame anyone it would be the witches. It was them who started the growth of the idea and therefore the downfall of the Macbeth's was down to them.? [CH 1] 3 ce.