Macbeth Essay
...llent Lady Macbeth really is at deceiving other people even when we take into account how Duncan is far too trustworthy with people i.e. the old thane of Cawdor. However the scene which shows Lady Macbeth’s ability to convince others the best is the scene were Macbeth has doubts about killing the king. When he tells her that “we will proceed no further in this business,” she reacts viciously and completely turns his view around showing her mental strength compared to Macbeth and her determination for him to be king. She questions him saying “was the hope drunk wherein you dress’d yourself?” (Another example of clothing imagery) and “art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour, as thou art in desire?” According to her he is acting like a drunk and will not do as he truthfully wants to do. Then she questions his manhood saying “when you durst do it, then you were a man.” She gives a disgusting image of what she would do to her child if she had promised as Macbeth did saying she would have “dash’d its brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this.” This shows how reckless she is alongside her complete lack of care for human life. But the tactic works and Macbeth replies with “if we should fail?” showing that he has become interested in the plan again. We then see how meticulous Lady Macbeth is when she tells him of the plan in detail and how she is going to do everything. She wants her husband to become King so much that she has thought through every detail in every way. We are unsure of why Lady Macbeth wants this so much but there are two possible reasons. The first is that she loves her husband so much that she wants to get him what he wants no matter what the cost. The other reason is that she did it so that she could become queen, having some position of authority beside her husband as the chief advisor. In those times women had no power and were expected to be housewives due to the church who still blamed them for bringing sin into the world. We just aren’t sure which reason Lady Macbeth but for whatever reason she still pushed Macbeth into becoming King. After Macbeth carries out the murder we then see another aspect of Lady Macbeth’s character: her ability to maintain composure in a crisis. After the murder Lady Macbeth is worried about what has happened to Macbeth. When an owl shrieks she believes the deed is done “it was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman.” (This is another example of the bird imagery that we find right throughout the play and it also shows that nature itself is ill at ease with the owls (crickets are mentioned later on) crying out as great evil has been committed.) We also see one thing about Lady Macbeth which shows she must have a conscience; she couldn’t kill Duncan herself as he looked like her own father. This is not very fiend like and if she was completely evil then this would not have happened. Then Macbeth enters and is in a terrible state; with blood all over his hands and still carrying the daggers. He has been struck by the fact that he couldn’t amen when the grooms were praying and the way that a voice told him that he would “sleep no more.” Lady Macbeth sees this shock and removes the daggers from him to get rid of them and tells Macbeth to go and clean up. She has no idea of why Macbeth is so shocked saying “tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil” (another image used by Shakespeare) and a “little water clears of this deed.” However it is obvious that this isn’t true as Macbeth says “will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No: this hand will rather the multitudinous seas incardine,” and when Macduff arrives at the castle knocking at the gate Macbeth says “Wake Duncan with thy knocking; I would thou couldst”, showing he didn’t want to the kill the king and can’t take the consequences of the deed. She doesn’t see Macbeth’s spiritual struggle at this point in the play but rather only sees the physical aspects of the murder. She even says in response to Macbeth “my hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.” (Another example of clothing imagery throughout the play) This may seem strange to us in our modern society but in those times to kill a king was a terrible thing to do. A theory known as the Divine Right of Kings was believed in when Shakespeare wrote this play and it basically said that God chose monarchs to rule as his representatives on earth (This play was written for King James and he was interested in this topic and this is another attempt by Macbeth to relate the play to King James). So to kill a king, particularly a pious king such as Duncan as he is put across in the play, is an attack on God himself and so Macbeth will therefore be cursed for eternity for the deed. The best example of this idea can be found after Macduff arrives at the castle to check on the king and after finding him dead says “Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope, the Lord’s anointed temple and stole thence.” Duncan’s body was the Lord’s anointed temple and leader on earth and Macduff sums up why it is such a terrible thing. (In the bible the apostle Paul writes of how the Holy Spirit lives in the body of a believer and it is the same here) At this point no-one suspects any wrongdoing by Macbeth but when he kills the two grooms Macduff becomes suspicious. However Lady Macbeth, knowing the fragile state her husband is in, does a very wise thing at this point by fainting so that she could draw attention away from him. This is Lady Macbeth’s finest hour as regards what she wants for him; she has succeeded in making him king. But it does not turn out as she hoped. After Macbeth is crowned King he begins to isolate himself and stops talking to his wife nearly as much as before; he begins to make decisions by himself without the advice of Lady Macbeth. To even talk to Macbeth she has to ask! We see this when she says to his servant “say to the king, I would attend his leisure for a few words.” It becomes obvious from this and from when she says “How now, my lord, why do you keep alone,” that Macbeth has taken isolated himself from her. We can’t tell why this is but it could be because Macbeth wants to protect the wife he loves. This may be because Macbeth is in a bad way; he has even become jealous of Duncan, the man he murdered to become king, as “he sleeps well” and will not feel pain anymore while he is affected by “terrible dreams” that hit him every night. One thing is clear however; Lady Macbeth is no longer involved in his decisions (she knows nothing of the plans to murder Banquo and is not involved in the decision) and is not close to him anymore. However Lady Macbeth still loves her husband dearly and this is clear to see when Macbeth is haunted by Banquo’s ghost at the banquet. When Macbeth appears to be going insane at something that nobody else can see shouting out “thou canst say I did it,” and “if thou canst nod, speak to,” she rescues the situation saying that Macbeth “is often thus” to the other guests who have become suspicious and by challenging Macbeth in the same way as before saying “are you a man?” She gets rid of the other Lords as well when it appears that he could give the game away saying “At once, good night….go at once.” He talks to her at this point, telling her his problems but this is the last time in the play we see the two together with both appearing to go further and further apart. Macbeth soon becomes a tyrant, who is willing to kill women and children such as Macduff’s family, to destroy his opponents and keep his rule. According to Macduff “not in the legions of horrid hell can come a devil more damn’d in evils to top Macbeth.” Apparently he is “smacking of every sin that has a name,” and has left Scotland in a state of fear. After Macduff hears of his family’s murder he and Malcolm gain an army from Edward the Confessor. He was the King of England at the time and is described as the “holy” king, associated with God and goodness and apparently had the ability to heal scrofula. This was a clever move by Shakespeare as he knew that King James was King of England and of Scotland and he wanted to ensure that King James could relate to the English King as it was known that at the time James had begun to heal people with scrofula also. However with the English coming to uproot Macbeth where has Lady Macbeth gone? She is not mentioned in the entire of Act 4 but we quickly find out why. Lady Macbe...