Lady Macbeth Is Evil Essay Example

đź“ŚCategory: Macbeth, Plays, William Shakespeare, Writers
đź“ŚWords: 849
đź“ŚPages: 4
đź“ŚPublished: 08 September 2021

The character Macbeth is shown as a strong soldier who is loyal to the King in the beginning of William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, but he is corrupted by the witches' prophecies and his and Lady Macbeth's desire. This is because of Macbeth's flaws in character, as well as Lady Macbeth's immense authority and ability to easily influence him. Her power motivates him at first, but once he realises what he's done, he's the one who keeps going down the violent, gory path. Lady Macbeth appears to be a pleasant wife to Macbeth at the beginning of the play, but she is actually a devious and deceptive lady.

Macbeth is a tough soldier who battles for the King without compassion at the start of the play, but his ambition and curious nature lead him to the witches, who offer him a prophecy. Banquo realises that the witches' prophecies must involve a trap, but Macbeth refuses to believe it, and when Lady Macbeth learns of the witches, her great desire for ambition and harsh demeanour misleads Macbeth. At first, Macbeth is a little ambitious, but Lady Macbeth's ambition considerably outweighs his, and she is able to persuade Macbeth to join her in killing King Duncan. At this point, Macbeth still has a conscience because he is reluctant to kill the King, but his weak nature wins over. His conscience is evident throughout the play, as seen by the hallucinations of the dagger and the ghost of Banquo, as well as his keen imagination and constant worry. This was also shown in his dreadful dreams, implying that he has actually "murdered sleep." Throughout the play Macbeth's character changes not just in terms of how he thinks and what is heard in the play, but also in terms of the actions he takes. From killing Banquo to murdering Lady Macduff and her children. Macbeth gets anxious after Duncan's murder, and his first move of killing the guards is one of several he takes to protect himself.

Towards the end, when Macbeth's wife dies and the battle approaches, he displays some good in himself. He wants for a regular existence in which he could have lived to a decent age, but he realises that he has deprived himself of this. Even when Macbeth learns that the prophecy of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane has come true, he rejects the concept and continues fighting until he discovers that Macduff was not born naturally but was "untimely ripped" from his mother's womb. When Macbeth learns this, he realises what he has done and how the witches have deceived him, but he still fights on, only to be killed.

In terms of physical and mental strength, Lady Macbeth appears to be practically the polar opposite of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is the one who can persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan while promising him that it will be a success, because Lady Macbeth's ambition is way bigger than Macbeth's. Lady Macbeth's character changes when she receives Macbeth's letter, as she goes and talks to the evil spirits to make herself evil, saying things like "Fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty!" “Thicken my blood.” She even goes so far as to plan Duncan's murder and takes full responsibility for it. At this point of the play, Lady Macbeth holds a significant amount of power over Macbeth, even referring to him as a "coward," displaying her ambition for her husband. Macbeth acts without hesitation because of his confidence in her words and the persuasiveness of her arguments.

Lady Macbeth considers killing Duncan herself after preparing for his death, but she displays a sign of humanity and refuses since she thinks Duncan resembles "My father as he slept." After the murder, Lady Macbeth shows her strength by using gentle words and confidence to calm Macbeth and prevent him from going insane. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, jokes with Macbeth about forgetting the event, saying, "These deeds must not be thought of in these ways: so, it will make us mad." She then took the daggers Macbeth had brought with him and smeared blood on them before telling him to change into a nightgown. Lady Macbeth is in complete charge at this point, and she has attempted to make Macbeth believe that he is not to blame, despite the fact that he was the one who killed Duncan. Lady Macbeth is then able to shout in terror, "What! In our House!" in response to Duncan's death, while remaining completely in charge, and therefore deflect suspicion away from Macbeth.

Macbeth may be summarised as a figure who, while physically strong, is psychologically weak, and it is this weakness that leads to Macbeth's downfall and transformation. Other variables, like as his wife's ambition, which is quite powerful at initially and much stronger intellectually than Macbeth's, do contribute to this shift, but it is Macbeth's ambition and his confidence in the witches that ultimately change him.

In terms of their characters and personalities, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth evolve drastically throughout the play. Although Macbeth was initially weak, it was the strong Lady Macbeth who helped him in the first murder. However, in exchange for controlling Macbeth and his conscience, she lost control of hers and became insane, eventually killing herself. Therefore, by the end of the play, it was appropriate to refer to Macbeth and his wife as "a dead butcher and his fiendlike queen," but however at the start of the play, Macbeth and his wife were really just ordinary nobles.

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