Preview

Macbeth - Downfall of Lady Macbeth

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1086 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Macbeth - Downfall of Lady Macbeth
What do you think brought about the downfall of Lady Macbeth?

There were several aspects of Shakespeare's novel ‘Macbeth' that led to the downfall of Lady Macbeth. The mentality of Lady Macbeth in the play changes dramatically from the wife a Noble General, to an evil aggressive murderer (brought upon by the witches predictions), and finally a woman who had de-graded to such an extent that she took her own life.

We are not told an awful amount about Lady Macbeth at the start of the play [prior to her letter from Macbeth about the witches prophecies I.iv], but I thought that Lady Macbeth seemed: as good of a wife as any nobleman's or officer's.

We see how a vigorous Lady Macbeth; initially in association with the witches' predictions, at-tempts to mirror their disturbance of gender in psychological terms by desiring to "unsex" herself in order to carry out such a powerful action [murder], otherwise, being impossible for a woman to carry out (no offence or sexism is intended when I state this).

Lady Macbeth continues to be a frightening and vicious figure as she becomes full of evil thoughts. This is evident by the context in which she states that she would sacrifice the life of her own infant, if it were her wish or order to do so: "…Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done this…" [I.vii.57-59]. So enraged and overpowered by evil, that her purity and innocence (which is part of a woman) had all but depleted, and consequently she also lost her will to control herself and her sanity (sanity-later on in the deterioration of Lady Macbeth's character). She came to a point where evil pushed her to certain lengths such as committing the heinous act of regicide; killing her loyal and innocent king, king Duncan.

At one stage I believed that it was as if she was given the supernatural strength of a warrior or a Knight to commit such an act. Her feminisms had all but been

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth is an ambitious and ruthless woman who desires power and status. She appears stronger and more callous than Macbeth as she manipulates him to assassinate Duncan. However, as the bloodshed continues, her guilty conscience becomes more affected than Macbeth’s. Unlike Macbeth, who grows insensitive to the murders that he has committed, she descends into madness and (apparently) commits suicide as she becomes less capable to withstand the horrors of her crime.…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Have you ever read a book that throughout it the character reaches a new low? In Macbeth, Macbeth starts out to be a brave hero that is very trustworthy and that everyone speaks highly of .Unfortunately, by the end of the play he becomes a gruesome murderer and an unpleasant human being. He becomes like that because of his wife, Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play she manipulates, degrades, and picks him apart. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth is responsible for Macbeth’s downfall.…

    • 195 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth is a controversial figure. She is seen by some as a woman of strong will who is ambitious for herself and who is astute enough to recognise her husband’s strengths and weaknesses, and ruthless enough to exploit them. They see her in her commitment to evil and in her realisation that the acquisition of the Crown has not brought her the happiness she had expected, and finally, as one who breaks down under the strain. Others see her as a woman ambitious for her husband whom she loves. She recognises the essential good in him, and feels that, without her, he will never win the Crown. She allies herself with the powers of the occult for his sake, but here inherent femininity breaks down under the strain…

    • 1005 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While Macbeth’s “vaulting ambition” plays the most vital role in the quick end to his newfound empire in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, exterior forces including Lady Macbeth and the persuasive acts performed by the witches both contribute to the eventual beheading of one of Scotland’s greatest warriors, Macbeth himself. Macbeth loses part of himself the moment he takes the life of a friend, uncle, and respected King, Duncan.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As the name suggests, Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s husband. Lady Macbeth encouraged and pressured Macbeth into killing Duncan so that Macbeth could become kind and she would also have an equally high status. Although it may seem that Lady Macbeth lacks compassion and humanity, it is not the case. To kill two of Duncan’s guards and Duncan himself, Lady Macbeth had to call upon evil spirits to “stop up the access and passage to remorse”. She tells the spirits to “take [her] milk for gall” suggesting that she needs to be turned into something less that human to commit the act of murder. Without these evil spirits, Lady Macbeth wouldn’t have been able to have gone through with the killing of these people; her conscience wouldn’t have…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She feels so strongly about this, she says you can take all my femininity away from me so I can actually be strong enough to commit murder as she doubts Macbeth’s malevolence. (evilness) Lady Macbeth wants to be royalty and the narrator wants her lover back.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    “Of all Shakespeare's female characters Lady Macbeth stands out far beyond the rest — remarkable for her ambition, strength of will, cruelty, and dissimulation” (Traits of Lady). Lady Macbeth is usually viewed as an interesting character because of her notable traits. Her cruelty, cunning, and manipulation certainly contribute to one’s fascination with her. However, equally intriguing are Lady Macbeth’s notorious views she possesses. The unyielding views Lady Macbeth holds on manhood, womanhood, and guilt greatly affect her life.…

    • 937 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth's Downfall

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages

    If one has the firmness of killing another, will that person collapse to the forces of guilt and turn themselves in, or will that person suffer the effects of guilt and try to live through their troubles? Guilt can cause many people to turn themselves in or can make people succumb into a deep hole. In the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare reveals that the effects of guilt can cause the downfall of one's status and more importantly, their inner being.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Women Paper

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lady Macbeth is one of the most influential women in Macbeth. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing murder. When Lady Macbeth says, “that tends on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”. She means that she wishes she was not a woman so that she could do it herself. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband overriding all his protests. For example when he hesitates to murder King Duncan, she constantly questions his manhood until he feels he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady Macbeth’s strength of will continues through the murder of the king like when, she talks her husband’s nerves down immediately after he did crime.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fatal Influence On Macbeth

    • 1659 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Everyone as a human being has both good and bad characters, and they will also change as they grow old and some people also learn from their mistakes. In the play, “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, the character of Lady Macbeth depicts both good and evil tendencies, particularly her evil tendencies can be seen at the beginning of the play. Over the course of time, Lady Macbeth changes adequately from the lust of power to more of an anguished person. The consolidation of the fatal influence by the witches and Lady Macbeth on Macbeth is what mustered for a disaster.…

    • 1659 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What would make any man change himself and his personality? Marriage? Without a doubt, Macbeth's real tragedy is his marriage. Macbeth changed from good to evil from Lady Macbeths influence through manipulation and her dominance in her marriage role.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the vast history of English literature, Shakespeare's Macbeth is arguably one of the greatest tragedies to ever have been created. Lady Macbeth presents a dynamic character who undergoes significant changes throughout the text. She goes from being a determined, cold blooded and possessed cruel woman to being a nervous, scared and remorseful soul.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth is a play full of darkness, evil, and tragedy. It is the story of a man who goes against his conscience and commits a horrible deed which leads to his destruction and loss of everything he has around him. This includes the relationship he has with his wife, Lady Macbeth. In the beginning we see Lady Macbeth playing the more superior, more dominating role of the two. She comes across as a woman, who is persuasive and manipulative. She seems willing to trample anyone in order to get what she wants. She lays all the plans and all Macbeth has to do is obey her commands. Macbeth on the other hand is fickle-minded and unsure. We discover that the man, who is praised so highly by the public is actually a weak man. We see that he is not the brave loyal man he is portrayed to be in the beginning.…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Shakespeare’s masterpiece of a play, ‘Macbeth’, carefully depicts that Macbeth’s character was not ruined by fate but rather by damaging errors in his personality. Macbeth’s dangerous quality of ambition brings about his downfall as well as his treachery against his king, his tyranny and also his imaginativeness that eventually lures him into the murder. Although Shakespeare suggests that Macbeth’s decisions were greatly influenced by other characters in his text, it was Macbeth that ultimately decided to listen to these influences due to the many faults in his character.…

    • 88 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lady Macbeth is one of the most powerful and notorious female characters in literature. What makes her so terrifyingly brilliant is her lack of humanity, as we all see when she calls upon the “spirits that tend on moral thoughts” to strip her from her female instincts. The probable cause of her madness is the loss of her child, to deal with her loss, she transmits her weakness into ambition, and finally becomes corrupted and evil. Lady Macbeth repeatedly taunts her husband for his pure, “white”…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics