Character of Lady Macbeth

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Higher English (Macbeth) Note on Character of Lady Macbeth, created by Ebony1023 on 05/10/2013.
Ebony1023
Note by Ebony1023, updated more than 1 year ago
Ebony1023
Created by Ebony1023 about 11 years ago
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At the plays beginning, Lady Macbeth is a powerful figure. Shes charming, attractive , ambitious , and seems to be completely devoted to her husband. Shes also worried that Macbeth isnt quite "man enough" to go through with the murder, and have what it takes to be king.  According to her, her husband is " too full o'th'milk of human kindness " If Macbeth is to be the powerful figure she wants him to be, Lady Macbeths got to take things into her own hands.In Lady Macbeths mind, being a woman, interferes with her evil plans. Lady Mabeth construes femininity as compassion and kindness and also suggests that masculinity is synonymous with " direst cruelty " She implies that Macbeth is too much of a woman in order to weild the power necessary of a monarch. She uses this notion of Macbeths "kindness" against him and pushes him to murder the king. It turns out that Lady Mabeths attack on Macbeths masculinity is the final nudge he needs to Murder Duncan.This all makes Lady Macbeth sound pretty dangerous, kind of like the weird sisters, who are also assosiated with outside forces that seem to push Macbeth into murderous action. Lady Macbeths speech about "unsex me here" aligns her with the witchcraft and supernatural. She also literally wants to fill her husbands ear with harsh words that will help convince him to take action against Duncan. Alot of what Lady Macbeth employs is portrayed as masculine, and therefore making her an unnatural figure. Soon after Macbeth proves his manhood by killing the king, she soon dissapears in the margins of the stories and becomes a weak, feeble she finds herself would probably despise. She learns that the kings body has been found, she grows faint and has to be carried to her room. By act 5, she has been reduced to a figure who sleepwalks and tries o wash imaginary blood from her hands. Shes grown so ill that the doctor says it is beyond his practice.Lady Macbeth is so consumed by her evil acts, that she eventually loses her mind. She is put in her place as a woman, she is no longer the dominant partner in the relationship, Macbeth makes all the decisions.Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as a brazen, war like woman and a manipulator, as the seed of Macbeths evil thoughts. 

Lady Macbeth

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