lady macbeth essay

"lady macbeth makes the play more engaging for the audience ", consider this statement with reference to the text.  

"lady macbeth is a great,bad woman, whom we hate but who we fear more than hate". i believe that this quote from W.Hazlitt, in reference to lady macbeth, is an extremely fitting description of he charachter with which i believe the audience may form the most complex relationship with. having studied this 17th century tradgedy, it becomes clear to us that it is through her bravery, ruthfulness and power that lady macbeth captivates the audience and draws them in, through a use of surreal imagery and unconventional thoughts. lady macbeth is undoubtedly portrayed by shakespeare as an extremely powerful woman, who thus inspires the female audience, as women in this era where often portrayed as weak and feeble creatures. there is no doubt that once the female audience have seen lady macbeth is act one scene X, immediatly taking control of such an alarming situation, that they would immediatly be drawn in, intruiged by her character and even subconciously rooting for her good fortune to begin with, no matter how immoraly gained it may be.i feel that shakespeare may have created lady macbeths character in this way so that the audience begin to question themselves and their own nature, aswel as the characters natures as the play progresses and there thoughts and actions becoing increasingly malevolant. i feel this is true as shakespeare often uses his writing to explore human nature ,thoughts and morality. this is why we often se soliloquys full of indecision , and the consiquence of actions, but rarely the climactic scenes themselves. morover, the power and dominace which lady macbeth is seen to have over the situation and her husband may also have been written to intertain the male audience who would have found this behaviour outrageously bold, and definitly not a womans place. this would most likely have caused riots between the groundlings (the lower audience on the globe who would often be drunk and boisturous). the inhuman and remorsless nature seen in lady macbeths character would also have made the play extremely interesting for the audience who no doubt would have looked on in fasination and horror. immediatly upon recieving news of her husbands prophecy of kingship we see lady macbeth turn to "evil spirits that do tend on mortal thoughts" to "unsex" her, stripping her of her femininity in order to become powerful and full from "the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty".there is no doubt that this scene of impulsive degenerancy would have filled the audience with sickened curiosity towards the complete perversion of her nature. her vicious and malevolant nature becomes clearer to us after she has asked these evil spirits to rid her of morality, and we see her turn from being in control of her husband, to completely shaming and blackmailing him in order to gain the power she wants from his role as king. right throught the play we see her shame macbeth by stripping him of his masculinity, comparing him to milk,and babies, and other weak and feminine relate ideas. she clearly shows her disgust for his remaining morals and his feebleness when she talks of how she fears his nature is "too full o' the milk of human kindness" to carry out such an act. this would not only have enraged a male audience to see a female step so beyond her boundaries, but it would have also kept the whole audience attentive, waiting to see if macbeth would bend under his wifes pressure, and to see what hights ladymacbeth would bring her heinousness to next. perhps the most interesting, yet unsettling characteristic of lady macbeths nature , which wuld have been of great interest to the audience, is her complete lack of remorse. as the play progresses it truely seems as thought the spirits have rid her of all morality and ruefulness. besides her lack of remorse at the murder of duncan, and her extreme anger at her husbands grief, the most blindingly obvious example of this is while she blackmails macbeth, trying to convince him to comitt the regicide. she tells him , with seemingly full conviction that "i have given suck and know how ytender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:i would, while it was smiling in my face,have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash'd the brains out, had i so sworn as you have done to this". not only is se trying to blackmail the man she is supposed to love into murder, but she uses what is incontestably the most vulgar and inhumane image that one could use. how could a mother so easily talk of the murder of her own child ? there is no aguement against the fact that this scene would definitly have left the audience ot only shocked and intruiged, but sickend at such a thought, all the while adding to the tension in the play. there is surely no doubt in the mind of anyone who has studied or indeed even watched the ingeneous plot of macbeth unfold, that lady macbeth is a cruel and powerful character who time and time again has left audiences, contemporary and modern intruiged and disgusted throughtout the entire play. she is clearly seen to manipulate and blackmail those around her , and to even give up her own humanity in order to carry out the brutal tasks that she felt needed to be done, and thus, is and extremely engaging, and disturbingly admirable charachter, due to her bravery , no matter how ill her intntions are.