In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, a numerous amount of hateful actions are committed, especially the death of King Duncan. I believe that Lady Macbeth should be held more responsible for the murder of Duncan than Macbeth because she went out of her way to convince Macbeth to kill him, then covered it up, and felt guilty and received karma for what she did. Although he agreed to actually murdering the king, if it wasn’t for lady Macbeths intentions Macbeth would have not gone through with the plan. Lady Macbeth made Macbeth the horrible human he became; she is more capable of evil than he is. She has great influence over
13-18) Lady Macbeth voices her concern over Macbeth’s nature, stating that he is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness” to commit the murder that Lady Macbeth desires. Lady Macbeth is not troubled by murder. Given her immoral mindset, no despicable act is beyond her. She simply has to work harder to overcome Macbeth’s reluctance. Accordingly, Lady Macbeth shows that she is willing to perform any evil act in order to ascend to the throne.
Madea is the wife of Jason, who was abandoned by him and left with no one because she was exiled from her original land. Madea shows that being betrayed by Jason she needs to get back at him by killing his wife and her kids eventually becoming criminally insane. Lady Macbeth and Madea define themselves through their husbands because both commit or persuade acts of violence for personal gain eventually driving themselves insane. Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to become King of Scotland and she wants to become the Queen of Scotland. When she hears of the witches prophecy that Macbeth will become King she is power hungry.
This confuses and annoys Macbeth because the three witches said that Macbeth would one day be king. So, Lady Macbeth, thinking only of her and how much she wants the power, tricks Macbeth into thinking that he would be the only one gaining power and killing Duncan wouldn’t be beneficial to her at all. Macbeth agrees to murder Duncan; but, as the time to kill Duncan comes nearer, Macbeth starts having second thoughts about killing Duncan and is beginning to back out of completing this task. Lady Macbeth does not like this and starts to call him a coward and questions him by asking if he is afraid to act the way he wants to. She goes on to say that if she were him, she would follow through with her promise “I have given suck, and know how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me.
Her hallucination of the blood on her hands and her constant efforts to wash it off shows the suffering of having a guilty conscience, which is causing her to go insane. We later find out that she commits suicide due to it. The purpose of blood changes for the last time to a symbol of freedom when Macduff says, "I have no words: / My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain / Than terms can give thee out!" (Act 5, Scene 8, Lines 9-10) and then goes on to slay Macbeth. After analyzing all the different uses of blood throughout the book you can see how Shakespeare uses “blood” to show the change and transformation of characters.
It reveals Lady Macbeth's diabolical nature: instead of advising him against believing the witches' prediction that he would become king she decides to incite him to murder Duncan. She knows fully well that her husband could become king of Scotland only by murdering Duncan. It reveals that Macbeth is "too full o' the milk of human kindness" and how she plans to "chastise him with the valour of her tongue" to fulfil their ambitions, this quote also shows some disturbance in Lady Macbeth because it sounds quite manly and unfeminine. This clearly indicates that Lady Macbeth is the dominant partner in their marriage and that although Macbeth is a brave and courageous military commander he can be easily manipulated by his wife. This has led many critics to conjecture whether Lady Macbeth herself is a witch in human form.
She immediately forces Macbeth to act on the witches prophecies and murder Duncan in his sleep. Later, when Macbeth becomes uncertain about committing the crime, it is his wife who goads and belittles him guilting him into doing something he does not necessarily want to do. When Macbeth returns with the bloody dagger after killing the King, Lady Macbeth gets angry and calls him a coward, questioning his manhood, again manipulating her husband to get what she wants – the
It is ironic because when Lady Macbeth enters, the doctor and gentlewoman are discussing her ailment of sleepwalking. Lady Macbeth starts telling them about the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff. She tells the gentlewoman that her murdering hand will always smell like blood; “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!”(5.1.51-53).
This guilt is built up because she was the sole supporter and fuel for Macbeth’s ambition to murder. She is the one who started the plan with her insistence that Macbeth kill Duncan in order to inherit the throne. Macbeth may not have even committed the murder had it not been for her forceful and manipulative urging. Lady Macbeth experiences a more subconscious, subtle feeling of guilt. During her waking hours, she appears to be perfectly content with their master murder plan as she convinces her husband to do dastardly deeds.
But it isn’t just a role reversal in her behaving as a man might. Lady Macbeth is more indecent and conniving because she has maintained her manipulative feminisms which ironically diminish her husband, making him appear weak and without resolve. In the end when she finally confronts her own conscience to know how horrible she has been, the Lady collapses, disintegrates and disappears. How awful. Over and over and over again Lady Macbeth challenges her husband’s manhood and his will to kill and seize Duncan’s throne in Act I: