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Example research essay topic: Act Four Scene Lady Macbeth - 1,929 words

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The Demise of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth Lady Macbeth is first portrayed as a strong character in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Since she is introduced while calling on evil spirits to make her cruel, any reader can easily believe that she is manly, even more so than many of the male characters in the play. However, how strong and manly is she? Lady Macbeth's masculinity may be strong at first, but her feminine traits far outweigh her masculine ones. Lady Macbeth's ungraceful demise in Macbeth is due to the conflict and complexity caused by the strain of taking upon herself both male and female gender roles. When Lady Macbeth is first introduced, she calls out to spirits: unsex me here, / and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ Of direst cruelty.

Make thick my blood (1. 5. 48 - 50). Her villainous line, unsex me here, cries out masculinity. She begs to be neither man nor woman, but just a cruel being. Cruel however, is what she considers a man should be, proven by her lines to her husband: When you durst do it, then you were a man (1. 7. 56). She is referring to murdering Duncan as it. Although she desires to be a man, her same lines prove her femininity and her conflict.

Coriat suggests her insanity is bought about because she believes she possesses bravery although she really does not (2). Her having to ask to be unsexed and filled with direst cruelty proves she is not truly manly. She just wishes to be so for the purpose of helping her husband to achieve his ambition. This line is the first sign of role strain; she is truly feminine, but her lust for her husband to sit upon the throne makes her behave otherwise. Later in lines 47 - 48 in Act One scene four, Lady Macbeth again shows this strain in sexual roles. Lady Macbeth invokes the spirits with the command, Come to my womans breasts, / And take my milk for gall proving that she is aware of her sexuality by using the classic words associated with childbirth and maternity, breasts and milk (Jameson, 192).

Her lines, Stop up th access and passage to remorse (1. 5. 51), foreshadow her evil deeds coming back to haunt her even though she may feel no remorse now. Again, she must ask for the strength not to regret what she is about to do, and again this shows that being sinister is not what she really is. The reader later knows that even Lady Macbeth is aware she is striving to be something that she is not when she says to her husband, These deeds must not be thought/After these ways; so, it will make us mad (2. 2. 45 - 46). However, Lady Macbeth's turmoil lays not only in her viciousness, but also in her role as a mother. Parental love is an integral part in the plot and developments in Macbeth. Two examples reveal the significance of this theme.

The first is the touching scene between Lady Macduff and her son in Act Four, scene two and Macduff's distraught reaction when he finds out about the slaughter of his family in Act Four scene three. Secondly, Siwards military praise, Had I as many sons as hairs, /I would not wish them to a fairer death (5. 8. 56 - 57), shows his paternal pride and contentment with his son furthers the point. Unlike the Macduff's and Seward Lady Macbeth covertly reveals her maternal love. While arguing with her husband in an effort to convince him to murder Duncan she claims, I have given suck, and know/How tender tis to love the babe that milks me. /I would, while it was smiling in my face, /Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums/And dashed the brains out (1. 7. 62 - 66). Her one statement is filled with identity struggle. The statement infers that Lady Macbeth once had a child and loved the child.

But what she would do to the baby, if her husband asked, tends to leave the reader stunned and not overly confident with how much she loves her baby. Although she does seem to have loved her baby, the protective instinct is not present. Lady Macbeth seems confused about how she feels towards children, which is just another dilemma within herself. Another example the femme fatale reveals her tortured inner nature is when she speaks of Duncan to her husband and boasts, Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done t (2. 2. 16 - 17).

Freud calls this her faint stirring of reluctance (1). On one hand she comes across as brave and bold, but she really is not. Lady Macbeth never offers to kill Duncan herself, nor do any of her soliloquies suggest that she would. Her reluctance to kill Duncan herself is a sign of weakness.

Comparing Duncan to her father and claiming that as the reason for not killing him shows that even she has boundaries, or at least sensitive areas, that she will not cross, and that make her weak. Her reluctance to kill the gracious king herself is a sign of her femininity. Ribner also notices her weakness and femininity; he points out she seems unnaturally dominant in the planning of the murder, but her femininity comes through in her inability to the king herself (np). Klein furthers this idea by presenting the fact that her plans for both the murder and the clean up are surprisingly domesticated (247). She lays out the daggers, has all the candles blown out, and commands Macbeth to wash up and change into his sleeping clothes. However, when Lady Macbeth finally beholds Duncan's slaughtered body she faints on the spot marking the beginning of a gradual regression into her femininity.

Along with her regression into the traditional feminine roles comes a newly seen concern for others and their well being. Lady Macbeth does not find any of the other murders her husband commits or has a hand in as necessary. To Macbeth's intention of killing Banquo her thoughts are, Things without all remedy/ Should be done without regard. Whats done is done (3. 2. 13 - 14).

She sends a messenger to warn Lady Macduff of Macbeth's plans to slaughter Macduff's family. Justification for this supposition can be found in the fact that Lady Macbeth obviously knew about her husband murdering Macduff's family, The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is/ She now? Will these hands neer be clean (5. 1. 44 - 45).

She feels an understandable amount of grief that leads her to talk in her sleep about the situation. Her guilt continues to grow when remorse for killing Duncan surfaces, Yet who would have thought the old man/ To have so much blood in him (5. 1. 41 - 42). Even though Lady Macbeth initially desires to be an unemotional monster, she continually epitomizes the roles of wife and hostess. Klein reminds us that Lady Macbeth's thoughts after receiving the news of Duncan's visit is that he Must be provided for (1. 5. 69) (247). When Duncan and Lady Macbeth first greet each other Duncan refers to Lady Macbeth as honored hostess.

King Duncan is so impressed by her abilities as a host he has Banquo greet her with a diamond and the name of most kind hostess (2. 1. 19). Lady Macbeth is last seen in Act Three before the sleep-walking scene. This scene is at a banquet where she is the hostess. While Macbeth speaks to gory ghost, Lady Macbeth desperately attempts to calm her guests by making excuses for her husband, My lord is often thus/ And hath been from his youth.

Pray you, keep seat (3. 4. 64 - 65). However, not even her duty as a hostess can hinder her from attending to her husbands needs. Klein states that Lady Macbeth sees herself almost as nothing more than a wife and companion (244). Rudely she commands, Stand not upon the order of your going, / But go at once (3. 4. 146 - 147).

She continues to worry about Macbeth's health as she informs him he lacks the season of all natures, sleep (3. 4. 173). Even to the end she never intentionally tells another about what her husband has done. The stress of adhering to her feminine roles and attempting to continue to please Macbeth leads Lady Macbeth to subconsciously express her fears. An interesting behavior Bradley points out is Lady Macbeth's fear of darkness by observing that she constantly has a light by her side (334).

It can be inferred that she carries a light with her when she leaves to plant the daggers on the two guards because the castle candles are all out, and a light would be necessary to see (2. 1. 6 and 2. 2. stage direction). The Gentlewoman informs the doctor, She has the light by her continually. Tis her command (5. 1. 24 - 25).

Lady Macbeth's fear is a representation of her acceptance of her femininity. Not only is she not afraid to verbally admit her femininity, but she is also willing to outwardly show her emotion by expressing her fears, and, more importantly, her desire for comfort and condolence, in an easily observable way. Lady Macbeth's acceptance of her fears can also be interpreted as her submission to her guilt and as a foreshadowing of how she plans to end her confusion; by using the weakest way out. Lady Macbeth's inner confusion eventually leads her to become insane. Although she originally strives to be manly, her feminine qualities overpower her and bring forth too much grief for her to handle.

What she did in her masculine state of mind was murderous and treacherous. However, in her true state of being, which is a kinder state of being, she cannot forgive herself. According to Coriat, she shrinks from the guilty secret and enters the hysterical dissociation (6). She is not a cruel person but a misguided one, and through her confused mindset she creates a monster. However, her monster is created out of love for Macbeth. Lady Macbeth truly loves Macbeth, and all she does is for his advancement, never hers (Jameson, 192).

She becomes who she is not in order to please him and gain his acceptance. She is quick to sacrifice her womanliness in order to please Macbeth (Freud, 1). Macbeth seems to love her while she is cruel and traitorous. Sadly, when Lady Macbeth becomes more feminine he leaves her for the evil witches. The responsibility of having to bear the guilt of the vile things done without Macbeth is more than she can bear. The result is an off stage suicide.

Works Cited Bradley, A. C. Lecture. Macbeth. Shakespearean Tragedy. New York: St.

Martins Press, 1904. 331 - 365. Coriat, Isador H. The Hysteria of Lady Macbeth. Moffat Yard and Company 1912.

EXPLORING Shakespeare. Online. Galenet. < web > 19 Feb 2004. Freud, Sigmund. Some Character-types Met With In Psycho-analytic Work. 1916. Online. < web F.

htm> 19 Feb 2004 Ribner, Irving. Macbeth: The Pattern of Idea and Action. Shakespeare Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 2 Spring, 1959. EXPLORING Shakespeare Online. Galenet. < web > 19 Feb 2004 Jameson, Anna Brownell. Shakespeare's Heroines: Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical, & Social.

Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. George News. Cambridge: Cambridge, 1967. 309 - 331. Klein, Joan Larsen. Infirm of Purpose.

Class Set. 241 - 253 Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. B.

A. Mowat. New York: Washington Square, 1992.


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Research essay sample on Act Four Scene Lady Macbeth

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