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The play is about a king who is murdered by one of his most trusted men trying to gain power. During the play Shakespeare heightens the mood by using various accounts of imagery. The blood and night imagery that Shakespeare uses adds to the evil, darkness and deception surrounding the play. It is established from the very beginning that Macbeth is ambitious.
A certain level of courage accompanies his ambition as well. The people with greatest impact on Macbeth are the witches, his wife and Lady, and King Duncan of Scotland. The witches introduce the idea, King Duncan gives personal motive, and Lady Macbeth helps along the way. The least influential party in all of this is King Duncan. The conflict between these two is purely circumstantial, but clear enough. Macbeth is an ambitious man.
The King represents the highest position of power that Macbeth can hope to become. When King Duncan thanks Macbeth for his heroic service in battle, Macbeth replies that "your highness is to receive our duties; and our duties, your throne and state children and servants." A King cares for his people as a father cares for his children; and the people are supposed to act like obedient children, which macbeth does there. Duncan's main influence is directly after Macbeth is honoured for bravery and courage in battle, fighting for Duncan against a lord. Macbeth is celebrating his glory and soaking up credit when Duncan basically steals his spotlight from right over his head. This action also makes Macbeth's heroic work less known. Duncan is basically announcing that Macbeth, while noble, is inferior to his wonderful son Malcolm.
The other side of Duncan's murder is due to the contribution of Lady Macbeth, who begins plotting as soon as she finds out Duncan is coming to stay. Macbeth truly found his soul mate in this sense; she certainly does think along the same vein as he. When Macbeth first hears the predictions of the witches, and when the first 2 / 3 of it comes true, he does think of killing the king, but also, towards the end of Act 1, Scene 3, he thinks that perhaps he doesn't need to do anything to become the king: "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir. " On the other hand, Lady Macbeth, on receiving the letter telling her about the witches' predictions, she immediately thinks that she and Macbeth will have to kill King Duncan. She also decides that Macbeth is too nice to kill the king, saying that he "is too full o' the milk of human kindness" and when she hears the Duncan will visit their castle that night, she immediately appeals to the evil spirits, to give her the strength to convince Macbeth to kill the king.
Her influence is completely in her own mind. She takes advantage of Macbeth's Ambition, and uses that to decide what he must do. It should be noted that she doesn't actually have to kill Duncan; so most of the strength she has to build up goes into convincing Macbeth that it is a good idea. He does not decide to murder Duncan; Lady Macbeth does it for him. He's not too fond of the idea, but Lady Macbeth tells him he must commit murder to fulfil his destiny.
Every time he reconsiders, she gives him a lecture. She even instructs him during the murder, drugs Duncan's guards, and advises him on every detail of his behaviour once the deed has been done. Without the prediction of the witches, even Lady Macbeth probably would not have thought of doing such a thing. The witches told Macbeth that he would be king.
He took this statement for granted. For Macbeth, it suddenly changed from whether or not he would be king to how he would get to be king. Without the witches to suggest the major course of action, would Macbeth ever have been so bold as to pursue his ambition? The witches continue to influence Macbeth much later on in the play than we see evidence of either Duncan or Lady Macbeth.
The witches know that Macbeth will be paranoid and kill those about him. Throughout the duration of play Lady Macbeth's nature is revealed. Lady Macbeth has been the authority for Macbeth. Lady Macbeth's character plays a huge role in planting the seed for Macbeth's downfall.
At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is introduced as a dominant, controlling, heartless wife with an obsessive ambition to achieve kingship for her husband. Her weak and unstable condition is only revealed at the end of the play. However, the audience begins to see hints of this by the way, in which Macbeth addresses her. It is only in private that Lady Macbeth shows her weaknesses.
Although Lady Macbeth is unstable, she uses dramatic words to persuade her husband to follow through with the first murder: Her shocking and persuasive effect on Macbeth convinces him that he is "settled, " By hearing a woman who seems to be fearless, he is relaxed. She knows that Macbeth is a strong person, and she must seem stronger to convince him to go along with her. She now has to wear a 'mask' of this determined and cold character, creating more distance between her true self and Macbeth. Lady Macbeth imagines that she has ability to hide her true emotions, She claims that she can act to "look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't" Lady Macbeth imagines that she has the capability to be a determined villain, but she isn't anything of the like in reality. In fact, at the end of the play Lady Macbeth becomes overwhelmed with guilt.
The guilt that has been set upon her by her husband convincing him to kill. She is the one who convinces her husband to commit the murders, therefore ending in a series of emotional and mental problems. As the play begins, she is a hungry woman. But as the play moves on, Lady Macbeth begins to fall further and further into guilt ending in her own suicide. In the beginning, she believes matters should be taken into her own hands from the moment she receives the letter about the witches' predictions. Lady Macbeth intentionally tries to ignore consequence and concentrates on Macbeth's future as king.
As soon as her eyes ran across the words, she said, "thou shalt be what thou art promised" After the murder is plotted between the two, Duncan decides to make a surprise appearance at Macbeth's house. The couple's ambition, although obsessive, is a characteristic of human nature. He realizes everything in life was in vain; therefore his wife's death seems more like an escape from their life. Perhaps if Macbeth and his lady were happy with who they were, they would not have let power, ambition, and authority, get in the way of their chances of happiness.
Macbeth changes from a loyal soldier of the Scottish king to a murderous tyrant. At the start of the play Macbeth is ambitious, and devoted to his wife. These characteristics are shown through the victory against the rebels, Macbeth's trust in the witches and his letter to his wife. In the second half of the play Macbeth becomes cruel, insecure and distant from Lady Macbeth.
The events that show this change are the murders Macbeth commits, his voluntary return to the witches and his reaction to his wife's death. Banquo realises that there must be a trick hidden in the witches' predictions but Macbeth refuses to accept that. Macbeth chooses to let the witches influence him, but Banquo does not. One of the events had shown that macbeth was superstitious because he had trusted the witches. Macbeth was also devoted to his wife.
He told his wife everything. Macbeth even called his wife "my dearest partner of greatness." This proves the affection and trust he had in Lady Macbeth. Together they plot to murder Duncan. Later, Macbeth becomes distant and cold towards Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth can no longer control Macbeth, and after killing Duncan he begins to act alone. When Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth states "She should have died hereafter. There would have been time for such a word. " He hears the news of his wife's death and reacts unemotionally and as if it hasn't touched him at all. His punishment is as great as his crimes. At the end Macbeth does not run away or kill himself. Although Macbeth knows that he is doomed, he fights Macduff to the end, showing he is still courageous and brave.
Night has a role of great importance during the play. Lady Macbeth beckons, "Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry "Hold, hold!" The night, however, gives her the impression that Macbeth can indeed kill King Duncan with no one uncovering his crime, the same idea that Macbeth had when he said, "Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires" It seems as if the whole plot revolves around the night and the roles it holds throughout the play. Shakespeare often uses darkness and storms to show that evil happenings are occurring or are about to take place. Before Duncan's murder, Macbeth imagines seeing a dagger floating in the air before him. He describes it, "And on thy blade and dudgeon gout's of blood, Which was not so before. There's no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. " This blood imagery refers to ambition, and murder.
Blood, once seen as a value, is now associated with evil. Macbeth only realises the severity of the crime once it has been done and is trying to wash Duncan's blood off his hands.
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Research essay sample on Lady Macbeth Imagines Kill King Duncan
