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... now fighting for what he is, the king. By the end of the play, Macbeth is tired of living. This is caused by his struggle to stay king and to get rid of his threats, giving in to all the pressure: "I'gin to be away of the sun. " As he prepares to defend the castle, he again looks to the witches for spiritual support, hoping that their prophesies are at all true because if they are not he will lose everything he had gained. Once Macbeth and Macduff come to face each other, Macbeth does not fear him as the witches told him anyone born by a woman will not harm him. Macbeth refuses to kill him whilst fighting each other as he is sorry for the killing of his family.
He later finds out that Macduff was born by caesarean section and so accepts his fate but refuses to surrender. This shows his previous form in Act 1 of his fearlessness, when he was good and honest, and shows that he is not afraid of death. By sparing Macduff's life and showing the courage to fight to his death, Macbeth shows that he was not all pure butcher, but a good man led on by his ambition. Lady Macbeth is described as a fiend-like queen. In the beginning she is a loyal wife and has huge ambitions for Macbeth. She believes that he deserves to be the king but knows that his conscience will get in the way.
She knows that he wont kill Duncan by himself, so she offers help and is willing to do anything to make Macbeth king and herself queen. The Collins Modern English Dictionary describes a fiend as a cruel, brutal, or spiteful person, but if she were cruel and brutal she would not care so much for Macbeth, and if she was spiteful she would not want the best for her husband. This attitude is especially seen at the start of the play but it changes throughout. When Lady Macbeth receives the letter from her husband, she too realises that for this prophecy to become a reality as quickly as possible, they must first get rid of Duncan. This is a sign of that "fiend-like queen" turning up. She again thinks that Macbeth deserves to be a great person, but she also thinks that he is too nice a person and he wouldnt do something so immoral: "Yet do I fear thy nature: It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way.
Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it. " Before the killing of Duncan she has to look to the spirits to make her evil enough to carry out the deed with Macbeth: "Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts! unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. " This shows that before this incident she was not a fiend as she could not find it in herself to carry out the deeds so she has to get the evil from somewhere else, and in this case it is from evil spirits. Even after this she can not bring herself to kill Duncan so she uses the excuse that Duncan looks too much like her father when he sleeps, leaving only Macbeth to kill him: Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done. Lady Macbeth shows good knowledge of her husband as she knows that his indecisiveness will get in the way of their ambitions. She tries to rectify this by using strong words and threats to encourage him to kill Duncan, and it works: "Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round. " After the murder Lady Macbeth is very calm, completely opposite of Macbeth who is extremely agitated.
She is not afraid of anything and thinks that by cleaning their hands of the blood, they will clean their hands of the deed: "A little water clears us of this deed. " I do not think that this is a sign of a "fiend-like queen" as she is under the influence of the wine she has drunk. The wine has given her courage and made her brave, brave enough to sort out the mistakes that Macbeth made. It seems as though the whole incident has had no effect on Lady Macbeth, she feels no fear, until she sees Duncan's body. It then hits her on what they have done, the effects of the alcohol disappear and she regains her real feelings, especially fear. These reactions by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth show us that they are actually good people who would not normally do something like that. Soon after the death of Duncan their relationship starts to change.
For the planning of the murder, Lady Macbeth is in control, she influences Macbeth into his actions, showing that "fiend-like queen" side of her. After the death though, Lady Macbeth becomes more distant. She is not told about the plans to kill Banquo and Macbeth seems to go off by himself. Lady Macbeth has enticed Macbeth in to going off by himself and doing what he wanted without any more of her help. By the beginning of Act 5 Lady Macbeth has completely lost her confidence and calmness that she had in Act 1.
She starts to sleepwalk and is being haunted by her thoughts of the killings that she was a part of. As she is sleepwalking she sees blood on her hands that can not be removed, in contrast to what she thought earlier: Yet here's a spot Out, damned spot! Out, I say! What, will these hands ne " er be clean? Here's the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes Of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. " This act of sleepwalking could be Lady Macbeth paying the price for what she has done. It soon becomes too much for her and she commits suicide.
I think that she was just trying to help Macbeth get what he had deserved, but if she was a "fiend-like queen" then she would not be haunted by her fears, the murders would have no effect on her. In conclusion I believe that the quote from Malcolm, A dead butcher and his fiend-like queen, is not an entirely accurate representation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, contrary to my initial thoughts. This remark may have some truth to it, as Macbeth did kill Macduff's family brutally, and Lady Macbeth did manipulate Macbeth into doing the things he did, but they both realised what they had done, and what they had done was bad. They regretted their actions and I dont think that regret is something that a butcher and a fiend would feel. The butcher and fiend side of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth showed up only in certain places, suggesting that these sides are some kind of alter-ego they both have, maybe even a mental problem, but they both were normal noble people before it all started. The witches can be seen as more responsible for Macbeth's actions as they gave him the thought of regicide, but it was Lady Macbeth that spurred him on to put that thought in to action, which later got out of control under the influence of their own ambitions. [url][/url]
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Research essay sample on Fiend Like Queen Macbeth And Lady Macbeth
