How Does Shakespeare Present Lady Macbeth as Evil and Cunning

I think Lady Macbeth should take some blame for Duncan’s death, but I don’t think she’s evil, she is tricky and cunning when she influences Macbeth to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s ability to influence her husband leads us the audience to believe that she is the primary cause for the destruction of Macbeth. I believe she is responsible because she makes up the details of the plan to kill Duncan, while Macbeth was considering not even going through with the murder. Although Macbeth had the thought of killing Duncan, he would not have acted on that unless Lady Macbeth persuaded him.

Lady Macbeth is a sly person, able to manipulate her husband, and this ability to manipulate Macbeth makes her partially responsible for the destruction of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is too kind to kill Duncan without her help she fears. She is very much aware of the fact that she needs to push Macbeth to kill Duncan or else he won’t do it. We see Macbeth’s hesitance to kill the king when he lists reasons not to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth insults her husband by undermining his manliness. Lady Macbeth tells her husband “when durst do it then you were a man and to be much more than what you were, you would be so much more than a man.” This is the primary way in which lady Macbeth is responsible for the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth is the blame for the destruction of her husband because she orchestrated Duncan’s murder and did just about everything except actually kill Duncan. She plans the murder and she sets things in motion by giving the wine to the king’s servants. She also is the one who makes the signal that all is ready. Lady Macbeth solely set up Duncan’s murder making it as easy as possible for Macbeth to commit the assassination of the king. The audience doesn’t know that lady Macbeth feels that she is responsible for the destruction of Macbeth until the end when she sleepwalks.

Lady Macbeth fooled Duncan with her great hospitality and thoughtfulness. She also is good at remaining cool in tense situations and is good at getting out of tense situations. For example when Macbeth was hallucinating at the dinner party, and was seeing Banquo’s ghost, Lady Macbeth remained cool and made up a plausible explanation for her husband’s actions. Although she seems to have no conscience, we see at the end when she’s sleepwalking, that she is deeply troubled. She knows that it is partially her fault for all the murders especially Duncan’s. Her fear of darkness shows the audience that she regrets what she has done and that she knows what she did was wrong. The thought of killing Duncan entered Macbeth’s mind before he spoke to his wife. He first reveals his thoughts when he says, “ if good, why do i yield to that suggestion.” Macbeth expresses his desire to be able to kill Duncan even though he knows he will regret it when he says, “the eye wink at the hand, yet let that be / which the eye fears, when its done, to see.” Lady Macbeth gave Macbeth that extra push that he needed to become a ruthless killer. However not all the blame can go on Lady Macbeth her husband didn’t have to listen to her and he didn’t have to kill Duncan. Macbeth chooses to kill Duncan, it was his own free will. Lady Macbeth did influence his thinking but Macbeth could not be totally blameless. He must atleast take half of the blame for his destruction, Lady Macbeth however is also responsible and she could not be getting off the hook, she deserves what she gets in the end because she was the main factor in Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan. This decision led to Macbeth becoming a ruthless killer. And that leads Lady Macbeth to be more evil than her husband Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth - a Manipulative Evil-doer

Introduction: In his 1606 play Macbeth, Shakespeare portrays the character Lady Macbeth as a fourth witch in order to satirize traditional, misogynist understandings of witches. Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as a witch by assigning her characteristics that were commonly associated with witches and by having her allude to recurrent symbols associated with witchcraft. Thesis statement: Lady Macbeth is characterized as a masculine anti-mother and a manipulative “poisoner,” all of which are common, misogynistic stereotypes of the witch. Lady Macbeth also references evil spirits and swine, both of which are traditional symbols associated with the witch.

Topic sentence: Shakespeare characterizes Lady Macbeth as an anti-mother in order to poke fun at the misogynistic stereotype that witches were unmotherly. Evidence & citing: One can see anti-maternal characteristics in Lady Macbeth when she shames her husband for questioning the plan they had created. In order to persuade Macbeth to follow through with the plan, Lady Macbeth references a brutal infanticide: “I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out” (Shakespeare 1.7.64-66). Commentary: In these chilling lines, Lady Macbeth tells her husband that she would rather kill her own child than break a solemn oath. In saying this, Lady Macbeth breaks the mold of the stereotypical, loving wife, revealing her unfavorable view of children, and in turn, her anti-maternal nature. Evidence & citing: Lady Macbeth also displays anti-maternal characteristics when she says, “come to my women’s breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers” (Shakespeare 1.5.54-55). As stated in the Oxford English Dictionary, the term gall refers to the “secretion of the liver, bile” (“Gall”). In this line, Lady Macbeth prays for her breasts to be filled with a poison so vile and bitter, that it could kill an infant. Commentary: By asking for her breastmilk to be replaced with poison, Lady Macbeth rejects the motherly idea that the function of the breasts is to feed infants, further emphasizing her anti-maternal instincts. Evidence & citing: Furthermore, Lady Macbeth displays her anti-maternal attitude when she says, “It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” (Shakespeare 1.5.17). In this line, Lady Macbeth compares Macbeth to a pregnant woman who is lactating. She tells him that he is too full of breast milk, meaning that he is acting too kindly. This comparison highlights Lady Macbeth’s view that pregnancy equates to weakness, painting her as the ultimate anti-maternal figure.

Topic sentence: Shakespeare also portrays Lady Macbeth as anti-feminine, another common misogynistic stereotype of witches, in order to highlight the absurdness of this belief. Background: During Shakespeare’s time, it was believed that witches violated traditional gender roles, taking on more masculine traits than feminine ones. Evidence & citing: One example of Lady Macbeth exhibiting this anti-feminine characteristic is when she says, “Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (Shakespeare 1.5.48-50). In these lines, Lady Macbeth wishes to be stripped of her feminine traits, in exchange for masculine ones. She believes that her feminine characteristics will interfere with her murderous scheme and she rejects them, declaring her femininity as a hindrance rather than a gift. Evidence & citing: Another example of Lady Macbeth’s anti-feminine nature is during the banquet when she says, “O, these flaws and starts, imposters to true fear, would well become a woman’s story at a winter’s fire” (Shakespeare 3.4.76-78). In these lines, Lady Macbeth equates femininity with fear, further emphasizing her inherent masculinity. Commentary: In doing this, Lady Macbeth implies that she cannot possess power or strength, so long as she is a woman.

Topic sentence: Shakespeare also characterizes Lady Macbeth as a manipulative evil-doer who successfully persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan. He does this in order to express his contemptuous derision towards the commonly held view that witches are deceitful and only use their magic for malicious purposes. Evidence & citing: Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth to commit the murder, telling him, “but screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail” (Shakespeare 1.7.70-71). Commentary: Lady Macbeth wants her husband to kill King Duncan so that he can gain power and she can revel in the power with him. Lady Macbeth ignites the fire to Macbeth’s ambition, using her powers of manipulation to get what she desires, representing all things evil and immoral. Evidence & citing: She instructs Macbeth on how to follow through with his plan, exclaiming, “bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent underneath it” (Shakespeare 1.6.75-77) Commentary: In these lines, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to appear benign on the outside in order to belie his murderous plans, further satirizing the farcical stereotype that witches were malevolent forces of evil, determined to manipulate and mislead.

Topic sentence: Moreover, Shakespeare characterizes Lady Macbeth as a “poisoner,” ridiculing the preposterous stereotype that witches used poisons for evil purposes, such as to harm or kill someone. Although Lady Macbeth does not poison her husband in the literal sense, she poisons her husband’s mind, causing him to become a different person, a power-hungry tyrant, who will not hesitate to harm anyone who gets in his way. She fills his mind with evil thoughts, tainting his morality to the point where Macbeth is unable to decipher right from wrong. At first, Macbeth is hesitant to follow through with their wicked plan, telling Lady Macbeth that “we will proceed no further in this business” (Shakespeare 1.7.34). Lady Macbeth, however, does not take no for an answer. Evidence & citing: She psychologically manipulates Macbeth into following through with their plan by repeatedly questioning his manhood and his courage. For example, lady Macbeth tells her husband, “when you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.56-58). Commentary: In these lines, Lady Macbeth scolds her husband, telling him that he is acting like a coward and that she will not consider him a true man until he assassinates the king. This evil influence that lady Macbeth has exerted on her husband causes Macbeth to murder King Duncan, an act that he most likely would not have committed on his own.

Topic sentence: Not only does Lady Macbeth share characteristics in common with the stereotypical witch, but she also alludes to the act of calling on evil spirits in order to satirize the misogynistic stereotype that witches acted in accordance with outside forces, such as evil spirits and the devil. Commentary: Lady Macbeth calls on these evil spirits to fill her heart with cruelty so that she can more easily manipulate her husband into killing King Duncan. Evidence & citing: She calls to the spirits, begging them, “fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood” (Shakespeare 1.5.49-50). Lady Macbeth hopes that these spirits will fill her with the utmost malevolence so that she can completely focus on her evil purpose. Lady Macbeth makes yet another reference to the spirit realm when preparing Macbeth for the murder of King Duncan. Evidence & citing: Lady Macbeth tells her husband, “hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round” (Shakespeare 1.5.27-30). Commentary: In this line, Lady Macbeth informs Macbeth that she believes she possess the necessary evil qualities, which she calls “my spirits,” that Macbeth needs to become king. Evidence & citing: In addition, Lady Macbeth references the devil when she says, “Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil” (Shakespeare 2.2.70-71). Commentary: In this line, Lady Macbeth uses her powers of manipulation on Macbeth, causing him to question his courage. She compares him to a frightened child because he will not return to the scene of the crime and frame the drunken guards for King Duncan’s murder. By having Lady Macbeth allude to the spiritual world in this way, Shakespeare mocks the stereotypical view that witches were in league with evil forces, which they used to fulfill their evil intentions.

Topic sentence: Lady Macbeth not only references the spirit world, but she also references swine, specifically the killing of swine in order to criticize the absurd stereotype that witches sacrificed these animals. Evidence & citing: When Lady Macbeth is sleeping, she says, “When in swinish sleep their drenched natures lies as in a death” (Shakespeare 1.7.77-78). Commentary: In this line, Lady Macbeth emphasizes the fact that that the two guards are now dead, condemned to an eternal sleep. She compares the two dead guards to dead swine. The belief that witches killed and sacrificed swine originated far before Shakespeare’s day. Homer’s The Odyssey, which was written in 675-725 BCE, is responsible for contributing to the popularity of this idea. In Homer’s epic, Circe, the Witch of Aiaia drugs a group of sailors and turns them into swine. Not only was it believed that witches killed swine, but it was also believed that they harmed other animals too, sometimes even sacrificing them to the devil. As stated by Michael D. Bailey in Magic and Superstition in Europe, “animals were slain in such magical rites as sacrifices to demons” (Bailey 10). By having Lady Macbeth reference the killing of swine in her sleep, Shakespeare ridicules this ludicrous belief.

Conclusion paragraph: It is clear that Lady Macbeth is the fourth witch of Macbeth. Although Lady Macbeth cannot be described as a witch in the supernatural sense, because she does not possess magical powers, she shares several characteristics in common with the stereotypical view of the witch. These characteristics that Lady Macbeth shares in common with the witch, such as her masculinity and manipulative nature are only a portion of the misogynistic stereotypes that are held of witches. By portraying Macbeth as a fourth witch and assigning her these stereotypical characteristics, Shakespeare is able emphasize their inherent sexist and deceptive nature. Although Shakespeare satirizes these concepts by highlighting their foolishness and bizarreness, he urges the reader to rid themselves of these preconceived notions and adopt their own view of witches, free of stereotypical influence. By bringing these beliefs to light, Shakespeare encourages the reader to develop more open-minded views of witches and the influence that they have had on society.

References

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