At The End Of The Play, Malcolm Refers To Lady Macbeth As "Fiend-Like". How Far Do You Think This Is An Appropriate Description Of Her?

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At The End Of The Play, Malcolm Refers To Lady Macbeth As “Fiend-Like”. How Far Do You Think This Is An Appropriate Description Of Her?

When Malcolm refers to Lady Macbeth as “fiend-like”, it evokes an assortment of reactions from the audience. A fiend would be devilish before, during and after committing murders. Before the murders, Lady Macbeth is strong, sure of herself and her husband’s position, and certainly displays some fiend-like tendencies. While the murders are taking place, she is not so calm. She is more human – tense and nervous – certainly not devilish. After the murders, she is incapable of dealing with her guilt, ending with her death.

An important factor to be considered throughout this study is varying meanings. The word “fiend”, like many other words in the English language, has altered slightly in its meaning since Shakespeare’s day. In today’s dictionary, the word fiend is described as “an evil spirit; an inhumanly wicked person.” Similarly, but slightly different, in Shakespeare’s day, a fiend was a devil or a devil’s agent. A devil is, in Christian and Jewish theology, the supreme spirit of evil, who inhabits the earth to take souls to hell. Therefore, whether Lady Macbeth is indeed “fiend-like” or not must be studied on two levels – that of today, and that of Shakespeare’s day. Ultimately, to conclude her state, Shakespeare’s audience’s view must take priority. This must be kept in mind during analysis to get a clear view of her state.

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As soon as Macbeth hears the prophecies of the witches, he writes to Lady Macbeth to inform her of his foretold future. Immediately she begins to think of how to ensure these prophecies come true. Even thinking about murder would have been seen as devilish in Shakespeare’s time, and she herself admits she could kill by saying “I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. Almost immediately, however, she contradicts herself, calling on the spirits to “unsex me here”, “take my milk for gall” and to “fill me Of direst cruelty”. If she really were a fiend, of either ...

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