How Does Shakespeare Make the Presentation of Lady Macbeth Dramatically Effective?

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How Does Shakespeare Make the

Presentation of Lady Macbeth

Dramatically Effective?

Introduction:

This essay is about to show how Lady Macbeth’s character changes over the play.  How she dominates the action on the stage and how she is a major influence on her husband and the events in the play.

Lady Macbeth first comes into the play when, she is reading the letter that was sent by Macbeth.  In this scene Lady Macbeth is acting like a loving wife, we can see this in her her words where she says “Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter”.  We can tell from this she is acting like a loving wife because she is looking up to him as she says “Great Glamis” and “Worthy Cawdor” and it also it says “Greater than both”.

In the letter from Macbeth he says “My dearest partner of greatness” this quote suggests that Lady Macbeth is an equal to Macbeth, in those days this was very strange as the men were more important than the woman.  I think this is where Lady Macbeth starts thinking she is strong because she has just been told she is equal to a great, strong character, Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth does not believe that Macbeth is strong enough to become king.  We can tell this by when she says 2Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full O’the milk of human kindness”.  This shows us that Lady Macbeth doesn’t really love Macbeth if she keeps saying he’s weak.  It starts to give us the impression that Lady Macbeth is in control of Macbeth without him even knowing about it.

The audience would react to this by being amazed.  They would have never thought that any woman would ever talk back to their husband, in those days.  This intensifies the drama of the scene, as in those days woman would never go against their husband’s words and so the audience might start to feel worried for Lady Macbeth.

Now Lady Macbeth feels that she is not strong enough as a woman and wants more power. We know this because she says “Come you spirits, unsex me here, and fill from toe top full of direst cruelty”.  She wants to be more of a man than Macbeth is.  Lady Macbeth is now acting like one of the three witches, chanting a spell to change her.  At the start of the play where we are told that Macbeth almost cut someone in half, this is why it was so hard to believe that Lady Macbeth is stronger than Macbeth.  It is as if their roles have been reversed.  

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Lady Macbeth has to summon the forces of the night, “Come thick night”.  She wants the night to come so the deed to kill king Duncan without anyone seeing them.  She says it in the way that sounds like an incantation or a spell as if she is one of the witches from the beginning of the play.  At the start the three witches talk about ruining men’s lives.  Lady Macbeth, I think is one of the witches that are trying to ruin men’s lives.  I think this because Lady Macbeth is ruining Macbeth’s life even though he doesn’t ...

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