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She summons evil spirits to make her evil – Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to “unsex” her and to fill her “from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty”.
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Contrary to Macbeth, the crimes make Lady Macbeth weaker and she feels sorry for her actions “the thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now?”
Main Body Topic 3
Towards the end of the play Macbeth’s butcher like nature is shown by:
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the fact that he shows no mercy and kills Macduff’s family with no remorse – Macbeth no longer acts on his thoughts or feels remorse for killing people “from this moment, The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand”
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Even when he knows that he will be killed Macbeth decides to kill as many people as possible before he does – “why should I play the Roman fool, and die On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes Do better upon them.”
Macbeth Practice Essay 1
In the play, “Macbeth,” written by William Shakespeare, Malcolm describes Macbeth as a “butcher” and Lady Macbeth as “his fiend-like queen” and although this description is accurate at some points in the play, it was the persuasive words and actions of Lady Macbeth who shaped Macbeth into the person that he was at the end of the play. The evil deeds of Lady Macbeth, however, drove her into a state of insanity and in the end forced her to kill herself, unlike Macbeth who died fighting even when he knew that he would die.
The transition of Macbeth, from good to evil, occurred as a result of Duncan’s murder, a feat which he was cunningly convinced to do by his evil wife Lady Macbeth. Originally the only reason Macbeth saw to kill Duncan was ambition, “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent but only / Vaulting ambition” especially given the fact that he had brought ‘golden opinions from all sorts of people”. Moments before the murder of Duncan Macbeth tells his wife that they would “proceed no further” in the murder. When responding to this the power and wickedness of Lady Macbeth is truly shown as she accuses Macbeth of being a “coward”, questions his “love” for he and his manliness “be so much more the man” in order to persuade him to kill Duncan, allowing her to become queen. Although Macbeth was perceived by others as a strong person he was in fact “too full o’ the milk of human kindness” until he killed Duncan. This murder transformed Macbeth into a “butcher” and before long he no longer required the aid or seduction of Lady Macbeth to carry out the murder of Banquo, leaving her “innocent of the knowledge”of his crimes.
The evil and wicked idiolect of Lady Macbeth was shown in the scene when she called upon the “spirits That tend on mortal thoughts” to “unsex” her and fill her “ from the crown to the tow, top full / Of direst cruelty”. Lady Macbeth’s strong and foulness was later acknowledged by Macbeth who said “bring forth men-children only”, indicating that he believed that she was so terrible and masculinity that it would be impossible for her to give birth to a girl.
Contrary to Macbeth, the murders that the two committed made her weaker and less like the “fiend-like queen” she was before they occurred. The guilt that she possessed caused her to constantly sleepwalk and while doing so she revealed to the doctors of her remorse and guilt that she felt regarding the murders “the thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now”. Lady Macbeth was especially regretful about the killing of Macduff’s family as these murders were extremely unnecessary.
Before the killing of Macduff’s family Macbeth makes his “butcher” like nature particularly apparent when he decides that he will no longer act upon his thoughts or conscience, but rather act upon impulse. This is evident when he say “from this moment, / The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand”. Macbeth’s cruel temperament is also made clear by the end of the play when even though he knows that he will die he asks himself “why should I play the Roman fool, and die / On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes / Do better upon them.”
The changes in the character of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown throughout the play of “Macbeth” and so when Malcolm describes Macbeth as a “butcher” and Lady Macbeth as his “fiend-like queen” although at some point in the play they were, Macbeth became the way he was as a result of Lady Macbeth’s evilness, which in turn caused he to go insane. Given this, the description of the two characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth ware in many ways accurate and so they truly did deserve to be known as the terrible people they were.