We can see this when Lady Macbeth plots the murder of Duncan, when seeing how she is planning everything it again shows her immense power. In addition to this, Lady Macbeth also schemes how she & Macbeth will look innocent when everyone finds out Duncan has been murdered.
“ Who dares receive it other, as we shall make our grief’s and clamor roar upon his death?”
In this crucial quote she once again convinces Macbeth that no one will suspect that they have killed Duncan if they seem extremely shocked and distraught when they hear of the news of his death.
“ Help me hence, ho!” Lady Macbeth actually goes one step further. Upon hearing the news of Duncan’s death she pretends to faint, hence making it seem even more unbelievable that her and Macbeth have killed him. She once again shows her power in this tricky situation.
Without the influence of women on Macbeth this play wouldn’t have come to much in the end. Before each crucial stage of the play Macbeth has doubts of what he should do, and to prove my point to be correct, it is women in the end who convince him of what he should do.
The most effective example of this is when Macbeth has doubts of weather will kill Duncan or not.
“ I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself”.
Here Macbeth is telling himself how Duncan is at his castle and is his guest and that he should be loyal to his king and not kill him.
I believe at this moment Macbeth is searching for ideas in his head for reasons why he shouldn’t murder Duncan, and eventually he makes up his mind that he won’t do it. Until….
Lady Macbeth then here’s of Macbeth’s decision not to kill Duncan and I believe that this is where we see the true Lady Macbeth. She manipulates and humiliates Macbeth to an extent that he cannot take it anymore.
“ Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem”
In this quote Lady Macbeth is asking Macbeth if he is going to let his dreams of what he wants in life pass buy because he is too much of a coward to do anything in order to get what he wants, in this case, to be King of Scotland.
I firmly believe that Lady Macbeth knew what she was doing when she questioned Macbeth’s manhood. She knew that Macbeth’s pride was too strong to let his manhood be questioned like it was.
Macbeth then has second thoughts, or third thoughts; he then starts to think that it’s possible to kill Duncan, but a thought of failing still lingers in his head.
“ If we should fail?” he asked his confident wife.
“ We fail?”
This shows that Lady Macbeth is not even contemplating failure.
“ But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.”
This proves once again how Lady Macbeth has influenced Macbeth. His mind was set and his foot was down on the matter of killing Duncan, but along came Lady Macbeth to make to make his crucial decisions for him and influence what he would end up doing, kill Duncan!
Similarly the witches have influence on Macbeth.
“ none of women born shall harm Macbeth”
When Macbeth heard this apparition he then believes that he is immortal.
“ Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee?”
This proves Macbeth’s confidence that no man, especially Macduff can harm him, but as we know in the end Macduff does.
Shakespeare uses dramatic devices such as irony constantly in the play, for example, when Duncan arrived at Macbeth’s castle Lady Macbeth welcomes him with open arms and seems to be the perfect hostess, but as the reader and the audience know she has planned to kill him! This adds both tension and a hint of conspiracy to the play.
For most of the story Lady Macbeth speaks in blank verse, but not for the whole play. When she is angry with Macbeth she speaks in prose, for example:
“I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this”.
Unlike Lady Macbeth, the witches do not speak in either blank verse or prose they speak in rhyming couplets, for example:
“ When the hurly burleys done, when the battle’s lost and won.”
The witches use rhyming couplets to make the audience suspicious to them and also to make them seem strange and dangerous.
Other characters in the play also use rhyming couplets; usually at the end of a scene the rhyme will point to a central idea of what the next scene may be about. For example:
“ Only look up clear; to alter favour ever is to fear.”
