To What Extent Does Shakespeare’s Presentation of Lady Macbeth Encourage Us To Regard Her As Responsible for Macbeth’s Murder Of King Duncan?
Introduction:
Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, is one his most renowned plays and one of the shortest surviving tragedies. It was written in the 1600’s in the reign of James who believed he was the descendant of Banquo. In the times of the 1600s Kings were regarded as a God in their divine right. People believed that a king was chosen by God and derived the power to rule from the will of God and not a temporal authority. To kill this legitimate ruler of the country was unacceptable. However, many people questioned the authority of the king, and seeing the power that a monarch possessed, tempted many to kill a king. Another thing they believed in was superstition and witches. In those times, it was believed that witches existed, that they possessed supernatural powers which were used for evil magic and spells. People assumed that these ‘witches’ had the power to affect things and people’s lives which was in contrast of the idea of women, they were considered to be feminine and gentle not capable of doing anything unladylike. They were to sit at home with their children and that was their domain. Men had authority over them, they were to marry and look after their husband’s family. They attended banquets with their husbands if they were rich in society or they went market to retrieve food to cook meals.
Shakespeare is a very good manipulator through his plays he can make us react in a way he wants to, through his language and the way he presents his characters he influences us to respond in a certain way. Also the way he puts things in a particular order and dramatic speeches and theatrical events make us excited. It’s seen as a tale of the dangers of the lust for power and the deception of friends. It stems from a power hungry struggle, a sinister ambition fuelled with superstition, only to end with murder, guilt and menacing consequences. It’s a dark play with a grim theme, omens from the start indicate immorality right from the beginning. This play is based upon the Macbeth, who is a valiant soldier who impresses the king of Scotland and is made the Thane of Cawdor. However, his greed for more fuels his desires to become a king and his wife manipulates him to kill the king. A life is taken, a new king has risen and slaughters are ordered, but Macbeth’s dejected reign over the throne is wearing away as Lady Macbeth deteriorates mentally, Macbeth’s paranoia gets the better of him.
Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife therefore has a great deal of control over her husband. Lady Macbeth is presented as more responsible for the murder because as soon as Macbeth sent her word of the unusual foretelling she had already mentally devised a plan. She claims her husband to be ‘too full o’ th’ milk of humane kindness,’ here she is saying that Macbeth is too kind that he would rather be humble and not pick the nearest way. She already implores him to come home with ‘Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear,’ she’s desperate for him to come home to influence him into something unprecedented. She also uses a lot of emotional blackmail by swearing to Macbeth that she will kill their baby when she said, ‘Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out.’ She’s uses the image of a baby to illustrate to Macbeth how important it is for him to keep to his word. This shows how unfeeling and unfeminine she is and how cold she comes across as. She summons spirits to, ‘unsex me here,’ to take away her femininity that may come in the way and make her feel sympathetic. Lady Macbeth calls upon the ‘thick night;’ to cover her in the ‘dunnest smoke of hell’ so her ‘keen knife see not the wound it makes.’ Here she is asking the night to become really dark and cover her with thick coat of hell which suggest something very satanic. She doesn’t want to see when she kills the king, but it shows how eager she is because she refers to knife as being ‘keen,’ and how ‘sharp’ it is which suggests the ruthlessness in her matter, this shows the full of extent of horror. There is a contrast in quotations because she says, ‘Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark’ here she wants hell to cover up what she’s doing so that heaven doesn’t see, she describes hell as the blanket of the dark as of it will protect her. These expressions conjures us to believe that she’s definitely the root of the murder, because it shows us that she’s assembling dark forces to help her which makes hers come across as witch like or keen on the supernatural. She uses her advantage of being Macbeth’s partner who he trusts in to influence him to carry out the homicide by using her authority over him. As soon as Macbeth arrives home she already let him know that the king will die tonight, ‘O never, shall sun morrow see’ she is telling Macbeth that king Duncan won’t see a new tomorrow. There is a form of imperative when she seems to be ordering Macbeth to, ‘look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under’t,’ she is advising him to look innocent on the outside but have the intention of killing in the inside. She manipulates Macbeth to carry out the murder even when he had decided against it. She told him that he’s a coward if he didn’t commit the murder, ‘And live a coward in thine own esteem.’ She’s asking him would you seriously be able to live as a coward? She wants to influence him yet again, she expects him to say no. Another reason we regard her as responsible is because she fails to show any remorse after the murder and is very cold towards what she has caused. She says to Macbeth, ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ she claims that a little water can wash out their sin and it is better to forget. She makes it seem easy. She seems unfeeling and more practical minded by dismissing Maceth’s fear and returns the daggers herself showing her independence in this.
