Lady Macbeth Critical Analysis

Lady Macbeth ambitious cruelty and manipulation send chills as the plot unravels her pursuit to personal ambitions. The plot’s heartbeat and drama are progressively based in the dynamically changing behavior and perceptions of key characters such as lady Macbeth. This essay seeks to critically analysis of the character by lady Macbeth in the Shakespeare's Macbeth. The essay seeks to address the key themes such as femininity, morals and power as illustrated by the lady Macbeth. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth literary work was labeled by many critiques as an embodiment of feminism in the society. She counters his argument “I dare to do only what is proper for a man to do” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 7, Page 2). More so, her suggest that she could get the work done herself if only she was not a women serves to scold her husband into obliging to her prodding “unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full Of direst cruelty!” (Shakespeare, Act 1 scene 6).

This open act of rejecting her feminism and alignment with any gender for that matter due to the perceived social weakness attached to genders are driven by her lust for power. Interestingly, the public perception of Macbeth is that of a strong, brave noble hero and warrior as illustrated by the captain praise of Macbeth at the military camp “For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name!” (Shakespeare , act 1 scene 2 lines 16). This heroic praise in front of the king, made King Duncan proclaim that Macbeth be appointed into the position of Thane of Cawdor. He evil desires and lust creates harm to others as well as exposes his husband to harm. However, she displays her admiration and empathy for her husband as her lover and appreciate the great family and matrimonial bond between the two “dearest partner of greatness” (Shakespeare I.

Balestract labels her as lady driven by intellect (146). She is fully aware of the influence and role in her husband life, she employs her multifaceted nature and qualities to implore her husband to play to her tunes using her deep reservoirs of motivations without necessary revealing her true intentions to him. Having planted the seed of murder in her husband’s mind she employs her charm to invite the king to Macbeth house, setting the stage for the king’s downfall. This directly contributed to the final fatal demise of the Macbeths. As a heartless character is displayed by her rhetoric as she downplays the consequences and moral standing in enticing her husband to kill King Duncan. In act 1 scene 7, Macbeth argues that being the party’s host his doors should protect Duncan from harm.

More importantly, as a subject and heroic warrior to the king Duncan, he deed should naturally aim at protecting the king of the Scotland nation. Despite his conviction that committing the murder would be purposeless ambition and the fact that his kinsman, King Duncan is unquestionably a good leader, Lady Macbeth persuades and encourages her man to commit the wicked and cruel act against his wishes and conviction. The strong character that is associated with the iron woman in the play slowly start to erode as the guilt catches up with her. Her strong cover veil is unravelled at the end as the inherent immoral murder repels her subconsciously; the blood of Duncan haunts her “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”, “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”… “Here’s the smell of the blood still”.

Her sensitivity to the guilt of plotting against innocent blood haunts her and become a core weakness of the character. Haunted by her legacy of crimes and the resulting guilt, she loses her mind and plunge into a weak state of mind as highlighted by her blood stained hallucinations and sleepwalking. Eventually, these events lead to her death, an apparent suicide. Lady Macbeth prefer aspirations associated with masculinity ambition of pursuit to power and ruthlessness in achieving personal desires instead of the sublime feminism instincts of motherhood and fragility. Works cited Balestraci, Mary. “Victorian Voices: Gender Ideology And Shakespeare’s Female Characters. ” Dissertation Abstracts International 73. 9 (2013): MLA International Bibliography. ” Ed. Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr.