Recently, in class, I read "Macbeth", a tragic play by William Shakespeare. It tells the tale of what someone would do to become king, and who persuaded them to do it.
I'm going to study Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth's wife who talked him into murdering King Duncan, so he could take the throne. She seems to have put this terrible deed to the back of her mind until she goes mad and this eventually leads to her suicide. At the end of the play Malcolm described Lady Macbeth as "a fiend-like queen". I'm going to investigate this quote and find the truth behind it.
Throughout the play, we start to notice a change in Lady Macbeth's character. At the beginning she seems confident and controlling, and she would do anything in order to get her own way. She convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan and puts it to the back of her mind, or so we think. Towards the end of the play, she begins to go slightly insane and can see a spot of blood on her hand. However, there is no spot of blood at all, it is in her mind and this insanity leads to her committing suicide.
Lady Macbeth has many strong character traits. One of which being ambitious for Macbeth. She wanted him to be the best and wanted the best for him."Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocentFlowerBut be the serpent under't."This tells us that Macbeth looks innocent, and comes across and the kind of person that would never do such a thing. However, she is telling him to be the beast that he is inside, and not too worry about people thinking it could be him that murdered King Duncan.
"When you durst do it, then you were a man;And, to be more than what you were, you wouldBe such more the man."I think by saying this, Lady Macbeth means, that by killing King Duncan, Macbeth will become more of a man. It's also saying that if he were to kill Duncan it would show he had courage.Another character trait is that she always sticks to a plan. Nothing gets in her way, and she acts like she hasn't done anything."Give me the daggers.
The sleeping and the deadAre but as pictures; 'tis the eye of the childhoodThat fears a painted devil."To me, this means that she thinks the dead are just like the people sleeping as the are motionless."My hands are of your colour, but I shameTo wear a heart so white."This is saying that she has put the daggers back at the murder seen and now has blood on her hands like her husband.
She feels no remorse for her this deed and thinks water is enough to wash it away."A little water clears us of this deed;How easy is it, then!"This is saying that by washing her hands, she has washed away all evidence, leaving her and Macbeth looking innocent. She also thinks that by washing her hands, she is clearing them of the murder, and she will just continue living as if she didn't know what had happened.My last character trait for Lady Macbeth is that she handles situations well.
She finds it easy to put things to the back of her mind and forget about them. She has no trouble coming up with a plan to murder someone without feeling remorse."Get on your night-gown, lest occasion call us,And show us to be watchers. Be not lostSo poorly in your thoughts."Here, she is saying that after murdering King Duncan, Macbeth was to go get his night-gown on and pretend he has been woken up by the knocking at the door.
She tells him not to think about it too much, and to put it to the back of his mind like what she has done.I think Malcolm was right to describe Lady Macbeth as a "fiend-like queen" as even after doing such nasty things she got on with her life. In the quotes above, she makes it sound like an everyday activity, where you kill people to get to where you want to be. She thought that if putting the daggers back at the murder scene, washing her hands, and acting innocent, no one would ever suspect her or Macbeth. I personally think that she is a fiend and that, the quote suits her well.
