Ms. Legge Essays - Characters In Macbeth, English-language Films

Ms. Legge Vincent Nguyen English 23/05/2017 Lady Macbeth's Transformation Lady Macbeth is a very prominent character in Shakespeare's tragedy play, Macbeth. Although the play was written in the 17th century, Lady Macbeth's character was way ahead of her time. Women during this time were supposed to be subordinate and inferior to men but she was powerful and very dominant over Macbeth. Compared to his wife, Macbeth was the much weaker person in the relationship and she seemed to be in control of him. Lady Macbeth makes her first appearance in Act 1 Scene 5 where she first finds out of the witches' prophecy. It is about Macbeth becoming the thane of Cawdor and then later on replacing King Duncan. Upon learning of the prophecy, Lady Macbeth is determined to become Queen. She is consumed by this and it affects all of her decisions and actions. She is willing to do whatever it takes to make her husband King of Scotland. She says, "Glamis thou art and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promised" (Shakespeare Scene 5, Act 1, 16-17). Since learning of the prophecy, she has already made up a plan to make her husband king. She has not even taken the time to consider it she was already ready to kill the king in order to become the queen of Scotland. She is also extremely manipulative and would go to great lengths to achieve her goals. She knows that her husband is not as strong as her and would be too weak to kill the King. She says, "Yet I do fear thy nature it is too full o'the milk of human kindness" (Shakespeare Scene 5, Act 1, 17-18). In order to make her plan work, she knows she will have to make her husband more like her and be less kind. She wants him to do as she wishes so that he will have less feelings and be less human. The more she can control and manipulate her husband, the closer she is to becoming queen. Ever since she was made aware of the prophecy, her goal is to persuade her husband to murder King Duncan so that he can take his spot. She manipulates him into killing the King. It is clear that he is manipulated into doing this because after it is all over, he begins to regret his actions whereas Lady Macbeth is very proud of herself. She does not want to be like all the other women during this era. She wants to have more dominant in the relationship and have just as much or more power than her husband Macbeth. She even says, "Unsex me here and fill me from the crown to toe top full of direst cruelty" (Shakespeare Scene 5, Act 1, 42-44) This means that she does not want to be feminine and caring. She wants to reject any of the traditional female qualities and be more like a man. She wants to have power and superiority usually associated with men during this time. She shows that she will not let anything get in her way and she will even give up her femininity in order to gain power.