William Shakespeare wrote ‘Macbeth’ between the years of 1603 and 1606. it is said to have been written for the king of England at the time, James, following the death of his companion Queen Elizabeth. A theme of the play revolves around the idea ‘Fair is foul, foul is fair’. This means that appearances can be deceiving. What appears to be good can be bad, and Lady Macbeth shows this in he deceptiveness and in the witches’ predictions.
The play focuses on a fearless warrior called Macbeth, who defends his king against treachery. However, Macbeth prime weakness is ambition, which in the real world is classed a strength to have. He is shown to be a courageous man, beating Macdonald, a traitor of the king, and being handed titles Thane of Candor and Thane of Glam is. His ambitions allow the three whiches’ prophecy to take hold of him, and then his cunning wife Lady Macbeth’s own ambition to coax him into commiting a treachery of his own.
He commits what is known as regicide to gain as much power as he thinks possible. His obsession with kingship shows a certain kind of egotism. Lady Macbeth is a loyal wife and loves Macbeth. She too has ambition, but lacks the morals that Macbeth possesses. In Act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth wants Duncan dead and when she puts her wicked plans to Macbeth, he starts to struggle with his conscience, and those morals start to arise. He sees himself as a loyal companion, a kin, a relative of the king.
The Essay on Macbeth Lady King Duncan
"The greatest grieves are those we cause ourselves." This quote by Sophocles is saying that the things you most regret are the things you, yourself choose to do. If you do something to someone else, not only do you hurt another person, or other people, but also you hurt yourself. If someone else hurts you, you feel pain but not as much as having the guilt and pain of hurting other people walking ...
He couldn’t possibly kill the person that he is supposed to protect. So when Macbeth sheepishly refuses to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth turns on his masculinity, taunting him with cowardice: ‘From this time/ Such I account thy love’ meaning if you are not brave and valiant enough to perform this act, then all aspects of your life, sex included, are weak and unmanly. ‘And live a coward in thy own esteem, / Letting I dare not wait upon I would, / Like the poor cat I’th ” adage?’ If you are weak in your own mind, are you not weak with your sexual performance with me? This has a strong effect on Macbeth, but still he asks what will become of him if he should fail. Lady Macbeth shows Macbeth that if he does not try, then he will never know what will become of him. ‘We fail? / But screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we ” ll not fail’ This is saying that if Macbeth puts a lot of thought and bravery into executing this deed, then there is no way that something could go wrong. They will get the King’s attendants drunk and make it look like they did it.
Macbeth comments on his wife’s manly mettle, and starts to believe his wife. She says it will look like the servants did it, so Macbeth agrees to do it, while hiding what he did from his face, a reference to the theme. When he goes through with it, he is going against the devine right of kings: when someone other than royal blood takes over the throne and becomes king, and commits treason, which is what Macbeth was afraid of when he was contemplating the deed with Lady Macbeth. It is quite clear in this scene that Macbeth and his lady are devoted to one another. He just doesnt want to let her down, and all she wants is teh best fo her husband.
