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Brit Lit
7 February 2014
How One Crave’s Power
Once a person has a taste of power it will never taste as sweet as it did that once, but that does not stop them from persistently trying to fulfill their craving; they need it. Lady Macbeth’s insatiable need for power causes constant uproar throughout the play of Macbeth through lies, injustice, and death.
Abraham Lincoln once said “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”. Lady Macbeth test’s her husband’s loyalty and character once she perceives he is likely to receive the crown and all the power which comes along with it.
Much like a mother who had a childhood that did not fulfill all her wants so she lives through her own children, Lady Macbeth lives through her husband. Women in the renaissance days were much less likely to have any power, and average women accepted that. Although, Lady Macbeth was not an average woman. Macbeth in the beginning is seen as a noble soldier, loyal and valiant; then is slowly conformed by the surreptitious ways of his wife. She cannot be heir of the crown because of her gender, but that does not stop her from using her husband to get the power. At first Macbeth was hesitant, he did not have what it took to get the crown; Lady Macbeth saw that in him so she tested his manhood and told him to let her be in charge of acquiring the crown for him. She told him Duncan, the king, must die in order for Macbeth to receive the crown. Lady Macbeth was willing to kill whoever she needed to in order for Macbeth to gain the power she wanted, it was not about what she could do with the power but just having the power.

Tibbitts 2

“Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it” is the most popular quote Lady
Macbeth says to Macbeth; she wants people to have this illusion that she is a lady and her husband is still the noble soldier he was when he became thane. It is ironic she wants people to depict them as this because for a short while they do seem like the innocent couple that just so happens to fall into power but they work very hard to hide lies and deaths to attain it. The first death is the death of king Duncan; although it is not an untimely death but a murder. They cover up the murder by staging it as the guards who do it. Macbeth plays to be outraged by the guards and kills them as well. He tells the men that he knew it was them and they deserved to die. Lady Macbeth is proud of him, things are beginning to fall into place how she wanted them too and Macbeth is slowly being molded into what she wants him to be. Once he murders Duncan his transition into a corrupt man lacking character is in full effect, he and his wife are becoming powerful through not only their murders but