In Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Leskov’s “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk”, the main women of both tragic stories, had one goal in mind for their lovers; to try and change the fundamental nature of their partners as a way of helping their men gain what they want (power, money, authority, and so on). But unfortunately because of their strong will and own ambition to satisfy their partners, they end up ruining their own happiness of trying to ironically keep it by easily trusting and relying on men who are in several ways weaker than they are.
In Macbeth, her husband tells Lady Macbeth in a letter, that he was told that he would become a great king, once she takes note of this her ambition for power for her family sets in, “and shalt be what thou art promised.” (Act I, Scene 5; 1-2), she sees that after he was told that he would become king, it would be of great advantage for him, and she automatically concludes that the current king should be taken care of (and ultimately killed). Meaning that Lady Macbeth decided that the best time for Macbeth to become king was the current time or ‘now’, she retorted to automatically doing something very evil in order to get what she wants for him, or what he and fate really wants for himself. This is a great mistake she first makes that she allows to happen. She does understand that, “Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” (Act 1 Scene 5; 2-7). Lady Macbeth knows her husband is too of a good man and is modest, but she see this as a weakness and that he lacks fire to his ambition to commit or do anything extreme or evil to hurt anyone, not even the king, for his own personal gain to get what ‘should’ belong to him. But she doesn’t not care, she believes that she can persuade her husband into doing this; after all it is for the self-benefit of him and of her. Here is the first place that is seen that she is planning something desperate and evil because she has one thing on her mind, which is power. The thing she most focuses on is getting it, the very corruptive and evil way, the way that people use to get what they believe that belongs to them for their own happiness. She was later told that the king was coming to sleep over at their place, and here is where she finally decides, “That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements.” (Act 5 Scene 2: 29-30), the king shall be killed at her house, she tells Macbeth about it convincing him that he has to do it if he does want to become king. Macbeth conflicts with himself, debating weather or not he should actually do it, he does say that, “but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th' other.” (Act I Scene 7; 27-28) where his motivation to commit this act is his growing ambition but yet he still backs out of it, his wife tells him to stop acting like a coward and do what is best for them, but he says that he does want to do anything bad because he is a man, she insists that he isn’t because he backed out of it. She tells him they won’t get caught and that everything will be executed perfectly, from there he finally agrees into killing the king. Lady Macbeth changed the fundamental nature of Macbeth in this act. After persuading him to kill the king for their own advantage, Macbeth changes from his modest and good man, into a man that will kill anybody who gets in his way. This new trait becomes the couple’s downfall, especially for Lady Macbeth. As Macbeth beings to loose his conscious and sympathy towards people, Lady Macbeth starts to regain hers as she starts to sleep walk and relive the night of the murder of the king. She knows she is at fault for forcing Macbeth’s hand into killing him and the chain reactions of other innocent people that followed. She could not live with the guilt any long and decides to kill her self to end her mental suffering of the
people, when we don’t get any sleep or we don’t get to sleep enough we become groggy and a bit insane. This is what happened to Macbeth but on a much larger and psychopathic scale. S2: When Macbeth doesn't sleep he begins to slowly lose control of his mind and begins to murder people. On the other hand, Macbeth's wife, Lady Macbeth, acts completely insane when she sleepwalks. S3: William Shakespeare's play Macbeth exhibits how two very different characters deal with sleep and rest when they are…
BAKER1 Robert Baker Mr. Favreau April 6, 2014 ! ! ! Why Shakespeare’s Macbeth Is The Best Classic Play Shakespeare’s Macbeth is by far the best classic play in existence. His writings pleased masses and he was very much ahead of his own time. Out of many great plays, Macbeth in particular stands out because of Shakespeare’s spectacular use of a supernatural essence to progress the story. Adding to it’s excellence is the writers effective use of pathos throughout the play to truly make it feel…
Macbeth In this essay I will be discussing the main emotions within Macbeth such as Fear, Ambition and Greed, Love and Guilt. As these are the main emotions that run strongly throughout the play and some that you see up until the very end. These emotions are some of the reasons the book is so enticing you wonder how a certain character is feeling and you can put yourself in their shoes. The first emotion I am going to discuss is Fear some of the most simple of sentences or statements can show vivid…
Macbeth Essay By Jacobus Overgaauw Suicide may be a selfish act but it is not an unacceptable one. Different people all see suicide differently. Suicide has a wide effect on family as well as friends. In the play Macbeth by Shakespeare there is a case of suicide that shows all of the issues of the touchy subject, suicide. People often see the subject of suicide to be “taboo” or a “no go” area, generally something people just don’t like to talk about understandably. In the play Macbeth when…
Macbeth Essay The way people act on the outside and who they really are on the inside may be two completely different things. Some may change because they fill as if they are not socially accepted, others pretend to be something they truly aren’t. No matter which way you analyze it, if you try to act like someone your not, the truth will always come out in the end. Which is exactly what happens in William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth. Banquo, MacBeth, and Lady MacBeth each project a specific persona…
The Essay The word “essay” derives from the French “essayer” - “to try” or “to attempt”. Hence, an essay is a text that attempts to argue (prove or make clear) a point of view. The essay’s argument is the logical ordering of sequenced specific EVIDENCE in support of a point of view proposed at the start of the essay. The word “argument” when applied to an essay does not mean that it debates or argues as two friends might argue over which team is the better football team. “Argument” comes…
MacBeth Literary Essay ENG3U Ambition is usually what drives most towards success, however, in Shakespeare’s MacBeth, it is was leads MacBeth towards his downfall. Ambition is a quality which many crave, though it is shown through MacBeth that it is not always a positive attribute. He proves that ambition was a major component in his demise. MacBeth had made it very easy for the witches to help destroy him. The witches had fed off of his own ambition to make it effortless for them to help in MacBeth’s…
Kayle Wing Ms. Biliter English III. 1/18/15 Macbeth Essay In act 1 scene 7, Macbeth grows hesitant to go through with the plan Lady Macbeth formulated to murder the king. Lady Macbeth is then left with the task of convincing Macbeth back into going through with the plan. The first technique Lady Macbeth uses to manipulate Macbeth is that she challenges his masculinity. While Lady Macbeth talks with Macbeth, she says: “Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and live…
1B December 2014 Lady Macbeth In this essay I am going to discuss the role of Lady Macbeth. First I will be giving a quick summary of Macbeth, discuss the main themes and issues, analyze the text, analyze the character of Lady Macbeth, write about the strengths and weaknesses of Lady Macbeth, I am going to debate if Lady Macbeth is evil or good, talk about the reason why Shakespeare created the character Lady Macbeth. William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth in 1606. Macbeth is about a brave man who…
Through-out history, similarities have been found between historical figures and fictional characters. The character “Macbeth” created by William Shakespeare for the play “Macbeth. One of the most easily explainable examples of this would be with previous soviet ruler, Joseph Stalin. Stalin got to power by creating a platform of trust while being the General Secretary. He was extremely close to Lenin and his supporters. As Macbeth was to King Duncan, loyalty and trust to the previous head of power…