Analyse and compare the way Shakespeare has portrayed the reactions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the murder of King Duncan Essay Example For Students

Analyse and compare the way Shakespeare has portrayed the reactions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the murder of King Duncan Essay I have been asked to analyse and compare the way Shakespeare has portrayed the reactions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the murder of King Duncan. For this I will be using act 2 scene 2 and act 1 scene 5 as well as quotes from other scenes in the play. I will start with analysis, first of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has always been cold and calculating in previous scenes. A good example of how Shakespeare portrayed Lady Macbeths character is in act one scene five. Here I have quoted her speech from this scene The raven himself is horse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ You shall be what you have been promised. Yet Im worried about your nature. You are too tender hearted to take short cuts. You want greatness. You are not without ambition. But you lack the ruthlessness thats needed Come home quickly, so that I can inspire you with my passion. My brave words will overcome the scruples standing between you and the golden circle Here she talks about Duncans entrance into Macbeths castle as being fatal. She then talks about Macbeths wishes to become king but she also talks about his lack of courage to kill Duncan so that he may rise to the throne. She then tells the audience about how she will attempt to talk Macbeth into murdering Duncan. Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe-top full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood Here she is starting to ask the spirits to take away her feelings of compassion Unsex me here she is asking for her womanly qualities or weaknesses to be removed. By this she means feelings of remorse, pity, guilt and compassion. This next part is spoken as though said to Macbeth. He thats coming serve the thoughts of mortals: rid me of the natural tenderness of my sex, and fill me from head to toe with direst cruelty! Thicken my blood. Make me remorseless, so that no feelings of conscience can alter my foul plans, nor stand in the way of what must be done. Come to my womans breasts and turn my milk sour, you abettors of murder, wherever you lurk invisible, awaiting evil deeds! Come, dark night, and shroud yourself in the blackest smoke of hell, so that my sharp knife wont see the wound it makes, nor heaven peeping through the blanket of darkness à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" cry Stop! Stop! Here she is again asking the spirits to remove her softness Rid me of the natural tenderness of my sex. She repeats the part about shrouding herself in shadows to conceal what she is going to do from heaven. Maybe she is talking about how she will make Macbeth murder Duncan rather than do the deed herself. Another one of Lady Macbeths speeches which depicts the  character Shakespeare intended her to be is from act one, scene seven. I have given suck, and know how tender tis t love the babe that milks me à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" I would while it was smiling in my face Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums. And dashed the brains out. Had I so sworn to you Have done to this. Here she is comparing her womanliness to her husbands manliness. Shakespeare uses quite shocking imagery in Lady Macbeths speech here to further depict her ruthlessness. Now I have shown a couple of examples of the character of Lady Macbeth I will continue onto my analysis of the murder scene. Lady Macbeth is nervous, paranoid as she waits for Macbeth to return after she has sent him to perform the murder. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriekd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the sternst good-night. He is about it: Shes jumpy. The sound of the owls hoot scares her. Lady Macbeth is imagining her husband killing Duncan à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" He is about it. She then hears Macbeth shouting something from outside the room. She is then very afraid. Alack! I am afraid they have awakd, And tis not done; the attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had donet. Here she worries about getting caught. We also see a side of Lady Macbeth which has not been shown before. She is vulnerable, nervous and not at all like her former self. She also shows some emotion Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had donet. She could not have performed the awful deed herself as it would have felt like she was murdering her father. Commentary - Shakespeare Hamlet EssayShe is thinking about hell. She is now afraid of damnation, as Macbeth was in act 2, scene 2. Earlier she had asked evil spirits to assist her and now she is terrified of hell. She is remembering mocking Macbeth. Maybe now she feels bad for pushing him into the first murder. The thane of fife had a wife: where is she now? No more o that, my lord, no more o that: you mar with all this starting. She is thinking about McDuffs wife. Macbeth no longer talked with Lady Macbeth about his plans after Duncans murder. She is supposed to be unaware of these murders. She is annoyed at Macbeth for his continued killing and she has realised that she no longer has power over him. Its almost as if shes asking him to stop. Heres the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes Of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! Oh! Oh! Again she is showing how haunted she is by the blood on her hands. This speech is very similar to Macbeths earlier Multitudinous seas incarnadine speech. Banquos buried; He cannot come out on s grave. This is a reference to the earlier ghost scene when Macbeth saw Banquos ghost at the banquet after he had him killed. Lady Macbeths descent into madness has taken longer than Macbeths and her guilt is expressing itself in a much more subconscious way than Macbeths did. Earlier she talked about a little water clearing them of the guilt but now she is haunted and terrorised by what they did. Lady Macbeth and her husband appear to have switched roles with their expressions of their guilt. While Macbeth appears to feel nothing and continues to murder Lady Macbeth is slowly going mad. Shakespeare tries to evoke feelings of pity in the audience for Lady Macbeth. The words this little hand are an example of this. Macbeth expresses his guilt in a conscious, public way, his continued killings are the main sign he has been driven  mad by guilt. Lady Macbeth on the other hand shows her guilt in a private way. Her sleepwalking is a subconscious expression of her innermost tormented feelings. This is her sign of madness. Lady Macbeths madness has also taken longer to manifest itself. Macbeths guilt was immediate but Lady Macbeth has taken several scenes to show hers. Macbeth spoke about no longer being able to sleep in the murder scene but several scenes later we see it is in fact Lady Macbeths sleep which is disturbed. This could be Shakespeare trying to show us how Lady Macbeth was a lot more open to suggestions that she ever appeared to be before the murder scene, when she was a very cold, hard woman who used a lot of shocking imagery and was really quite a scary person. Act 5 scene 1 is a performance of Lady Macbeths guilt. Until this time she had suppressed her feelings. She even asked the spirits to take away her feelings of compassion so she would feel no guilt. It would appear that this had no effect and she feels terrible and that manifests itself in her sleepwalking and talking. Macbeth was originally paralysed by his guilt and was unable to even wash his hands clean of the blood without Lady Macbeths instructions to do so. Later on Macbeth seems to have taken control to the extent where he is continuing to kill without first talking with Lady Macbeth about it. The blood symbolises the guilt felt by both plotters. Macbeth was earlier scorned by his wife for his guilty feelings. Lady Macbeths fragmented language in act 5 scene 1 makes her harder to understand than she had been in previous appearances. I believe that Shakespeare is using her language to show her mental breakdown. Macbeths guilt was shown then suppressed and the opposite is true for Lady Macbeth. As the play continues Lady Macbeths madness gets to the point where she can no longer live with her guilt and she eventually commits suicide. Macbeth and his allies prepare for battle with McDuff. After Lady Macbeths death a messenger informs Macbeth that Birnam Wood à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" Malcolms army is approaching. The battle begins and in the final showdown McDuff kills Macbeth and Malcolm is hailed as the new king. In both the case of Macbeth and the case of Lady Macbeth their guilt eventually killed them but in different ways. While Lady Macbeth was driven mad by her guilt and killed herself, Macbeth went on a killing frenzy from his guilt and was eventually killed by someone who was his friend in the beginning when he went too far. In conclusion, while Macbeth and Lady Macbeth may have shown their reactions to Duncans murder in totally different ways both of them got their comeuppance eventually.