Macbeths Queen Essay -- Macbeth essays

Macbeths Queen There are two main characters in William Shakespeares Macbeth, one of which is Lady Macbeth. Let us in this paper tender for her character in detail. Blanche Coles states in Shakespeares Four Giants evaluates the character of Lady Macbeth A woman who could speak as Lady Macbeth does, who could call upon the spirits that pass on mortal thoughts to unsex her and fell her from head to foot serious of direct cruelty, who could entreat these same spirits to stop all avenues of remorse so that no compunctions of conscience allow interfere with the carrying out of her purpose, who could call upon the night to wrap itself in the murkiest, gloomiest smoke of hell in found to hide, even from the keen knife she would use, the insult she would make when she herself stabs the sleeping King, much(prenominal) a terrible, frightful woman would not scruple at copulation a little wife-to-husband lie to accomplish her purpose. (52) In Everybodys Shakespeare Reflections in general on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack shows how Lady Macbeth complements her husband Her fall is jiffyaneous, even eager, like Eves in Paradise Lost his is gradual and reluctant, like Adams. She needs only her husbands garner about the weyard sisters prophecy to precipitate her resolve to kill Duncan. Within an instant she is inviting murderous spirits to unsex her, fill her with cruelty, thicken her blood, convert her mothers take out to gall, and darken the world That my keen knife see not the wound it makes (1.5.50). Macbeth, in contrast, vacillates. The images of the deed that possess him simultaneously repel him (1.3.130, 1.7.1) When she proposes Duncans murder, he temporizes We will speak further (1.5.69). (189) ... ...Blakemore Evans. Boston Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972. Knights, L.C. Macbeth. Shakespeare The Tragedies. A Collectiion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Mack, Maynard. Everybodys Shakespeare Reflec tions Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB University of Nebraska Press, 1993. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http//chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin. Siddons, Sarah. Memoranda Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth. The Life of Mrs. Siddons. Thomas Campbell. London Effingham Wilson, 1834. Rpt. in Women adaptation Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK Manchester University Press, 1997. Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada University of Toronto Press, 1957.