Thursday 28 June 2007
Lady Macbeth - character view
I think that lady Macbeth is a great character. She is the character who encouraged Macbeth to murder the king and without her help he would never have done it. She started scheming the instant that she finished reading his letter that told of the three witches prophecies. She knew that he was "too full o'th'milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way" (too nice to murder the king). Then when the attendant told of the kings coming it does not take a genius to imagine what goes on in her head as she digests this nugget of information. She tells her husband that when Duncan the king sleeps that he will be murdered and that Macbeth will be the one to do it. Later as the day grows older Macbeth tries to back out saying "We will proceed no further in this business. He hath honoured me of late" but she scorns him and says "Was the hope drunk Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And it wakes now to look so green and pale At what it did so freely?" then just to make him feel really guilty she says "From this time Such I account thy love." So he gives in and agrees to continue with the plan that she has put together her plan is to get the two kings guards very drunk and then kill Duncan with their swords and put blood and gore on the hands and faces of the guards. This plan is carried out and works almost like clockwork except for the fact that Macbeth forgets to leave the guards daggers at the scene so in a panic Lady Macbeth rushes back up and puts them back t the scene. When they are pronounced king and Queen I think that Lady Macbeth no longer has any need to be quite so evil but Macbeth now needs to cover his tracks and he cuts her out of the loop with his plan to kill Banquo. When she asks him what is on his mind he replies "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck" which I think is him saying "don't you worry your pretty little head about it dear". throughout the play she changes to suit the needs of the scene for instance she is very strong when Macbeth is going to back out and quite weak when Macbeth is making his own plans as regards to Banquo.
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1 comment:
You show understanding of Lady M.so far (and it'd be good if you noted how far you're taking us in the play at this point). Try not to use the word "nice" meaning (in this case) honourable, decent etc - it's a very weak word as you use it here.
When you are writing about a character in this way, you don't need to retell the story except in illustration of whatever point you're making. Use only such explanation as furthers your argument.
Now see if you can read on without me (!) and find out what happens to the relationship between the Macbeths and what effect this has on Lady M.
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