Macbeth Theme Essay

Macbeth Theme Essay
      Throughout Macbeth Shakespeare reveals characters in Macbeth frequently have close counter experiences with each other. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood and wishing that she could be “unsexed.” In this same manner Lady Macbeth lures Macbeth into murder. Macbeth provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their manhood. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare shows such acts that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with naked aggression, and whenever they converse about manhood, violence soon follows.
      In Macbeth, Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as a person full of violence and evil. The witches’ prophecies spark Macbeth’s ambitions and then encourage his violent behavior; Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the will behind her husband’s plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. In Act 1, scene 5, lines 36–52, as she awaits the arrival of King Duncan at her castle. We have previously seen Macbeth’s uncertainty about whether he should take the crown by killing Duncan. “The raven himself is hoarse/ Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts/ To cry ‘Hold, hold!” (1.5. 36-52). This speech shows the audience that Lady Macbeth is the real steel behind Macbeth and that her ambition will be strong enough to drive her husband forward. Lady Macbeth’s behavior certainly shows that women can be as ambitious and cruel as men. Whether because of the constraints of her society or because she is not fearless enough to kill, Lady Macbeth relies on deception and manipulation rather than violence to achieve her ends. Later in Act 1 Macbeth is deciding whether to kill Duncan or not. When he lists Duncan’s noble qualities (he “[h]ath borne his faculties so meek”) and the loyalty that he feels toward his king (“I am his kinsman and his subject”), we are reminded of just how grave an outrage it is for the couple to slaughter their ruler while he is a...