Task: - Explain What Act 1 Scene 7 Tells Us About The Character Of Macbeth And Lady Macbeth. What Is Troubling Macbeth At The Beginning Of The Scene And How Does Lady Macbeth Persuade Him To Go Through With The Murder Of Duncan?
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Essay Preview: Task: - Explain What Act 1 Scene 7 Tells Us About The Character Of Macbeth And Lady Macbeth. What Is Troubling Macbeth At The Beginning Of The Scene And How Does Lady Macbeth Persuade Him To Go Through With The Murder Of Duncan?
William Shakespeare
Task: - Explain what act 1 scene 7 tells us about the character of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. What is troubling Macbeth at the beginning of the scene and how does Lady Macbeth persuade him to go through with the murder of Duncan?
My aim in this essay is to explain what Act 1, scene 7 tells us about the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and what troubles does Macbeth come across and how does Lady Macbeth persuade him to murder King Duncan.
The purpose that Shakespeare wrote act 1, scene 7, is to notify the audience more about Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's feeling and thoughts about murdering King Duncan. For example, when Macbeth leaves the dinner table, deciding on what he should do, he is worried and is having second thoughts on whether to murder him, Lady Macbeth stirs up Macbeth's spirits and manipulates his mind. When Lady Macbeth says "When you durst do it, then you were a man." Lady Macbeth is manipulating his mind.
Before this scene, we are told that the king Duncan hears good news of the Norway battle. On the way home Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches who tell Macbeth that he will become king and will be Thane of Cawdor. The belief from the three witches led Macbeth to write a letter to Lady Macbeth to tell her the exciting news. The bravery and courageousness in the battle of the Norwegian army by Macbeth, led the king to reward Macbeth Thane of Cawdor.
After act 1 scene 7, Macbeth becomes king by the death of Duncan. Act 1 scene 7, plays an important part of the play because in this scene Macbeth can not control him self, of knowing what he will do. "First, as I am a kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host..." Macbeth knows that he should not kill the king instead he should protect him, but in the other hand he could be king and do anything he wishes.
The character of Macbeth in act 1 scene 7, tells the readers that Macbeth is weak and that his wife is the dominant figure in their conjugal relationship. Before this scene Macbeth was portrayed as a courageous and powerful warrior.
We also established that Macbeth is greedy and famished of getting power to be king, but in this scene the conscious and fear troubles Macbeth of killing Duncan. In my opinion Macbeth is torn between two options, one being that if he murders King Duncan, he will please his wife. The other option being that if he does not kill the King his wife will insult his coward ness. In this scene Macbeth is having second thoughts of killing King Duncan. When Macbeth is deciding whether he should murder King Duncan or not, Lady Macbeth comes and uses her manipulative ways to persuade Macbeth to go ahead in murdering the King. Macbeth's greed of becoming king in order to inherit the power of the monarchy and the persuasion of his manipulative wife, leads to Macbeth murdering King Duncan.
When at first Macbeth was introduced in the play, he was portrayed as an honest and truthful man who was a close friend of the king. Who will expect a man who protects the king so solemnly will kill him cold blooded?
Before act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth was recognized as an " honour'd hostess. The love that follows us sometimes is our trouble... Herein I teach you how you shall bid God yield us for your pains and thank us for your trouble." In this part of the scene Lady Macbeth is portrayed as an honourable and innocent woman.
After act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth helps Macbeth kill King Duncan by drugging the two guards in order to show that the guards killed the king. Further on in the story, Lady Macbeth dies by the cause of her guilty conscious of murdering the King.
In act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth changes into a role where she becomes self-centred and malicious. She only wants power and control. Being the dominated one in her relationship is still not enough for her. The words and actions that were said by Lady Macbeth were unusual because before this scene Lady Macbeth had acted in the love of Macbeth, but in scene 7 she started to love the power and control more than Macbeth, greed overcame the better of her. Overall I think that in act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth used Macbeth for her own selfish reasons. Lady Macbeth persuaded Macbeth to murder King Duncan, which is one of the major tragedies in the story, so Lady Macbeth has an important role of the incident, which had occurred.
As being the dominated one in their relationship Lady Macbeth uses all her control over Macbeth to make Macbeth murder king Duncan. She also challenges his patriarchy to make him murder the King. For example, when Lady Macbeth says "When you durst do it, then you were a man." Now that Macbeth is trying to back out of it, Lady Macbeth is calling him a coward and torments him to do the murdering. She also says " Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem..." In other words, Lady Macbeth uses the power of love to persuade him. She also says if you love me you would kill him straight away with no hesitation. Lady Macbeth says "I have given suck and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this." In this quotation Lady Macbeth stirs Macbeth even more
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