Is Lady Macbeth To Blame

Words: 452
Pages: 2

In Macbeth, it can be argued that Lady Macbeth’s influence is what causes every death in the play. Some could counter that it would be the witches prophecies that lead to the tragedies, but they only put the ideas in Macbeth’s head. For instance, what’s more deadly, a thought or a gun? A gun gives you the opportunity, but a thought pulls the trigger. Therefore, the Macbeths brought the afflictions upon themselves through their actions. Since we know they both attribute to the concluding tragedies, the question is asked, “Who’s to blame?” Macbeth is the one who killed Duncan, but is he responsible for his death? In the play, Lady Macbeth uses manipulating strategies to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. She uses the love and trust Macbeth has in her in order to gain a higher status for herself. Even still, Macbeth is the one who ultimately commits the murder. Similar to eliminating variables in math to find the true value of x, if the play did not contain Lady Macbeth it could be assumed Macbeth would never have been pressured into killing Duncan. …show more content…
She uses her controlling personality to excite Macbeth about being king. She does the heavy work and creates the plan that will make him king, but more importantly, make her queen. Her ambition could be considered a flaw as made evident by her eagerness and lack of remorse about killing the king. “Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th milk of human kindness. To catch the nearest way thou wouldst be great. Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” (I.v). Here, Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that if he wants something he should take it as a man would, but that he shouldn’t expect to not have any consequences for his