Lady Macbeth Essay

Macbeth, on the basis on his murderous actions, could be considered malicious, but a further look at his character might make one seem more considerate to this tragic king. One could feel sympathy for Macbeth because he acknowledges his guilt, his wife pressures him into doing the murders and the witches manipulate him and his desire for power.

Throughout the whole play Macbeth acknowledges his guilt in multiple ways. Macbeth hallucinates a lot which is a way the guilt gets to him, such as when he says “Is this a dagger, which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee...” (II.i.42-43) Macbeth is imagining a dagger in front of him as he goes upstairs to Murder Duncan. This is one way the guilt has gotten to him. Another way the guilt get to him is when he says “I am in blood, stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er. Strange things I have in head, that will to hand, which must be acted ere they may be scanned” (III.iv.173-175) Macbeth is saying that he has stepped so far into a river or blood, that there is no use of turning back, he also mentions that he will act upon his strange thoughts without thinking, another way he is regretting what he has done. Blood is a symbol throughout the whole story of Macbeths never ending guilt. Macbeth can always imagine or see the blood even when it is not really there, therefore this is a symbol of his guilt.

Further more his wife, Lady Macbeth, pressures him into doing the Murders. She is constantly questioning his manhood and abilities as a man. When Macbeth does the homicide of Duncan wrong and does not want to go back upstairs to put the daggers back, she says “Tis the eye of a childhood, that fears a painted devil” (II.ii.74-75) She is comparing him being scared to go upstairs to place the daggers back to a Childs fear of the devil. Other times she questions his abilities such as when she says “To be the same in thine own act and valor. As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that? Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would” like to poor cut I adage” (I.vii.44-50) Lady Macbeth is accusing Macbeth of being a coward and criticizes his resolve to secure the crown. She is one of the main reasons Macbeth does commit the murders, due to her constantly casting doubt upon his masculinity,

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