Literary Essay Macbeth - Shekespeare

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 Literatura Inglesa I 
 Professor: Vicente Saldanha 
 Undergraduate: Thaís Zadorozny 
 
 
 
Lady Macbeth: The mind behind the tragedy 
 
This essay will analyze who was the culprit for the tragedies on the play 
Macbeth, one of William Shakespeare great tragedies. The play follows Macbeth’s 
story, a thane from Scotland that became greedy and murdered the King in order to be 
the next ruler. The story tells the downfall of Macbeth, from a trusted and well-liked 
Thane to a tyrant and mad King. Although Macbeth was blamed for every evil thing 
that happened in the play, a close analysis of it reveals that the character that was the 
true culprit for, if not for all misfortunate, at least most of the ones that happened in the 
play, was his wife, Lady Macbeth. Her decisions at the beginning of the story led to 
many deaths, plus a tragic ending for both of them. She did not make all the malicious 
decisions, but her choices, in a crucial moment of the story, shaped Macbeth into the 
man that he became later in the play. 
Apparently, the plot of the play places all the blame in Macbeth’s greed. 
However, it is possible to notice that the person that put into motion the events that led 
to Macbeth's corruption, was his wife, Lady Macbeth. There are many parts of the story 
that display her manipulations and poisonous thoughts. This essay will bring proofs 
and discuss them to show all the readers that she was the real mind behind the 
tragedy. The paper will proceed in chronological order, so that is easier to see how the 
story unrolled. 
Right at the beginning of the story, three witches told Macbeth some predictions 
and one of them was that he was destined to be king. Since the rise of the tragedy, 
and after the first prediction of the witches had come true, Macbeth started to have 
malicious thoughts. He was a man with many personality flaws, but it is very easy to 
see that his morale did not allow him to be unethical and that, although he had evil 
thoughts, he would never act on them. The following extract from the text, about his 
thoughts, illustrate very well what is being explained: 
 
“This supernatural temptation doesn’t seem like it can be a bad thing, 
but it can’t be good either. If it’s a bad thing, why was I promised a 
promotion that turned out to be true? Now I’m the thane of Cawdor, just 
like they said I would be. But if this is a good thing, why do I find Myself 
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thinking about murdering King Duncan, a thought so horrifying that it 
makes my hair stand on end and my heart pound inside my chest?... 
Even though it’s just a fantasy so far, the mere thought of committing 
murder shakes me up so much that I hardly know who I am anymore. 
My ability to act is stifled by my thoughts and speculations…” 
(SHAKESPEARE, p. 8) 
 
Clearly, Macbeth was ambitious, wanted to be king and even thought about 
killing King Duncan. Yet, his conscience did not allow him to fulfill his wishes. He, like 
many people, had forbidden desires and unethical thoughts, but this did not make him 
a malevolent person, because, as can be noticeable in the quote above, as soon as 
he had those thoughts, his morality condemned them, and he censured himself. 
In addition, it is possible to see that, since the moment that Lady Macbeth 
learned about the witches’ predictions (through a letter), she started to think about a 
way to convince her husband to murder the king. She already knew that Macbeth’s 
conscience would not allow him to kill somebody that he looked up to, so she started 
to gather arguments in order to manipulate him into doing what she wanted. This was 
when she decided to “persuade him”. 
 
“You are thane of Glamis and Cawdor, and you’re going to be king… 
But I worry about whether or not you have what it takes to seize the 
crown. You are too full of the milk of human kindness to strike 
aggressively at your first opportunity…Hurry home so I can persuade 
you and talk you out of whatever’s keeping you from going after the 
crown. ” (SHAKESPEARE, p. 11) 
 
As can be noticed in her thoughts, she already made her decision, Scotland’s 
King will die. For her, it did not matter that Macbeth had morality and that, although he 
had thought about it, he would not actually go through with his ambitious thoughts. 
Also, she started to plan the king's death from the moment she discovered that he was 
coming to her dwelling, to celebrate Macbeth’s victory over the war and his new title 
(one of the witches’ predictions). It is possible to see this in Shakespeare (p. 12) “ So 
the messenger is short of breath, like a hoarse raven, as he announces Duncan’s 
entrance into my fortress, where he will die…”. For her, all that mattered is that 
Macbeth will become king, regardless of who, including himself, he had to destroy in 
order to get there. 
Besides, when Macbeth arrived at his residency, he had already decided not to 
kill Duncan, as Shakespeare (p. 14) shows in Macbeth’s following lines “ I can’t spur 
myself to action. The only thing motivating me is ambition, which makes people rush 
ahead of themselves toward disaster.”. It is pretty clear in this part that Macbeth did 
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not desire to commit regicide anymore, he had already realized that it was wrong to 
act motivated by ambition and that only unfortunate things could come from doing that. 
He also had realized that if what the witches said would really happen, he would not 
need to do anything in order to become Scotland's king, things would rearrange 
themselves. 
Subsequently in the play, Macbeth told his wife that he was not going to commit 
murder, he said to her that he could not break the King’s trust soon after he had been 
honored and he also mentioned that he wanted to enjoy all the honors that Duncan 
had given to him. Nevertheless, Lady Macbeth did not accept his decision and resolved 
to “gently” persuade him by calling him a coward and appealing to his manhood, even 
after he begged her to stop. This is possible to be noticed in the following quotation: 
 
“ LADY MACBETH 
...will you take the crown you want so badly, or will you live as a 
coward… You’re like the poor cat in the old story. 
 MACBETH 
Please, stop! I dare to do only what is proper for a man to do. He who 
dares to do more is not a man at all. 
LADY MACBETH 
If you weren’t a man, then what kind of animal were you when you first 
told me you wanted to do this? When you dared to do it, that’s when 
you were a man.” (SHAKESPEARE, p. 15) 
 
Undoubtedly, Lady Macbeth wanted to manipulate her husband in order to get what 
she had set her heart on, and as can be noticeable, she achieved her goals. Many 
people may think that it is impossible to manipulate somebody into committing a 
murderer, but the truth is that it already happened in real life, many times in fact, but 
this essay will present one example that fits in the story. Lady Macbeth’s manipulations 
can be compared with Charles Manson real case. In the Charles Manson case, he 
assembled a cult, mostly compost by women, that he called “family”. He manipulated 
and used his “family” in order to commit many crimes for him, including torture and 
murder. There are several similarities between Lady Macbeth and Manson, and in a 
news report made by NPR it is possible to see some of them: 
 
“The leader of The Family was the charismatic, ruthless and 
manipulative Charles Manson. America was captivated by him, and by 
the young women who, under his spell, had snuck into two houses in 
Los Angeles to murder people they had never met.” (NPR, 2013) 
 
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Comparing the real case with the play is easy to see that Manson, like Lady 
Macbeth, was a very social person, liked by everyone. Also, as in Shakespeare's play, 
Manson persuaded his “family”, including many women that he had had intercourse 
with, to kill forhim. Furthermore, At the beginning of the story, Lady Macbeth was very 
charismatic on the outside but heartless on the inside, just like Manson. It is possible 
to notice this part of her personality when she was receiving Scotland’s king in a very 
loving way while, at the same time, planned his murder. Considering all that was shown 
above, is easy to realize that people are very susceptible to the manipulation of their 
loved ones just because they care and trust them. And, as like the young girls in 
Manson’s case, Macbeth also fell for his wife’s control. 
There are more proofs that Lady Macbeth was the one that set the wheels of 
death and chaos in motion. She was the one that prepared everything in the plan that 
conspiring against the king. She was the one that drugged the servants and she even 
got inside the king’s bedroom to check if they were sleeping. She also put the murder 
weapon, one of the servants' dagger, in a place where Macbeth could easily find it. 
Lady Macbeth knew that if she had not done almost everything on the plan, her 
husband's conscience would not allow him to take any steps, as a matter of fact, when 
the time to commit the horrible act was near, he almost gave up on the idea because 
only the thought of murdering the king was making him mad with guilt. 
Not only he almost gave up, but also, he did not finish the plan. He had murdered 
the king, but he was so shocked by what he had done that he could not put the blame 
on the servants, and his wife was the one that had to end the job. In this part, it is 
possible to see where Macbeth’s madness began. His insanity was the reason behind 
many of the killings that happened after he had killed the king. This was also Lady 
Macbeth’s fault, if it was not for her manipulation, Macbeth would not have killed the 
king and he would not have become mentally ill, and as a result, all the other deaths 
that followed the kings would not have happened. 
After he became king, Macbeth continued to kill, and his reasons for doing it 
were that there was no point in stopping after he had already lost his morality. This can 
be perceived in the following lines written by Shakespeare (p. 41) “ I have walked so 
far into this river of blood that even if I stopped now, it would be as hard to go back to 
being good as it is to keep killing people.”. Obviously, he believed that he had done so 
many wicked things that he was going to be punished for it in the afterlife, and because 
of that, there was no reason for him to stop. If it had not been for the first murder, that 
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Lady Macbeth practically forced him to commit, he would not have carried out any of 
the other assassinations because his morality would have stopped him. 
Close to the end, and after many deaths, both Macbeth and his wife become 
crazy. And at the end of the play, Lady Macbeth committed suicide and her husband 
died fighting for a crown that was already lost. But at the end of the story, even after 
all the evidence shown above, Macbeth was the one that was accused of being a 
monster and a tyrant while his wife had been remembered as sad hag that killed 
herself. 
On the whole, it is possible to see that Lady Macbeth’s actions at the beginning 
of the story started a number of disastrous consequences. This resulted in a horrible 
period for Scotland of the story and a tragic ending for both Macbeth and his wife. As 
said throughout the essay, she had not convinced him to murder King Duncan they 
probably would have lived a great and honorable life with many presents and privileges 
from Duncan. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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REFERÊNCIAS 
 
SHAKESPEARE, William. Macbeth. [S.d] available at: 
https://moodle.unilasalle.edu.br/pluginfile.php/701453/mod_resource/content/1/Macb
eth%20-%20Modern%20Text.pdf 
Accessed on: July 9, 2019. 
CHARLES MANSON: Master Manipulator, Even As A Child. National Public Radio, 
Washington, august 4, 2013. Available at: 
https://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/206652873/charles-manson-master-manipulator-
even-as-a-child 
Accessed on: July 9, 2019 
CHARLES MANSON BIOGRAPHY: Criminal, cult leader of the Manson family. 
Biographics, June 25, 2018. Available at: https://biographics.org/charles-manson-
biography-criminal-cult-leader-of-the-manson-family/ 
Accessed on: July 9, 2019 
 
https://moodle.unilasalle.edu.br/pluginfile.php/701453/mod_resource/content/1/Macbeth%20-%20Modern%20Text.pdf
https://moodle.unilasalle.edu.br/pluginfile.php/701453/mod_resource/content/1/Macbeth%20-%20Modern%20Text.pdf
https://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/206652873/charles-manson-master-manipulator-even-as-a-child
https://www.npr.org/2013/08/04/206652873/charles-manson-master-manipulator-even-as-a-child
https://biographics.org/charles-manson-biography-criminal-cult-leader-of-the-manson-family/
https://biographics.org/charles-manson-biography-criminal-cult-leader-of-the-manson-family/