Lady Macbeth Innocent Quotes

“My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white. I hear a knocking at the south entry. Retire we to our chamber; a little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Your constancy hath left you unattended”. (Act 2 Scene 2, Lines 67-72)

Lady Macbeth also directly spoke to the evil spirits and said ‘unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty’. She asked for the limited goodness to be taken from her and in return replaced with pure evil so that she can take part in the murder of King Duncan and not feel guilt. She tells her plans to Macbeth. Her words to Macbeth ‘Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it’. She told him to look innocent while hiding his evil intentions.

Lady Macbeth rebelled against her gender norms because she was craving the power and was willing to do anything to get the power. Most women in that time period were very intimidated by power because they didn’t have very many rights. So the fact that she was so driven to be powerful says something about her character. Back then women didn’t expect power unless they were in the royal families so when Lady Macbeth heard from Macbeth that he was going to become king she was ready to go to extreme extents for that power and to be a royal family. She went to farther extents for power then most men do.

Lady Macbeth and her Ruthlessness In life there are different ways people go about to achieve things, some get help from others, some do it on their own, and then there's some people who desire what they want so badly but have no ambition. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both have a goal to get Duncan out of his throne so Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor, and they ended up with a plan to kill Duncan. In the first two acts in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth shows more ruthlessness than her husband, and this is why Duncan's murder succeeded.

Lady Macbeth: The night is still young yet… What am I doing on the freezing wooden floor? My feet are beginning to grow weary with calluses. Macbeth’s face will retreat if he were to see such a sight. I must return to my bedroom at once, or else my husband will not accept such farce if he were to catch me in this dimmed, lonely chamber.

(I.v.36-37). Lady Macbeth feels that her dainty attributes hinder her ability of becoming a powerful ruler. She wants to betray the “Milk for gall” and take away the ladylike characteristics associated with her gender, and instead be filled with bitter evil (I.v.43). Women’s inability to rise to power shows the political dominance of men during this time period. Lady Macbeth’s longing for change and to have more wickedness displays that women were greatly disregarded and preferred to be divergent from the defining

Macbeth • Macbeth takes place in Scotland “Great king, I’ve come from Fife…”(1.2 page 3) • Macbeth is the main character. He was a general in the army of King Duncan. Macbeth was originally Thane of Glamis, then Thane of Cawdor, and later King of Scotland. “ All hail, Macbeth! Hail to you, thane of Glamis”(1.3 page3)

Immediately when we meet Lady Macbeth through a dialogue between her husband, Macbeth, we realize that there is a vagueness in gender roles. Macbeth, who was introduced as a violent and valiant man, is hesitant about carrying out a terrible deed, which happens to be murdering the king of Scotland. Whereas women are supposed to be innocent and amicable, Lady Macbeth is shown as a stronger and much more power

She forced Macbeth to kill King Duncan against his own will, which resulted in a large amount of guilt and paranoia being placed on his back. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth were so intertwined in their thoughts and actions that they knew what the other was thinking before anyone acted on it. Lady Macbeth knew that the best way to get under Macbeth’s skin was to question his manliness and courage. “What beast was’t, then you were a man; And, to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more than man. Nor time nor place Did then adhere, and yet you would make both: They have made themselves, and that their fitness now, Does unmake you. 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 boneless gums, And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you, Have done to this” (1.7.55-65). Macbeth was having second thoughts about killing King Duncan, however Lady Macbeth will not allow for Macbeth to pass up this opportunity. Because of the fact that Lady Macbeth knows exactly how to get under Macbeth’s skin, she was easily able to manipulate him into continuing this deed to murder King Duncan. Although Lady Macbeth did not physically do the action of murdering King Duncan, she mentally did the action of messing with Macbeth’s head, persuading him to physically murder King Duncan, frame the chamberlains, and take the throne of Scotland.

Her ruthless intentions and lack of humanity prove women are forceful. During the time Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, people often saw women as a depiction of "the man they belonged to” (Litvack). However, Lady Macbeth has a profound influence on her husband. She leads the relationship and proves to be heartless and thus would make a powerful queen. Although the Weïrd sisters plant the seeds of treachery in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth summons the evil in their lives.

Lady Macbeth defies the expectations of a women through her active and violent pursuit of power. The social construct of femininity in this time period viewed a woman’s role as the quiet, obedient servant, which distinctly contrasts Lady Macbeth’s vocal role as a leader in the plot to gain power. The orchestration and committing of murder casts Lady Macbeth in a masculine tone, because these actions portray a demanding character who takes what they want. These qualities are associated with masculinity because men are expected to lead and to be strong and powerful. For Lady Macbeth to be such an aggressive woman, the stereotype of fragile femininity is evidently challenged.

Due to the heavy influence of women in his play, William Shakespeare’s Macbeth seems to be a work different from it’s time. Domineering Lady Macbeth and the the supernatural Weïrd Sisters are central characters in the work, but also are women who are catalysts for major unfortunate occurrences in the play. On the surface, Macbeth is a tale about ambition, power, murder, sorcery, and ghosts. But by taking a critical view on the famous tragedy, Macbeth truly tells the cautionary tale of what happens when powerful woman lose themselves in patriarchal society. Through Judeo-Christian and patriarchal ideology, Shakespeare reinforces patriarchal views of women, feeding into the harmful misogynistic stereotypes that are still held today.

Lady Macbeth says to herself “Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round, which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal” (1,V, 25-30). When Lady Macbeth gives the plan of killing the king to Macbeth at first he is afraid. Macbeth then decides for himself that he will kill the king by following his wife’s plan which leads to his downfall. Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth right after he has killed Duncan, when Macbeth forgot about planting the daggers so Lady Macbeth had to do it herself. Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures. Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. If he do not bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt” (2, II, 56-60). Even though Lady Macbeth helped Macbeth out in this situation, Macbeth is still at fault for the murder of Duncan which leads to his death. Lady Macbeth is talking to herself about how she needs to try to be more of a man because women aren’t allowed to do the things she does, but if she doesn’t help Macbeth, he won’t become king. Lady Macbeth says to herself “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the top-full of direst cruelty!” (1,V, 40-43). Although Lady Macbeth made

One of Shakespeare’s most feared and famous character, Lady Macbeth is a lover of power. She comes into the the scene already plotting Duncan’s murder. Lady Macbeth is more powerful, ruthless, manipulative and ambitious than Macbeth. She is very aware that she will have to coax Macbeth into committing murder. Knowing that she is a female, Lady Macbeth uses her sexuality to achieve power- that is manipulation. Macbeth implies that women characters can be just as ambitious and cruel as the men characters, however society will not agree with what it takes to pursue their ambitions on their own.

Lady Macbeth is prepared to ruin lives to achieve her goal, in this case kill King Duncan and blame it on the innocent servants. “The raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fate of the entrance of Duncan”. When Lady Macbeth says this she is planning on killing Duncan, she links a raven to this as ravens are linked with death. She uses this as if to call the evil spirits. She asks for them to ‘take away the milk from thy breasts and replace it with an evil substance, this is her saying that she needs to not be the generic wife in those times and act like a man. Before Macbeth had the meeting with the witches, he was a brave and well respected man, he was well liked by those around him, especially the king. Everyone wants to be king, but Macbeth was happy being a Thane, but when the witches told him that he was to become king, he desperately wanted power and was almost prepared to do anything to reach his goal.