MACBETH 2
People are not always as strong as they seem on the outside. Because of certain images society holds, it allows humans to wear masks for protection from what they are actually feeling internally. Individuals wear these masks to protect hidden, troubled emotions they feel or to hide from society because of inner fears of revealing their true selves. In William Shakespear's famous play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth uses masks of power and evil to conceal tremendous emotions of guilt and weakness. Lady Macbeth's incredible desire for power is first introduced in Act I of the play when she begins to read a letter from her husband. As she reads about the witches's prophecy of Macbeth becoming king of Scotland, she begins to accumulate villainous ideas in her mind. Only the death of the king would allow the witches's predictions to come true. King Duncan's visit to Inverness would be his "fatal entrance" (1.5.35). "Unsex me here" (1.5.37) and "make thick my blood" (1.5.39) Lady Macbeth would say, wanting to have the courage and strength of a man. To have power, she must win the "golden round" (1.5.24) and become queen of Scotland. Lady Macbeth craves for her husband's success so much that she would "dash
the brains out" (1.7.58) of her own child in order to achieve her goal. The strong ambition within her makes it seem as if she had no conscience or human feeling. Supernatural incidents are what mainly motivates her desire for power. Lady Macbeth would not have wanted to commit murder if the three weird sisters had not said Macbeth would be king. She even mentions how "the raven himself is hoarse/ That croaks" (1.5.34-35), which foretells the upcoming death of Duncan. Lady Macbeth's hunger to be queen is only the start of the immense mask she creates for herself to become the dominating and powerful woman she wants to be. Lady Macbeth's dramatic change in her character displays a person who is too weak to carry on their own outer mask to society. Even though she was so controlling and influential to her husband, she could not even handle her own guiltiness within her. Her desire for power and ruthlessness about the kings murder just made her a weaker person by being greedy and desperate. Because of manipulation and evil, even a strong person, like Lady Macbeth, can fall into despair if they cannot reveal their true inner emotions. Wearing a mask cannot hide a problem, nor is it a solution to any problem. Trying to convince Macbeth to kill the king is a great challenge for Lady Macbeth that allows readers of the play to see the demanding side of her. Because her husband is "too full o' the milk of human kindness" (1.5.13) to kill Duncan himself, Lady Macbeth's domineering traits help them both succeed in their unruly plan to gain the crown. When Macbeth is unwilling to commit murder, she claims that her husband is "a coward in thine own esteem" (1.7.43) and compares him to
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Approximate Word count = 1147
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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