"Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, introduces the concept of one character being both the antagonist and the protagonist. He portrays a gluttonous couple, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, which cultivate off each other's downfalls in the hopes of gaining wealth and prestige. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth has a king of power over Macbeth that she can only achieve through his devotion to her. She adds to his false sense of security, and Macbeth confides in her and lets her persuade him. Lady Macbeth portrays a domineering, selfish character who uses cruelty as a guise.
She forces herself to become cruel in order to convince Macbeth to further his ambition stating "Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (lines 39-40). At this point, she w
It is important for the reader to undertand the complexity of the relationship between her and her husband before judging the character of Lady Macbeth so swiftly.
After Duncan's murder, Lady Macbeth begins a slow psychological decline into madness- just as ambition affecta her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt plague her more strongly afterward. Lady Macbeth's mental breakdown is portrayed in the sleepwalking scene and her extreme guilt is revealed when she states "Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (lines 57-58). Her suicide reveals not only the extremity of her remorse for Duncan, but shows the reader just how weak and selfish she really is. Even though such
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