Lady Macbeth
The play Macbeth is well known for its abundant use of imagery. Imagery is used for numerous reasons such as to convey certain visions to the audience and to give life to the play. One major use of imagery can be seen with the character of Lady Macbeth. Her characterization is strongly dependent on imagery and progresses dramatically with the advancement of the play. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is introduced as a dominant, controlling, heartless wife with an obsessive ambition to achieve kingship for her husband. After she learns of her husband's plan to murder Duncan, she realizes that her husband is not man enough to commit the murder. She believes he "...is too full o' th' milk of human kindness..."(I.v.15), and he would be great except he is "...not without ambition, but without/ The illness should attend it..."(I.v.17-18). Lady Macbeth is clearly presented as the dominant person in the relationship; which, is a reversal of the stereotypical roles of the time. She is presented as one of the strongest characters featuring in the beginning of play. In Lady Macbeth's famous "unsex me" speech, we are presented with many images of her wanting to be de-womanized, guiltless, and fearless, like a man. She declares "unse
x me here, /And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full/Of direst cruelty!"(I.v.39-41). She no longer wants her womanly emotions and desires for her compassion to be replaced with cruelty. She reinforces her statement by saying "Come to my woman's breasts, /And take my milk for gall..."(I.v.45-46). This statement insinuates that she wants the milk in her breasts to be replaced with bile. She wants absolutely no connections with womanly compassion; she wants to be as manly as possible. She also presents this in her lines saying "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 plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this." (I.vii.54-59). Lady Macbeth is saying that she would rather slaughter her nursing child than to back out of a responsibility she said she would go through with. As the play progresses Lady Macbeth's deterioration can clearly be sensed. The first sign is when Lady Macbeth goes to murder Duncan, but is unable to because he "...resembled/ My father as he slept..."(II.ii.12-13). This is the first sign of her weakness that we are capable of detecting. After the murder is complete, Lady Macbeth becomes less active in Macbeth's plan for domination. He begins to plan the murders without even consulting her, and she becomes more pas
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Approximate Word count = 942
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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