The Dead Butcher and His Fiend-Like Queen

Throughout the play "Macbeth", by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth's character drastically changes from being sinister to feeble. Lady Macbeth was an evil, manipulative person whose greed and selfishness were eventually the downfall of her character and well being. During the beginning of "Macbeth", she used her twisted mind to convince her husband to murder, making him believe that it was the only way he could get what he wanted. But as the play developed and the murders started to increase, Lady Macbeth started to question whether or not they were necessary. Sadly, though possibly justifiably, she ended up committing suicide after her constant questioning of the murders drove her to insanity. Lady Macbeth was an unemotional person who only cared about what she could gain. She made her disconcern about other people well known when she said, "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." (Act I, Scene VII, Lines 55-60). Lady Macbeth refers that she would have no problem taking the life of her son, if it meant getting what she wanted. The fact that she would even fathom the idea of killing her own child makes her morose and appalling. If only she knew that it would be her who would be taken out of this world so cruelly. Being able to manipulate her husband's mind and the minds of others was another one of Lady Macbeth's baneful traits. After Macbeth killed King Duncan, still reeling from the crime he had committed, he met up with his wife. Once again, she used her manipulative ways to make him think that she felt just as bad as he did. She said, "My hands are of your color, but I shame To wear a heart so white." (Act II, Scene II, Lines 63-64). Lady Macbeth appeared to her husband as if she felt just as guilty about the act of violence as he did, knowing that in reality she didn't care at all. Telling Macbeth that her hands were as bloody as his own was to try to give him comfort that he was not alone in his schemes. But Lady Macbeth had other ideas in mind. She couldn't care less about her husband's thoughts or worries. All she could think about was

“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 so sworn as you have done to this (Shakespeare, 44).” Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that he must go forward with his intent of killing Duncan while he sleeps. She explains to him that she would be so courageous as to tear her baby away from her and kill it while it was smiling at her if she had promised to do so. The fact that Lady Macbeth would be able to commit such an act in a tender moment as nursing her child

As being the dominated one in their relationship Lady Macbeth uses all her control over Macbeth to make Macbeth murder king Duncan. She also challenges his patriarchy to make him murder the King. For example, when Lady Macbeth says "When you durst do it, then you were a man." Now that Macbeth is trying to back out of it, Lady Macbeth is calling him a coward and torments him to do the murdering. She also says " Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life and live a coward in thine own esteem..." In other words, Lady Macbeth uses the power of love to persuade him. She also says if you love me you would kill him straight away with no hesitation. Lady Macbeth says "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 his boneless gums and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this." In this quotation Lady Macbeth stirs Macbeth even more when Lady Macbeth challenges their love relationship on the basis of the decision, he eventually gives in and murders King Duncan.

Parenthesis are used in this case to add an extra piece of information that has been forgotten about or is more of an afterthought in the speech. Because the suicide of Lady macbeth is included in the parenthesis, it is implied that Malcolm has deemed unimportant and therefore discarded the importance Lady Macbeth in the entire plot. This shows that women are disregarded when speaking about corruption. Malcolm was speaking about the corruption Macbeth had committed and that he was now defeated, but when Lady Macbeth was mentioned, it was to show her fate, completely unrelated to the end of the unfair rule that the Macbeths had imposed. Another part of Malcolm’s statement that is important is the order the Macbeths were mentioned in and how they were mentioned. Macbeth was mentioned first at the name of a “dead butcher” which implies that he slaughtered men as a butcher would to animals. This shows that he was blamed for the majority of the damage done. When Lady macbeth is mentioned, it is by the name of “his fiend-like queen”. The use of the possessive “his” shows that Lady Macbeth was, again mentioned more as an afterthought and a “sidekick” to macbeth rather than the mastermind of the whole

One of these instances can be seen when Macbeth becomes frightened by the ghost of Banquo at the banquet table. She states: “Impostors to true fear, would well become A woman’s story at a winter’s fire, Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!” (3.4.64-66). Lady Macbeth compares her husband to an old woman telling stories around a fire. She clearly challenges his manhood in order to get him to stop acting out at the dinner. In another instance, Lady Macbeth is attempting to manipulate her husband by claiming she could be considered more of a man than him. She calls her husband’s word into question in the following excerpt when he has doubts about killing Duncan. She says: “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” (1.7.55-59). She describes that she would kill a child feeding on her breast if she had sworn to do it. Her heinous description of this act makes the killing of Duncan seem more benign. Lady Macbeth’s ambition leads to her using those around her with malicious intent.

On the contrary, Lady Macbeth begins as a ruthless woman. She has a manipulative and controlling character, convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan; she will do anything to gain power. When she says, “How tender ‘tis to love the babe…I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out” (I.vii. 55-58), she shows her ruthlessness and her “bad” ambition. In her “role reversal” with Macbeth, she gains somewhat of a conscience and realizes her guilt. When she tells him, “You must leave this” (III. ii. 35), she wants Macbeth to forget about his plan to murder Banquo’s family. She is very hesitant about committing another murder and does not want Macbeth to follow through with his plan.

In Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, the following statement can be applied, “Macbeth is a butcher and Lady Macbeth is a fiend-like queen.” This is a true statement as many occurrences involving Macbeth and Lady Macbeth portray them in this way. A butcher can be defined as someone who kills or has people killed needlessly or brutally. The term butcher used in this way describes Macbeth to some extent. During the play, Macbeth is involved in the murder of many people, including King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff’s wife and children. A fiend can be described as a very wicked or cruel person, or one who causes mischief and annoyance. This can be applied to Lady Macbeth, who had only her own intentions at heart. On many occasions Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth provides a scheme for Macbeth to assassinate the King. She is manipulative and persuasive in corrupting Macbeth s judgement. “What beast was’t then that you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” (Act I. Sc.VII) In this quote, Lady Macbeth is agitating Macbeth by saying he is not a man if he does not do what he says he is going to do, which is to murder the king of course.

"This dead butcher and his fiend like queen"(V.viii.80) is the way Malcolm describes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.  The characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changed considerably during the course of the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare.  In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King.  As the play progresses, Macbeth is corrupted by the witches’ prophecies and by his and Lady Macbeth’s ambition. Because of the weakness of Macbeth’s character and the strength of Lady Macbeth’s character, Lady Macbeth is able to easily influence him.  Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth toward evil at first, but after he realizes what he has done, it is his decision to

Lady Macbeth- the malicious mastermind, and the second driving force behind the murders done by Macbeth, had believed that by portraying a man’s ways, she would attain power-for her and her husband, and gain whatever they needed without remorse or sorrow. Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to frame two guards by getting them intoxicated and even prepares the murder scene for Macbeth to take King Duncan's life. Macbeth even questions his loyalty and righteousness in this moment by saying, “But in these cases, we still have judgment here…bloody instructions…return to plague the inventor” and . . .” He is here in double trust; first as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then as his host” (I.VII.7-14). This just

At the beginning of the excerpt, Duncan was compared to a snake which has a connection to Malcolm, suggesting he is also a snake. Earlier in the excerpt, Duncan was identified as a snake, and Malcolm was compared to a snake which correlates him to Duncan. Shakespeare conveys that animals are powerful by suggesting Macbeth is “in danger” of Malcolm’s “tooth” (17) as if he was an animal who will fight back and who will regain the power that he lost. Macbeth is afraid of what could come next because he has not completely gotten rid of Duncan. Next, Macbeth conveys “both the / worlds suffer” (18-19) now that Duncan is dead. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will celebrate because they will become king and queen, but Duncan’s family will go through a loss in leadership. Duncan, their king, is dead and Macbeth, their future king, is next in line to take the throne, which is not what Duncan’s family desires. Moreover, Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth, a mysterious woman, that they “will eat [their] meal in fear” (20) because they could get caught in the murder of Duncan. Shakespeare reveals Macbeth has “terrible dreams / That can shake us nightly” (21-22) because he

Here I feel a little bit of sympathy for lady macbeth because I don’t think that she knows what is going on, and I think that she sees him very worried and all sweaty and scared. “Sit worthy friends. My lord is often thus” Lady Macbeth tries to act although she knows what’s going on and she has acted as he has before, so the guests do not get suspicious of his actions, as she can’t explain, as she isn’t sure herself. “I would while 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”. Lady Macbeth is saying to macbeth she would rather kill her baby by bashing its brains out than break a promise like macbeth has done, although I feel that she has said this to make him feel guilty so he will carry out the promise. This is a very persuasive piece and although she might be bluffing Macbeth is a bit vulnerable and this manages to persuade him to carry on and keep the promise. She also questions his manliness to persuade him to kill Duncan so this shows how desperate she is to make him murder Duncan, which suggests to me she is afraid to do it herself. I have absolutely no sympathy for her here as I think she is taking advantage of Macbeth and she turns him against his will.

Aptly described as "fiendlike" by Prince Malcolm, Lady Macbeth was a major participant in the ruin of Macbeth. She was a woman virtually devoid of human emotions and general scruples. Her lack of principles and mindless ambition made her a proponent of seizing the throne. She goaded her husband into the act of vile murder with the words, "Yet do I fear thy nature. / It is too full o' the milk of human kindness" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth later said, "When you durst do it [kill Duncan], then you were a man" (Shakespeare 189). Lady Macbeth called Macbeth weak and made light of his manhood in order to influence him towards the murder of Duncan. Without the influence of his wife, Macbeth may have lacked the single minded resolve to go through with the murder of good King Duncan. In addition to pushing Macbeth to commit the murders, Lady Macbeth acted as accomplice that made his succession to the throne possible. Lady Macbeth came up with the plan to frame two innocent guards for the murder of Duncan. "...his two chamberlains [the ones she planned to frame for the murder] / Will I with wine and wassail so

With the visit to King Duncan, the King announces that his son Malcolm will be heir to the throne. In Macbeth’s mind, all he can think about is murdering the King and all that will come along with it. Macbeth sends a letter to his wife telling of all that has happened and to prepare for the King’s visit. In order to keep the murder in her mind she doesn’t want anything to get in her way, so she even goes to the point of seeking evil and not wanting to be a women-afraid of the feminine ways which will interfere in the murder. When Lady Macbeth says, “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; (I v ll. 44-47) it shows how far Lady Macbeth is willing to go to make sure her husband and herself gets to the top. She even goes to the point to call upon the spirits to unsex her and fill her with cruelty to make sure that here feminine ways don’t cause the plan to go wrong.

Lady Macbeth is manipulative towards Macbeth in order to get him to murder King Duncan so he can become king and is very controlling in the planning of King Duncan’s Murder. She decides when and how they should kill King Duncan since Macbeth keeps questioning his decision to go through with the murder in which, Lady Macbeth has to step in and convince him otherwise. She scolds her husband for not acting more like a man, because he does not want to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth claims, “What beast was 't, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” (1.7.47-51) Lady Macbeth thinks her husband is a coward for not wanting to kill King Duncan, so he can become king; thinks that he is not man enough to do it. She is questioning her husband’s manhood and asks Macbeth if he would rather be known as a man, who did what he had to do or a coward who was too scared to do what he had to do. As a result Macbeth gives into the pressuring of his wife’s accusations towards his manhood and murders King