Home > Essay examples > Explore How Lady Macbeth Manipulated Macbeth to Murder King Duncan in Act I Scene VII

Essay: Explore How Lady Macbeth Manipulated Macbeth to Murder King Duncan in Act I Scene VII

Essay details and download:

  • Subject area(s): Essay examples
  • Reading time: 4 minutes
  • Price: Free download
  • Published: 23 March 2023*
  • Last Modified: 22 July 2024
  • File format: Text
  • Words: 967 (approx)
  • Number of pages: 4 (approx)
  • Tags: Macbeth essays

Text preview of this essay:

This page of the essay has 967 words.

n act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth changes into a role where she becomes self-centred and malicious. She only wants power and control. Being the dominated one in her relationship is still not enough for her. The words and actions that were said by Lady Macbeth were unusual because before this scene Lady Macbeth had acted in the love of Macbeth, but in scene 7 she started to love the power and control more than Macbeth, greed overcame the better of her. Overall I think that in act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth used Macbeth for her own selfish reasons. Lady Macbeth persuaded Macbeth to murder King Duncan, which is one of the major tragedies in the story, so Lady Macbeth has an important role of the incident, which had occurred.

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.

I think that Lady Macbeth is presented as an innocent and loving wife but in act 1 scene 7 she really is an malicious and selfish wife, and this is when her true colours show. At first Lady Macbeth is perceived as a wife that is dominated by her husband, what ever Macbeth says and does goes, but in act 1 scene 7, it tells us more about her true character.

Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth what to do and how to do it. Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth so much that she takes his manhood away and turns him into a slave where he has no power and no control over the decisions he makes.

Macbeth is not fully convinced to kill the king he is confused and fear of appearing as a coward in front of his wife, this is why, Macbeth kills king Duncan to prove how much he loves his wife and that he is man enough to do so.

If Lady Macbeth did not persuade Macbeth to murder the king, I think that Macbeth would have not did it because when he left the table he had made his decision, which was to not to kill the king. Lady Macbeth uses all of her power and womanhood to persuade Macbeth but the major impact on his decision that persuaded Macbeth to go ahead with the murder was when Lady Macbeth involves there love for each other.

The main theme and issues in act 1 scene 7, are that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are presented differently because Lady Macbeth is shown to be an loving wife but really she is a wife who is malicious. Macbeth is recognized as a fearless warrior and in front of Lady Macbeth it is a different matter because she has control over him.

The tragedy that occurred in the play Macbeth, was when Macbeth was challenged by Lady Macbeth and by the three witches. The story Macbeth is a tragedy because he is forced to become evil and gets caught up in the situation to murder the king. This all started when the three witches said that he could become king, Macbeth’s greed of the monarchy lead him to murder the king, where on the other hand he should have reacted in the same way that Banquo did. The character in the story that was responsible for the murder was Lady Macbeth because she was the one who thought of what to do, and persuaded him to kill the king. Lady Macbeth was the one behind the murder, but Macbeth could too be blamed because he could have stood his ground but instead he was manipulated by his wife. Blaming Macbeth, I also feel pity for him because he suffered through out the act where he talked to himself and this showed a sign of madness and then his wife dies, the one who he loved. He also had to murder his good friend, Banquo.

Overall, I conclude that in act 1 scene 7, Shakespeare has expressed the true nature of the characters and what they go through in the murdering of the true King. In this scene I have come across the characters changes, in a quote from the play Macbeth was regarded as ” Brave Macbeth well he deserves that name… Which smok’d with bloody execution… Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him…” In other words, Macbeth was recognized as a brave warrior whom loved blood, but then Macbeth changes into a coward and an insignificant person. Lady Macbeth changes into an authoritative lady who controls Macbeth, to do what she say, for example the murder of King Duncan. This scene was an important role in the play not only realising what the characters thought and felt but the scene also inspired the audience to read on.

Discover more:

About this essay:

If you use part of this page in your own work, you need to provide a citation, as follows:

Essay Sauce, Explore How Lady Macbeth Manipulated Macbeth to Murder King Duncan in Act I Scene VII. Available from:<https://www.essaysauce.com/essay-examples/2019-3-20-1553125804/> [Accessed 07-10-24].

These Essay examples have been submitted to us by students in order to help you with your studies.

* This essay may have been previously published on EssaySauce.com and/or Essay.uk.com at an earlier date than indicated.

NB: Our essay examples category includes User Generated Content which may not have yet been reviewed. If you find content which you believe we need to review in this section, please do email us: essaysauce77 AT gmail.com.