Macbeth coursework Essay

We know that lady Macbeth is not calm in the beginning of act 2 scene 2 because of all the factors used to create tension and an eerie surrounding, these are it is dark, some one has just gone to murder the king and the owl shrieking. She will also be on edge and continually watching her back, this will be because Macbeth has just gone to murder the king, and if it goes wrong everything points to them and they will be executed for treason. To calm her down she has a drink, ‘that which hath made them drunk hath made me bold†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ this shows she has had a drink to make her courageous. To add even more tension to this already tense scene the speech speed dramatically increases, ‘When?’ ‘Now.’ ‘As I descended?’ You can tell the speed increases allot because they don’t say more than three words to each other in this banter at this point in the scene. When the two actors playing this scene are acting they should be moving around in synchronised circles around the stage and express their speech in hand movements. After this they move onto a different subject, Donaldbain, the king’s son. The whole of this scene should be spoken not to loud but not to quiet because it is so early in the morning that it is dark, and everyone in the castle apart from them two is asleep. Macbeth then starts to tell Lady Macbeth that he heard the two guards and other voices praying and talking to him, ‘There’s one did laugh ins sleep, and one cried murder!’ he is telling Lady Macbeth about his hearings in this quote. Lady Macbeth believes him but does not want him to develop on these thoughts and move on, ‘consider it not so deeply.’ She is now telling him to move on to another subject and carry on as normal. She could be a bit worried about her husband Macbeth, ‘these deeds must not be thought†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ she is worried that he is dwelling on this subject too much for his and her own good,’ it will make us mad. ‘ This sentence is very ironic because in the later stages of the play it comes true, this comes true because lady Macbeth goes around washing her hands thinking there is blood on them but there actually isn’t. This ends in her committing suicide. She could also be trying to comfort him, ‘What do you mean?’ she could be trying to get all of his bad feelings out of him and out in the open so she can deal with him. This could also lead to it being easier for her to manipulate him by exploiting his weaknesses. The stronger character in this scene and the whole time she is in the play is Lady Macbeth in the way she controls her whole surroundings to the way she wants, ‘these deeds must not be thought†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ in this part of the play she is in controlling she is literally telling him what to think. There is a great warrior who has killed many in battle is putty in his wives hands, she can mould him into feeling and doing what she wants. Macbeth starts to show a little amount of backbone in the middle of the scene, ‘Ill go no more.’ This is when he confronts her and tells her he won’t do anymore when she tells him to put the daggers back and smear the blood on the guards. Earlier at the beginning of the scene when Macbeth returns from the murder of the king he brings back two crucial pieces of evidence that links them to the murder. The plan was to kill the king with the guard’s daggers and return the daggers after smearing the blood on the two guards to frame them. He does all of this apart from the returning the daggers. When Lady Macbeth realises this she is furious,’Infirm of purpose!’ She raised her voice severely, to prove how angry she is. She is saying to him that he can’t do the simple job he was told to do. So because of this fault it looks like the guards are innocent and they wanted to frame them. When Lady Macbeth goes to return the daggers this shows us she is not a normal women in accordance to those times,’ I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ this shows us she is not afraid to stare In the face of death and smear the faces of the guards which she has manipulated her husband to do. This is very strange because when this play was made the country was a very Christian and to murder a man in cold blood was a very serious offence let alone blame the murder on his own guards. Lady Macbeth is not a normal as we know because earlier in the play when we first see her in act 1 scene 5 she calls upon evil spirits to make her more of a man than a woman. When Lady Macbeth returns from smearing the blood on the guards she says,’ A little water clears us of this deed.’ She is basically saying that all it needs is a little bit of water to clean their hands then they are in the clear of the murder. This sentence is also ironic because when Lady Macbeth gets mentally ill in the later stages of the play she thinks her hands have blood on them so she continually washes them thinking the blood is still there even though there is none there. The way that Lady Macbeth is portrayed throughout the whole play from Act 1 scene 5 till she commits suicide is she is an opportunist; she sees the opportunity that Macbeth can become king so she pushes him and manipulates him to think he is the rightful king. She will also do anything to be crowned queen alongside him. She is also shown as very devious and a manipulator this is shown as she controls the best Scottish warrior is like a dog and she is the owner she tells him what to do and he does it, or a puppet master and the puppet. She also manipulates the noblest warrior to kill in cold blood. She is shown most of the way through the play as the more prominent and powerful character of all the characters in the play. I think that Shakespeare tried and succeed in personifying the devil in Lady Macbeth in the way she controls her environment to her advantage. What I thought of Lady Macbeth in the first time we see her when she reads the letter from Macbeth was that she was an elegant woman nothing like she turns out to be. But after she hears the prophecy about Macbeth becoming the king it is like an on/off switch to turn on or off the evilness inside of her. She believes,’ He is too full of the milk of human kindness.’ Meaning he is too kind to do any of the deeds he has done so far. Straight away she is scheming and wanted him to hurry home so she can,’ Pour my spirits in thine ear.’ Basically she wants to poison his mind.