Irony In Macbeth

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With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the antagonist Macbeth is influenced and motivated by his wife Lady Macbeth to plan and execute vicious acts. Lady Macbeth is presented as a villainous character as she instigates her husband into committing horrendous acts starting with the murder of Duncan. She implant’s the idea of violence into Macbeth’s mind. And constantly manages to feed Macbeth’s thoughts with heartless and unfavorable comments. “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would..be so much more than the man” (1.7.47-51). Lady Macbeth cleverly uses these quotes to mock Macbeth’s ability to behave like a man. She questions Macbeth’s identity and uses him as a pawn to complete her plan. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that he would be more than a man if he committed the murder and that this would benefit him.

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.

She thinks Macbeth is a coward, she feels Macbeth can’t do anything just like a baby. “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, For it must seem their guilt”(2.2 line 52-57). Lady Macbeth just wants power, she doesn’t care about killing other people at all, she’s cold-hearted and crazy, she would do anything to get power. However, after she feels like she’ll lose all of her power, she goes crazy. ”Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (5.1 line 49-50). When she thinks about losing her power, she went crazy, she’s afraid of losing her power and afraid of what would happen to her, she made her own

By the end of the play, we discover that she is not as fearless as she seems. Lady Macbeth feels remorse and she commits suicide after she notices what her past actions were. After her suicide, we notice that her past fearless self was merely a mask to make herself more confident than she actually is. “And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.” (I, V, 49-50). As shown here, Lady Macbeth is asking upon the spirits to make her more confident than she is. This makes her do do bad decisions later on and she doesn't notice the immediate

Woman of her age at that time should be ruled by their father or by their husband. However throughout the beginning of the play 'Macbeth', lady Macbeth is seen to be in full charge. The fact that she planned the murder and her level of confidence tells us that she has no mercy on people. 'We fail?' this quote used when Macbeth asks lady Macbeth what would happened if we fail?, She uses this rhetorical question to show off her confidence as well as her coldblooded nature. This link to how she is in a unusual type of relationship to Macbeth. In addition, Lady Macbeth is speaking as if she is certain that that this murder will go ahead. But she is fully aware that it is going to be emotionally difficult to go through with, and she calls upon evil spirits to assist her murderous plans."Come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty;" She does not want to have any human emotion in herself, as she knows that that will cause her to possibly back down and not go through with her plans, so she begs that she lose her inner feelings of conscience; This would be see as wired as the women as that time would not do anything such.

Known for his tragedy, intrigue, comedy, and romance, Shakespeare extends his boundary of prowess in the play Macbeth. The irony present in the play, the double-meaning of the characters’ actions, and the complexity of setting all contribute to a thrilling story of murder and looking beyond the superficial. Dramatic, situational, and verbal irony greatly contribute to the theme of things are not what they seem in Macbeth text and film. Shakespeare uses the contrast in irony to convey this in the character’s words, actions, and the audience’s awareness. The textual and film evidence fully supports the theme and displays the author’s affluent use of irony.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s desire and ambition leads to her eventual downfall. When Lady Macbeth hears of Macbeth’s prophecy she dreams of the glory and high-standing that awaits being queen. She cannot withhold her ambitions and she is willing to manipulate fate to bring about Macbeth’s prophecy. She invokes evil spirits to be filled from head to toe with cruelty to do the evil actions necessary to make Macbeth king and to remove all remorse and pity for her action from her heart. She is initially able to be involved in the treacherous deeds that are needed to bring about the prophecy quickly, but as the play progresses the weight of the merciless deeds fill her with remorse. The remorse and pain she feels for her wicked

Lady Macbeth is trying to manipulate Macbeth by literally insulting his manliness. Macbeth thought that he wouldn’t be a man if he murdered King Duncan for his own benefit, but Lady Macbeth is saying that in becoming the new King, Macbeth

In this Lady Macbeth means that Macbeth is only a man if he commits the murder. That if he does not dare to perform this act to become king then he is not a man. To further explain she is stating that he is a coward if he does not go through with the murder. This idea of proving to Lady Macbeth that he is not a coward , and that he is a man leads Macbeth to

This scene plays a lot with the theme of gender and how certain traits seem out of place with the characters. Macbeth is war hero and seemingly tough and ambitious but his weakness is that he is far too kind as Lady Macbeth says, he say “too full of the milk of human kindness”. This comes across as a feminine trait in contrast to his ambition. Lady Macbeth is a very complicated character and possesses many Masculine qualities. In her soliloquy she asks spirits to “unsex her” because she wants to kill King Duncan. She asks to be made cruel, strong and free of remorse. Her ambition is her defining feature, which is a typically masculine quality, yet she is more ambitious than Macbeth himself. Neither Lady Macbeth nor Macbeth fit the gender roles that society has placed on them, and from this scene the audience gets the idea that the plot and characters of Macbeth are not as simple as they

This is demonstrated in the quote ‘unsex me here’ this is effective because it portrays how disturbed Lady Macbeth feels about her femininity. Shakespeare has made this concept very relatable to the audience as the play was performed in front of a patriarchal society where sexism and gender inequality existed. This use of monologue is effective because it expresses her intense need and want to become a man so that she can physically and mentally vigorous and strong to assist Macbeth to overthrow the monarchy. The audience can also feel a sense of irony in the way Shakespeare has portrayed Lady Macbeth because a woman of that era wouldn’t have been courageous enough to be so strong minded and assertive. Shakespeare’s effective use of irony to establish Lady Macbeth’s character adds further emphasis on how wicked and immoral she is as a person; essentially presenting her as an evil person. Opposite to a patriarchal view of a gentle, quite female who listens to her father or

This is explained by the quote: “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire?... And live a coward in thine own esteem?” In this quote, Macbeth, has realized that the acts he is about to do is far beyond his capabilities as he is a gracious noble man that is loyal to he’s king, in contrast, before Macbeth realizes his actions he was fully brave to perform. Lady Macbeth claims that he is not acting the way he desires, the way of a man. Thus, she implies that Macbeth will live as a coward if he continues

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.