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“Lady Macbeth is a powerful and dramatic character, but her death at the end of the play is no surprise to the audience.” Discuss this statement with close reference to the text. “Macbeth” is one of the most famous tragedies written in the Elizabethan times by William Shakespeare for King James 1. Set in Scotland, it details the story of man, so desperate for the status of king, that he will do anything to achieve it. As an established ‘good and hardy soldier’, and quite content within that role, Macbeth is surprised to find some witches who predict his reign as king. ‘All hail Macbeth! who shalt be king hereafter.’ (Act 1 scene 3) On informing his wife, Lady Macbeth, he soon embarks on a killing spree that doesn’t end until both partners’ demise. However, Macbeth could not have committed the first few crimes without the help and insistence of his wife. She acts as the fate the witches spoke of to make him king and yet ironically is mainly responsible for aggravating Macbeth’s struggle between morality and ambition. She has a hugely diverse character, and this helps plant the seed of Macbeth’s, and her own, eventual downfall. Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth at the beginning of the play, telling her of his experiences with the ‘weird sisters’. ‘They met me in the day of success: and I have learned by the perfect’st report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge.’ (Act1 scene 5) After she has read the letter, she is determined to make the witches’ prophesy come true. She imagines that she has the capability to be a remorseless and determined villain. However in reality this is just an act, and in fact her true self possesses no such traits. This is obvious when she makes a huge effort to get herself into a murderous state of mind, crying out, ‘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!’ Lady Macbeth wants to lose her femininity so she can be cold-blooded and commit murder like a man does. However, more than anything, it appears that Lady Macbeth is a very greedy woman, desirous of things that seem very much out of reach. She also prepares herself to work her husband into a murderous state of mind, as she believes him to be ‘too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way.’ Within the first act, she deems herself to be the more authoritative person in this couple.
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