Nahyaan Nasser

9MM

G3

January 24, 2018

Macbeth Analytical Essay

Lady Macbeth is ambitious, smart and strong willed at the start of the play. She can

manipulate people easily with her “lady tricks” (being seductive), is somewhat of a good actor,

and she is able to change people’s minds. She is the type of character that always gets what she

wants. She is able to easily wrap him around her finger, and play with his emotions and his

thoughts and mind. She has a great influence over her husband, who seems to be weaker than she

is. It is her influence that convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth is the

dominant partner at the beginning of the play, she persuades Macbeth to follow his goal

and kill Duncan, and she is the one in control.

Lady Macbeth uses three primary tactics to coerce Macbeth into killing King Duncan. The

first tactic is questioning Macbeth’s manhood. She states, “When you durst do it, then you

were a man;” (1.7, 53-68), which, in a modern translation means; “When you dared to do it,

that’s when you were a man.” In this statement, she is referring to murdering King Duncan. She

is speaking about his “manhood”, and saying that he would be a man if he did the deed. In lines

53-68, she is manipulating him into murdering the King. “And to be more than what you were,

you would be so much more the man.” In this line, she is saying that if Macbeth goes a step

further and does what he dared to do earlier in the play, which is murder the King, he will be
even more of a man. This trick that Lady Macbeth uses by questioning Macbeth’s masculinity is

an extremely cunning tactic, as Macbeth is eventually persuaded by Lady Macbeth to do the

deed. We see later on in the scene, that Macbeth is amazed by Lady Macbeth’s fearless spirit, and

calls her “masculine”. This is assumed to be a compliment. In this scene, Lady Macbeth already

has everything planned out. When Macbeth asks Lady Macbeth that after King Duncan is

murdered, won’t everyone assume that they have done it (83-88), she tells him that she will make

sure that the guards get so intoxicated that he can blame them for it. (89-91) This shows how she

had already have everything planned beforehand. She easily changes his mind in one scene, and

this shows how much power she has over Macbeth at the moment.

Her secondary tactic is guilt-tripping Macbeth. She states, in the same scene, “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.” (63-67) In these lines, she is making him feel guilty by saying that even if she was in the

state of nervousness he was in now, she would not go back on her promise to him. Earlier on,

Macbeth does think about killing Duncan, and voices this thought in a letter sent to Lady

Macbeth. She seemed to have taken this thought as a promise, and holds this against him. This is

a clever way to make Macbeth feel the guilt, and convince him further. It is after this that he

states that she is masculine, the statement mentioned in the last paragraph. This guilt works to

make Macbeth consider the plot more seriously.

Her final tactic is using her femininity and sensuality to seduce Macbeth into doing the

deed. The final conversation at the end of Act I is Lady Macbeth seductively convincing

Macbeth that nothing will go wrong with the plan she has created. “Who dares receive it other, as
we shall make our griefs and clamor roar upon his death?” (89-91) By this statement she meant

that no one would question them. Earlier in the play, she seduces him into doing what is needed

to be done. In Act 2, Scene 2, paranoia started to get the best of Macbeth. He thinks that someone

has heard him commit the crime. “I have done the deed, didst thou not hear a noise?" (Line 15)

Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that she heard nothing, and by doing this, she is comforting him by

reassuring him that no one heard a thing. “I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not

you speak?" (2.2, 16-17). Macbeth feels guilt and pity for what he has done to Duncan, and looks

down on himself. Looking at his hands, he says; “This is a sorry sight.” (2.2, 22). Lady Macbeth

comes through and shows Macbeth comfort and strength before he loses it and does something

irrational. Eventually, she realized that he did not finish the entire plan. He did not kill the

guards. After this, she says “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures.”

To conclude, Lady Macbeth is the dominant partner at the beginning of the play, she

persuades Macbeth to follow his goal and kill Duncan, and she is the one in control. lady

Macbeth uses three tactics to stay in control, those of which are; questioning Macbeth’s

manhood, guilt-tripping Macbeth, and using her sensuality to seduce him. This concludes the

analytical essay on whether Lady Macbeth or Macbeth are truly in control.