Lady Macbeth

             Lady Macbeth: NO CONSCIENCE versus CONSCIENCE
             In the first two acts of the play, Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as a person without conscience. Upon learning from the messenger that King Duncan will be spending the evening in her castle, in act 1, scene 5, Lady Macbeth immediately says in a monologue that ¡§the raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under [her] battlements.¡ At this instant, it is clear that what Lady Macbeth has in mind is murder, for ¡§raven¡ symbolizes death. Shortly after, in the same monologue, Lady Macbeth becomes so obsessed with the idea of the murder that she asks for spirits to ¡§unsex¡ her and fill her up with the ¡§direst cruelty.¡ After Macbeth assassinates King Duncan and his chamberlains and Lady Macbeth ¡§gilds¡ the chamberlains with Duncan¡s blood, in act two, scene 3, Lady Macbeth seems unaffected by what she has done when she states to Macbeth that she is ¡§shamed¡ to wear her heart so ¡§white¡ like his; white representing innocence for Macbeth regrets what he has done . Lady Macbeth¡s swift casualness about the murder of King Duncan is furthermore illustrated when she states to Macbeth how ¡§easy¡ it is to clear them from the deed by just only using ¡§a little water.¡ In brief, Lady Macbeth is one without conscience as she cannot distinguish the difference between right versus wrong, but simply ponders about the murder of the majesty: King Duncan.
             Though Shakespeare illustrates Lady Macbeth to be one with no conscience through out the first two scenes of the play, at the same time, he also illustrates her to be one with conscience. Apart from asking for spirits to fill her up with cruelty in act 1,
             scene 5, in the same monologue, Lady Macbeth asks for her blood to be thickened so that it will stop her from the access to ¡§remorse.¡ Lady Macbeth¡s consciousness of the murder is further po...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Lady Macbeth. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:37, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/87936.html