Lady Macbeth: Portrait of Perfection
Perfection, a quality which everyone strives to achieve, can produce virtues in a person
from both light and darkness. Macbeth is a play which portrays Lady Macbeth with this perfection
of both sides. Throughout the play, she has a shadow of evil cast over her, but at the same time,
the loving qualities of a faithful wife. In Macbeth, playwright William Shakespeare explores the
theme of Lady Macbeth being the perfect wife and perfect evil effectively through emphasizing
her defining qualities which are being manipulative, loyal, and power driven.
Manipulation is an evil quality which is used to change someone's thoughts in a foul
manner, usually for one's own personal gain. In the play, Macbeth is manipulated very well into
the murder of King Duncan, which led to him wearing the golden crown and ruling the land. This
manipulation also drove him insane and led him on a bloody killing spree which eventually ended
with his nemesis, Macduff, having his head. This exploitation of Macbeth and his thoughts was
brain stormed in the mind of Lady Macbeth, his very own wife. When she received the letter from
her husband telling her about the apparitions, she didn't even second guess what actions she was
about to set forth. Immediately upon seeing Macbeth, she manipulated him into honestly
becoming royalty through the murder of his King. Dark thoughts and actions that Lady Macbeth
presented basically painted a portrait of pure evil to the reader. Even when her husband was
uncertain about what she had proposed, she attacked his manhood hoping to persuade him to
commit the evil act. She also disgraced his word, since he expressed feelings of not wanting to go
through with the deed:
I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me;
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked the n...