For example, compare these words of Holinshed with Shakespeare's words. Holinshed did not simply provide Shakespeare with a good story Macbeth contains many examples of imagery and language that Shakespeare borrowed directly from his source, a practice common to all writers. As we shall see later, this particular confederacy of murderers presented Shakespeare with a problem. Instead, Banquo joins forces with Macbeth in killing Duncan. In Holinshed's account, however, although we learn that Macbeth's wife is ambitious to become queen, Lady Macbeth does not feature as an accomplice. Presumably from this incident, Shakespeare derived his idea of having Lady Macbeth administer a sleeping potion to the guards of King Duncan's chamber. Once they were asleep, Macbeth was able to kill them easily. The original story is full of wonderful details that show the cunning of the Scots and Macbeth, who slaughtered an entire Danish army not by brute force, but by cunning: first mixing a sleeping potion and sending it, like the Trojan horse, as a gift to the enemy army. In Holinshed's account, Banquo and Macbeth combine to kill King Duncan after winning his favor in a battle against the Danes. Macbeth was a real king of eleventh-century Scotland, whose history Shakespeare had read in several sources, principally the Chronicles of Holinshed, to which he referred for many of his other historical dramas. The "butcher and his fiend-like queen" are among the most attractive villains in stage history, and the profound psychology with which Shakespeare imbues them is deliciously pleasurable for theater audience and student alike. Here we have the playwright's shortest play, but arguably his most intense, in terms both of its action and its portrayal of human relationships. She is also aware that she will be going to hell for her sins.Shakespeare's Macbeth remains one of his most popular plays, both for classroom study and performance, and with good reason. In particular, she recalls the night of Duncan's murder and the part she played in persuading her husband to act. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear? Who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?Īs the guilt-stricken Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, she remembers all the evil things she and her husband have done and tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands (Out, damned spot: out, I say!). She cannot bear to think of what she has done and eventually dies alone and unmourned even by her husband. Lady Macbeth seems to go from being someone with no conscience at all to someone who is overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. The word 'double' also links Lady Macbeth to the evil of the witches - they use the word repeatedly in one of their spells. She almost overdoes it when she exaggerates 'In every point twice done and then done double'. Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan to her home and flatters him so that he will not suspect a thing. Were poor and single business to contend /Īgainst those honours deep and broad wherewith / In every point twice done and then done double, / When he hesitates, she is there to urge Macbeth on. When Macbeth expresses doubts, she uses every trick she can think of to make sure he carries out their plan to murder Duncan. To the outside world, Lady Macbeth seems like the ideal supportive wife but this is part of her ability to be deceptive. This suggests that even at this stage she knows what she is doing is wrong. It is interesting that she describes the necessary ruthless streak as an 'illness'. She is insistent that Macbeth will become King ('shalt be what thou art promised') However, she recognises that he is 'too full o'th'milk of human kindness' and that this could stand in their way. Lady Macbeth's determination to succeed is clear here. It is too full o'th'milk of human kindness / What thou art promised yet do I fear thy nature, / Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / Once she has worked out a plan, nothing will turn her from that course until her ambition is fulfilled. She can only be Queen if he becomes King so when he hesitates she displays enough ambition for both of them. Lady Macbeth is, perhaps, even more determined than her husband.
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