Essay: Lady Macbeth’s Role In The Destruction Of Others

28 September 2018
Lady Macbeth’s Role In The Destruction Of Others
Manipulation is a type of social influence that is used to change the perception or behaviour of others through underhanded, abusive or deceptive tactics. People with manipulative personalities tend to get what they want, often at other people’s expense, through manipulation. In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s manipulative personality leads to the ultimate destruction of others. Lady Macbeth’s manipulation tactics involve insulting Macbeth’s manhood, using and shifting guilt, and turning Macbeth into a tyrant. Throughout the play, as Lady Macbeth’s personality develops, her underhanded behaviour and deceptiveness start to contribute to more and more people’s downfall.
At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth’s manipulative personality begins to cause destruction when she manipulates Macbeth into killing King Duncan by insulting his manhood. When the planned night of King Duncan’s murder comes Macbeth starts having second thoughts. When he tells Lady Macbeth this, she says “when you durst do it, then you were a man” (Macbeth 1.7.49). When Macbeth declares to Lady Macbeth that he no longer intends to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth questions his manhood. By doing this, she is manipulating Macbeth into having to choose between his manhood and his morals. This conflict starts to make Macbeth rethink about going through with killing Duncan. Macbeth then expresses concerns about potential failure. Lady Macbeth tells him “but screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail” (Macbeth 1.7.60). Lady Macbeth is saying that if Macbeth had any courage, he would not fail. She is manipulating Macbeth by making him think that his fears are signs of weakness which convinces him to go through with killing Duncan. After Duncan is killed Macbeth starts feeling guilty for what he has done. When he tells Lady Macbeth about this she says “my hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white” (Macbeth 2.2.67). Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that she is as much involved with the murder of Duncan as he is, however, unlike him she is not weak enough to let the guilt affect her. She is again manipulating Macbeth by telling him that he is weak. She is doing this to convince Macbeth that his feeling of guilt is a sign of weakness. Although Macbeth is the one who kills Duncan, the ultimate destruction of the King is caused by Lady Macbeth. Her manipulative behaviour leads her to trying to change Macbeth’s perception of the murder of Duncan to meet her agenda. She does this by continuously insulting his manhood. Macbeth does not want to think of himself as weak so Lady Macbeth constantly assures him that any fears he has about her plan to have Duncan killed are signs of weakness. This underhanded tactic is used by Lady Macbeth to get what she wants even though that involves taking a man’s life. This manipulative personality of hers is what causes the ultimate destruction of King Duncan.
The murder of Duncan causes a domino effect which allows Lady Macbeth’s
manipulative personality to cause the ultimate destruction of even more people by using guilt.
When Duncan is found dead, his guards are immediately blamed. This is because his guards are covered in blood and have bloody daggers next to them. This is by no coincidence because prior to Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth says “what not put upon his spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt of our great quell”(Macbeth 1.7.71) to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is talking about framing the guards for murdering Duncan. When the guards are found covered in blood, they are suspected to have murdered Duncan and are immediately killed. Even though the guards did not murder Duncan, they are killed because Lady Macbeth manipulates everyone into thinking they murdered him. Lady Macbeth’s plan to make the guards look guilty in order to remove any suspicion of guilt from her and Macbeth is the cause of their ultimate destruction. Soon after the death of Duncan, Macbeth worries that Banquo might find out that he killed the king. Macbeth becomes very anxious about Banquo’s suspicions. When he tells Lady Macbeth about this fear she says “But in them nature’s copy’s not eterne” (Macbeth 3.2.38). Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that Banquo and his son are not immortal and will die eventually. Lady Macbeth is attempting to calm Macbeth down so that he doesn’t feel guilty. Although it may not have been on purpose, she convinces Macbeth to go through with killing Banquo. This is because when she says that Banquo is not immortal, Macbeth interprets that as justification for killing him. Even though it is known that Lady Macbeth did not know about Macbeth’s plot to kill Banquo, the words she says to him end up influencing his perception on murdering Banquo. That unintentional manipulation is how Lady Macbeth is involved in the murder of Banquo. At first glance it may not seem as though it is not manipulation because she seems to have no motive for killing Banquo because she does not see him as a threat. However, when Macbeth says “There’s comfort yet, they are assailable” (Macbeth 3.2.40), and “there shall be done a deed of dreadful note” (Macbeth 3.2.43), Lady Macbeth asks “what’s to be done” (Macbeth 3.2.44)? Macbeth then tells her to turn a blind eye to what he is about to do to Banquo. From the beginning of that conversation, it is pretty clear that Macbeth plans to take some action to end Banquo. When Macbeth refuses to tell Lady Macbeth about his plan and tells her to turn a blind eye, she does not ask any questions. Even after learning that Macbeth has been thinking about attacking Banquo, Lady Macbeth does nothing to try and stop him or even figure out what his plan is. She knows how guilty Macbeth feels and knows that his level of guilt is enough to convince him to cause destruction. It can then be deduced that Lady Macbeth most likely knows that Banquo will be killed but does nothing because she can also benefit from Banquo’s death. Even though she does not directly express guilt, Banquo being dead would stop him from looking into his suspicions about the death of King Duncan and therefore justifies manipulating Macbeth by turning a blind eye to his plans. By not questioning Macbeth, Macbeth might have seen that as Lady Macbeth’s approval of his ideas about Banquo being a problem. This can also explain why she does not ask Macbeth to many questions when he claims to see Banquo’s ghost at the banquet. She assumes he is dead and after the lords leave she calms Macbeth down and then they go to sleep. Lady Macbeth might not always completely know that she is being manipulative, but her manipulative personality and use of guilt leads to the ultimate destruction of Duncan’s guards and Banquo regardless.
The murders of Duncan, his guards, and Banquo are all either carried out or planned by
Macbeth. Even though Lady Macbeth and her manipulative personality have an influence on each of those deaths, one might think that Macbeth should be held accountable for his own actions and is, therefore, the largest cause of destruction in the play. This, however, fails to account for the reason Macbeth becomes a tyrant later in the play. It is caused by Lady Macbeth and her manipulative personality and she is therefore responsible for all destruction caused by Macbeth while he is king. Macbeth is referred to as a tyrant because of the amount of destruction his leadership brings to Scotland, however, the source of that tyranny can be directly linked to Lady Macbeth’s manipulation. When Lady Macbeth becomes aware of the fact that killing king Duncan would make Macbeth king, she says “look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (Macbeth 1.5.64) to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is teaching Macbeth to be deceitful in order to murder Duncan. This shows that from the very beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth has not only been a very manipulative person, but she gives her manipulative tactics to Macbeth and teaches him to be manipulative. She even teaches him to look calm so he does not arouse suspicion from anyone. Macbeth then uses these techniques to kill Duncan and his guards. This is the first glimpse of Lady Macbeth’s manipulative personality changing Macbeth’s mindset into the mindset of a tyrant. When Macbeth starts to have doubts about killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth says to him “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 my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this” (Macbeth 1.7.54-59). Lady Macbeth paints a picture of a horrific act in Macbeth’s head and then tells him that if she were to promise to commit such a horrific act, she would go through with it and she expects Macbeth to go through with killing Duncan. This reinforces the idea of violence in Macbeth’s head and manipulates him into thinking that murder is his only option and that he cannot back out of killing Duncan once he has committed to it. Lady Macbeth uses a similar form of manipulation on Macbeth when she convinces him to frame and murder Duncan’s innocent guards. Throughout the play, this form of manipulation is seen to have been ingrained in Macbeth’s head because when he finds out about Banquo’s suspicions, his first instinct is to solve the problem by murdering Banquo. While talking to the murderers about the plan to kill Banquo, he makes sure that the murderers are committed to the plan and that they do not back out. This really shows how Lady Macbeth’s influence has been changing Macbeth’s mindset into the mindset of a tyrant. Lady Macbeth’s biggest mistake is when she says “thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present, and I feel now the future in the instant” (Macbeth 1.5.55) to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is very excited about Macbeth becoming king and she wants to share her ambition with Macbeth. She manipulates Macbeth by telling him that he is the rightful king on multiple occasions. This becomes problematic when guilt sets in and Macbeth becomes paranoid. This is what truly turns Macbeth into a tyrant. His paranoia leads him to kill anyone who he thinks is a threat to his role as king. He ends up killing Banquo and Macduff’s family. Killing Macduff’s family eventually leads to Macduff seeking revenge on Macbeth by killing him. The destruction of Macduff’s family and Macbeth can be attributed to Lady Macbeth’s manipulative personality that turned Macbeth into a tyrant.
Lady Macbeth’s manipulative personality causes the ultimate destruction of others. Her
Techniques for manipulating people involve insulting Macbeth’s manhood, using and shifting guilt, and turning Macbeth into a tyrant. It is easy to blame Macbeth for all the death and destruction in the play. However, Macbeth starts off as a noble soldier and only causes destruction as he becomes increasingly influenced by his wife’s manipulative behaviours and tendencies. Manipulation might just be a type of social influence that is used to change the perception or behaviour of others but used by the wrong person, the results can be devastating.
Works cited
Shakespeare, W. and Gill, R. (2009). Macbeth. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p.v, vii.