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Here is the 5 page paper that I already have written. I need to incorporate 3 or 4 sources into this. It is a paper on Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Thanks,
The Two Parallel Prompts In Macbeth
In the beginning of Shakespeare?s play Macbeth, Macbeth is a well-known and honored leader. People, who know Macbeth, know him for his courage and hero like qualities. But, Macbeth soon becomes corrupted by the lure of ambition and power. Macbeth begins to make decisions and perform duties that he would not normally have thought up. In turn, he becomes troubled because he is aware of the evil nature of his actions, and, thus, he begins to struggle with the actions he carries out because he knows he is doing evil things. But, Macbeth?s actions are not necessarily choices he makes; they are choices he makes by the lure and persuasion of Lady Macbeth and the witches? tauntings. Shakespeare uses the prompting of the witches and their supernatural elements to parallel the prompting of Lady Macbeth and her sexual influence to demonstrate that Macbeth does not have complete control over the death of Duncan, the death of Banquo, and the destruction of the MacDuff?s castle. We will see the gradual destruction of Macbeth and his reputation as a result of these promptings.
Lady Macbeth is influential in Macbeth?s actions throughout the play. She takes advantage of her gender and uses sexual tauntings to persuade Macbeth to act like a man. Before Macbeth returns, Lady Macbeth receives a letter from Macbeth that announces his promotion to the thaneship of Cawdor. After reading the letter to herself, Lady Macbeth murmurs that she knows Macbeth is ambitious, but she fears that he is too full of the ?milk of human kindness/ to catch the nearest way? (1.5.15-16). Shakespeare uses the image of milk to refer to women because they are full of milk. Having the feature of milk makes Macbeth womanly and unable to do what he needs to do. Lady Macbeth realizes that her husband has been promised the crown, but she fears that her husband is not manly enough to do what it takes to seize what has been promised to him. So, she decides that she needs to control Macbeth and his actions so she can convince him to do whatever it takes.
As Lady Macbeth awaits her husband?s arrival, she delivers her famous speech in which she begs, ?Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood? (1.5.39-41). This speech suggests that because manhood is often related to cruelty and violence, Lady Macbeth is going to set aside her natural femininity so she can do the bloody deeds necessary to seize the crown. Lady Macbeth thus will provide the push that sets the bloody action of the play in motion. This speech also suggests that Lady Macbeth is demonic because she is asking to be taken over by the demonic spirits, thus becoming demonic herself. Her influence is thus supernatural as well as natural.
Lady Macbeth also uses sexual tauntings to persuade Macbeth to take advantage of his manhood and put it to use. She wants him to prove his manhood by being courageous and carrying out deeds such as the assassination of Duncan. Lady Macbeth questions his manhood when saying, ?Art thou afeard/ to be the same in thine own act and valour/ as thou are in desire? When you durst do it, then you were a man? (1.7.39-41, 49). Lady Macbeth is trying to show Macbeth that if he does insist that he is a man then he needs to act on it and not merely claim manhood. Macbeth does in fact claim to be a man when he responds by saying, ?I dare do all that may become man;/ who dares do more is none? (1.7.46-47). Macbeth?s response shows he does in fact know the boundaries of his identity of a man and that he is going to act like a man and no less will come from him. As a result, Lady Macbeth and her persuasions push Macbeth to fulfill the evil deed of killing Duncan.
Not only do Lady Macbeth and her promptings influence Macbeth, but the witches, also referred to as the weird sisters, and their supernatural elements, influence him as well. The witches? beards, bizarre potions, and rhymed speech set them apart as supernatural. The mischief they cause stems from their supernatural powers. They are very powerful, and they influence Macbeth as early as their first encounter. The witches use prophecy to set Macbeth?s plot to become king in motion. The witches? control Macbeth by planting ideas into his head by constantly chanting around him. These ideas manipulate Macbeth and cause him to do things he never would have thought of before his encounters with the witches.
Macbeth is aware that his thoughts are evil in nature: ?My thought, who murder yet is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man that function/ is smothered in surmise, and nothing is/ but what is not? (1.3.138-141). Macbeth thinks to himself how such a scary thought all this is and all he can do is imagine Duncan?s death taking place. Macbeth is afraid of himself and what he might do that it renders him unable to do anything. The fear of Macbeth?s potential has him distorted.
Once Macbeth realizes that the witches? first prophecy comes true, Macbeth feels that he must kill his friend Banquo and the young Fleance in order to prevent the second part from becoming realized which says that Banquo?s descendents will be king and not Macbeth?s. Macbeth feels that the business he and his wife began by killing Duncan is not yet completed because there are still threats to the throne. Those threats that continue to haunt Macbeth are from Banquo. Macbeth realizes that Banquo is the only man in Scotland that he fears. He notes that if the witches? prophecy comes true, his will be a ?fruitless crown,? by which he means that he will not have an heir (3.1.62). The murder of Duncan, which weighs so heavily on his conscience, may have simply cleared the way for Banquo?s sons to overthrow Macbeth?s own family. Realizing that something has to be done to Banquo to prevent the overthrow of Macbeth?s family, and with the chance of the witches? second prophecy coming true, Macbeth decides to kill Banquo.
After killing Banquo, Macbeth runs to the witches again in fulfillment of their newest prediction. Macbeth questions them to reveal the truth of their prophecies. The witches summon horrible apparitions around Macbeth that offer a prediction to allay Macbeth?s fears. The first apparition says, ?Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware MacDuff? (4.1.87). Macbeth had already guessed this. But, then a second apparition appeared as a bloody child and said, ?The power of man, for none of woman born, / shall harm Macbeth? (4.1.96-97). The image of the bloody child is referring to MacDuff?s birth by cesarean section; he is not of ?woman?s born,? attaching a clear irony to a comment that Macbeth takes at face value. Macbeth realizes that the newest threat he faces is from MacDuff, so he decides to destroy the MacDuff?s castle.
Shakespeare uses the prompting of the witches and their supernatural elements to parallel the prompting of Lady Macbeth and her sexual influence to demonstrate that Macbeth does not have complete control over the actions he carries out. One can see that the sexual tauntings from Macbeth?s wife and the continual persuasions from the witches eventually controlled Macbeth and persuaded him to carry out the evil deeds he performed.
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