Macbeth and its Unbelievable Lady :: Macbeth essays

Macbeth and its Unbelievable Lady      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth which character is more imaginatively created than that of Lady Macbeth? Can a lady actually think in this manner without being called insane. We examine the various dimensions of her character in this paper.    In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye shows that Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind her husband, who resolves to "get with it" in the future:    That Macbeth is being hurried into a premature act by his wife is a point unlikely to escape the most listless member of the audience, but Macbeth comes to regret the instant of fatal delay in murdering Macduff, and draws the moral that    The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it. From this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand.    That is, in future he will try to attain the successful ruler's spontaneous rhythm of action. (91)    In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson describes the role of Lady Macbeth:    It requires an extraordinary exertion of will and persuasion from Lady Macbeth to strengthen his wavering purpose. Professor Kittredge used to point out to his classes that Lady Macbeth, in urging Macbeth to act, uses the three arguments that every wife, some time or other, uses to every husband: "You promised me you'd do it!" "You'd do it if you loved me!" "If I were a man, I'd do it myself!" But Macbeth's mind is made up by her assurance that they may do it safely by fixing the guilt upon Duncan's chamberlains. (72)    In "Macbeth as the Imitation of an Action" Francis Fergusson specifies the fears within Lady Macbeth:      I do not need to remind you of the great scenes preceding the murder, in which Macbeth and his Lady pull themselves together for their desperate effort. If you think over these scenes, you will notice that the Macbeths understand the action which begins here as a competition and a stunt, against reason and against nature. Lady Macbeth fears her husband's human nature, as well as her own female nature, and therefore she fears the light of reason and the common dayllight world. As for Macbeth, he knows from the first that he is engaged in an irrational stunt: "I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself / And falls on the other.