Macbeth

MACBETH
If we should fail?

LADY MACBETH
We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep--
Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him--his two chamberlains
Will I with wine and wassail so convince
That memory, the warder of the brain,
Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason
A limbeck only: when in swinish sleep
Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
What cannot you and I perform upon
The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon
His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
Of our great quell?

MACBETH
Bring forth men-children only;
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
That they have done't?

LADY MACBETH
Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

MACBETH
I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

This scene is an example of the role reversal that is present in this Shakespearean play. Here, Lady Macbeth takes the role as the dominant sex, while it was much more common in this time period for the male to be the dominant sex and the female to be submissive. In this case, Mady Macbeth is the one who is initially corrupted with power, she sees the chance to rise to a level very few excel to, and she takes it, bringing other people down with her in the end. She corrupts her husband, Macbeth, who goes on with her legacy after she is gone. In this scene particularly, you see the manipulative ways of Lady Macbeth, convincing Macbeth that they will not fail if he has the courage. She claims that they can just blame the drunk servants for the crime because they won't remember anything. Macbeth praises her for her evil, saying that if she is to have children that they will all be boys because her fearless spirit is so masculine. Even Macbeth realizes that she is not meek and mannered like most women. Lady Macbeth finishes her bloody plan by saying that when they come to investigate, they will not be suspect because they will put on such a good show of grievance, and with this Macbeth is won over. He decides to go ahead with her plan. This is extremely unheard of in this time, not only because he is being told what to do by a woman, but because he is supposed to be this amazing hero of the battlefield, capable of killing and making choices on his own. Here, Macbeth backs down and agrees with his wife, this is stereotypically a woman's trait, not a males. Macbeth backs down because he sees the wild ruthlessness inside of his wife. This can be seen when Macbeth says, "False face must hide what the false heart doth know" meaning, that a face of horror, but not of conviction, must hide the evils that are present in the heart. Macbeth has surrendered his superiority to his wife and now she wields the ability to control him.

Shakespeare's Macbeth is categorized as a tragedy, not only because of all the death, but because of one man's (or woman's) extreme lust for greatness. Macbeth had everything going for him, he was a war time hero, was well respected, and was on the ladder to success, but he was drawn into the desire for power, which corrupted him and lead to his demise and the deaths of numerous innocent people. This story goes to show that if we give into the temptation of wealth and power, we will be leading ourselves to our own death. Macbeth shows the weakness of mankind and how easily we can be tempted to do the unthinkable in order to achieve more power. As the reader, we are forced to watch Macbeth approach the cliff, and slowly step off, falling faster and faster as he ruthlessly kills all those that appear to be in his way, until that faithful second when he reaches the end of the line and crashes, and it is all over. His plummet has finally hit the bottom, and he is at the point of no return and he is consumed by greed and power. This is the bases for a tragedy, which is clearly modeled within Shakespeare's Macbeth.

This was my favorite play by Shakespeare that we have read. I found the plot to be captivating, as it fits all people, we can all be corrupted by power, and everyone has experienced it once and a while, maybe with out even realizing it. I found the switch in the gender roles to be quite interesting, and unexpected quite frankly. Out of all the books that we have read this year, I believe this one had the best message, power is corruption. This applies to everyone. I also think tragedies are the easiest to relate to. I am not sure why, but I think it is because of the fear that people have of failing that lets us feel the pain of the characters more than most other feels would. But that is just me. I think that this is going to be one of the few Shakespeare plays that I will consider reading again.