Discrimination In Macbeth

In the play, Shakespeare creates a complex character in Macbeth that somewhat encourages us to with him. Macbeth’s emotions and reactions are seen to fluctuate throughout the play as he constantly goes through dramatic series of events. In Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth victimises and attacks as Macbeth, causing him to suffer from manipulation and verbal abuse. In this way, the audience can see that ultimately she is the fundamental root of the following events and Macbeth is solely being loyal to his wife. Further on, Macbeth’s struggles to cope with his anxiety as the play progresses, further deteriorating his mental state and exposing himself to a state of vulnerability. This gives the audience the sense that Macbeth is not a completely black …show more content…
Lady Macbeth is seen to continuously question his loyalty as she instantly fires him with 3 rhetorical questions – “Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to look so green and pale, at what it did so freely?”. Lady Macbeth does not even give Macbeth time to think as she takes advantage of her dominance in their relationship, holding control over Macbeth and reinforcing his lack of voice in their relationship. This also highlights Lady Macbeth’s strong ambition and gives the audience an idea of Lady Macbeth’s capabilities. Lady Macbeth further degrades Macbeth as she uses a rhetorical question “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour?” Lady Macbeth directly contrasts his bravery and excellence in the battlefield as aforementioned to the deed, placing a burden onto Macbeth to follow through. The distinguished noun ‘valour’ is considered triggering for Macbeth as it is repetitively mentioned multiple times throughout the play as Macbeth’s strength and power, however now the situation is flipped and Lady Macbeth uses it to shame him. Furthermore, Shakespeare is seen to use Lady Macbeth to drive an outside conscience into Macbeth through the opinion as fact “When you durst do it, then you were a man.”. The repetitive use of plosives and personal pronouns directly addresses Macbeth and creates a harsh and shocking effect, as if Lady Macbeth was trying to completely change Macbeth and overthrow his judgement. Moreover, caesura is seen in the middle of the sentence, highlighting Lady Macbeth’s hesitation in even suggesting the idea of being a man; whilst the opposite adverbs ‘when’ and ‘then’ emphasise on the how far Macbeth actually is from being a man, taunting