Essay about evilmac Comparing the Evil of Macbeth and...

Comparing the Evil of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth â€Å"At the heart of William Shakespeares Macbeth is an examination of the nature of evil and its many faces and facets†(Cathell 119). The principal evil characters in the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, are both evil, but the manifestation of evil is different in each. Macbeths evil is a dynamic character trait. He begins the play as a celebrated hero, loyal to his friends and dedicated to his king. He is strong and noble, a man to be admired by his audience. Macbeth and Banquo are visited by the three witches, who promise him that he will be king. This veiled intimation ignites a secret ambition within Macbeth. Evil has dawned within him, but at this early stage of his†¦show more content†¦She longs to be even more evil, and tries to commune with unseen spirits to help her. She says, 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;/ Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between/ The effect and it! come to my womans breasts,/ And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,/ Whatever in your sightless substances/ You wait on natures mischief! Come think night,/ And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/ That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,/ Nor Heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,/ To cry Hold, hold! (Shakespeare I, v, 36) For all the sound and fury, Lady Macbeths evil signifies nothing. She has no goal that requires such sinister behaviour. When she learns of the witches promise, Duncan is nothing to her but a suitable victim. Her true goal is not to gain the throne. Her motive is only to increase her personal perception of her power. It is interesting to note the importance of gender in the personifications of evil in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is as obsessed with her gender as her evil. When she implores evil to unsex her, to take her womans breasts for gall she reveals the sense of powerlessness and weakness she feels. Being a woman makes her dependant on her husband for her social