Thesis statement: In Lady Macbeth's speech convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan in Act I Scene vii, the speaker's persuasive tactics, the audience's knowledge of Macbeth's character, and the effective use of rhetorical appeals and literary devices contribute to the powerful rhetorical situation. Lady Macbeth employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos and utilizes the literary device of manipulation to convince Macbeth of the necessity and righteousness of regicide. Body Paragraph 1: Speaker, Audience, and Rhetorical Situation Lady Macbeth's speech in Act I Scene vii presents a crucial moment in the play as she persuades Macbeth to commit regicide. The speaker, Lady Macbeth, is a determined and ambitious character who seeks power and control. …show more content…
Wouldst thou have that / Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, / And live a coward in thine own esteem?" (I. vii. 39-43) Explanation: Lady Macbeth challenges Macbeth's masculinity and questions his courage and honor, appealing to his sense of pride and desire for power. By suggesting that Macbeth would be a coward and live in shame if he doesn't act on his desires, Lady Macbeth manipulates his emotions and attempts to provoke his ambition. The audience's knowledge of Macbeth's internal struggles and ambitions enhances the impact of Lady Macbeth's persuasive tactics, intensifying the rhetorical situation and setting the stage for her influence over Macbeth. Body Paragraph 2: Rhetorical Appeals Used in Excerpt Lady Macbeth employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos to convince Macbeth of the necessity of killing Duncan. She strategically establishes her credibility and appeals to his emotions to sway his decision. Lady Macbeth presents herself as resolute and knowledgeable, positioning herself as an authority figure in Macbeth's eyes. Additionally, she capitalizes on Macbeth's love and loyalty towards her, tapping into his emotions to manipulate his
Shakespeare, in Act 5, Scene 5 of his play The Tragedy of Macbeth, portrays time as unfeeling. Shakespeare’s purpose is to make the audience ponder the nature of time and denounce ambition as a vain notion of humanity through repetition and personification. In the speech, Macbeth adopts a grim and weary tone in order to convey the meaninglessness of day to day life and the cyclical nature of time to the Elizabethan audience. In Macbeth’s speech in Act 5, Scene 5, Shakespeare uses repetition to create a grim tone which reflects the speech’s message surrounding the cyclical nature of life and time.
When she is first introduced in Scene 5, she states, “yet do I fear thy nature - it is too full o’th milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.”. In this quote she is voicing her belief that Macbeth is a coward, saying that he doesn’t have the guts to do what needs to be done. In Scene 7 she says “Like the poor cat i’ the adage?”. Here she is comparing him to a cat in an old adage, where the cat wants to eat fish, but is too scared to get its feet wet.
The author William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth uses many different rhetorical devices to explain his position on the world stage. One speech that shows 3 rhetorical devices is Act 2, Scene 1 Line 35-60. This speech is right before Macbeth kills Duncan Macbeth is hallucinating that there is a dagger floating and leading him towards Duncan’s room to kill him. And Macbeth is talking to himself about his courage to kill and what he is going to do. The text states “I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Lady Macbeth effectively emotionally manipulates Macbeth through her speech. In “Macbeth”, written by Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth motivates Macbeth to murder Duncan by damaging his ego. To begin, Lady Macbeth uses personification to amplify her argument. In Macbeth. 1.7. Line 39, she questions, “Was the hope drunk”.
Soon after in the play, a section of Macbeth’s letter to Lady Macbeth writes, “I burned in desire to question them further” (Act 1, Scene 5), this additionally demonstrates Macbeth’s ambition and how he is able to be led on by the witches through his ambition. This display of such thirst tells the audience that Macbeth’s deep ambition is existent and even with little input from other characters, he is led down the path of
Lady Macbeth uses Aristotle’s means of persuasion, Ethos, Logos, and Pathos to coax Macbeth into killing Duncan for the throne. Macbeth is uncomfortable with the selfish thought of killing for his own place in the throne, but Lady Macbeth almost feels embarrassed that Macbeth cannot follow through with his intentions and thinks he is “letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat i’ the adage”(I. vii. 48-49). Lady Macbeth messes with Macbeth’s emotions by putting all that he has worked towards aside and only concentrating on the reputational ramifications if Duncan was not murdered for his own benefit. Using Pathos, or emotional persuasion, Lady Macbeth puts his ego at risk when she says that his feelings are making him soft,
This demonstrates that when Macbeth began to turn his back in order to cancel the plans to kill King Duncan, Lady Macbeth objected because she knew her husband was a kind person and she didn't like the idea that Macbeth wanted to cancel the plans and not be crowned King. In order for Macbeth to continue the plan, she stated that if Macbeth wants to live in this world as a coward and leave this wonderful opportunity, Of course, the manipulation forced Macbeth to reconsider whether he was a coward or not. Another example is the use of figurative language by Lady Macbeth in order for Macbeth to make the decision to kill King Duncan. Memory, the brain's warder, "shall be fume," and reason "A limbeck only," when in swinish sleep, "their drenched natures
In the play “Macbeth”, written in 1606 by William Shakespeare and the film “The Lion King” released in 1994, Roger Allers demonstrates in depth that ambition for royalty will lead one to betray his peers. This has vividly been portrayed throughout the film and novel with the use of rhetorical language and by the visible actions of the characters involved. In the play Macbeth, he is constantly thinking about what his life would be like if he was king and creates a plan to execute and replace the king. He successfully completes the execution of King Duncan and will become the leader.
In William Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth truthfully expresses that life is ultimately repetitive and meaningless towards the actions that lead to death. Claiming that life is short and easily extinguished from his reaction towards Lady Macbeth’s apparent suicide. Shakespeare applies rhetorical elements to emphasize Macbeth’s responsiveness to the concept of life and death. Initially, Shakespeare commences with repetition of the word “tomorrow” thrice to accentuate the hopeless future Macbeth perceives.
A villain- a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot. Macbeth’s greed for power is what shaped him to be the villain in the play. In Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, despite the good Macbeth had done in the very beginning his actions throughout make him the villain.
Rhetorical Précis Mitch Tuchman in the article, The Real Macbeth, explains that Shakespeare's Macbeth and the people in Shakespeares play Macbeth weren’t actually anything like the real people of that time. This is described in the article by giving examples of how Shakespeare said Macbeth was and then how Macbeth actually was. Tuchman supports his claim by stating the history of what had happened at that time. First the author describes how Shakespeare described Macbeth in his play. Shakespeare described Macbeth as “courageous yet irresolute, ambitious yet gullible, violent yet not unremorseful man” and Shakespeares Duncan was described as “a vernerable monarch”.
As Lady Macbeth continues to criticize Macbeth on why he will not kill Duncan, she acknowledges that Macbeth would “be more than what [he was], [Macbeth] would be so much more the man” (1.7.57-58). Lady Macbeth indicates that if Macbeth continues with his plan and kills Duncan, he will then develop into more of the man he previously was. As ethos is a form of creating reliability within an audience, Macbeth is seduced by Lady Macbeth into thinking that he will develop into a masculine figure if he kills Duncan. In addition, Lady Macbeth uses pathos as one of her main elements for convincing Macbeth to commit a ruthless murder against Duncan. After Macbeth withdraws from his plan to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth confidently avows that she would “have plucked [her] nipple from [the baby’s] boneless gums/And dashed the brains out, had [she] so sworn as [Macbeth] have done this” (1.7.65-67).
Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.
Writers of distinct genres and style enhance their writing by utilizing rhetorical strategies, in which establishes a sense of complexity to the writer’s piece. This indication can be expressed through the article “Mr. Henry Irving’s Macbeth,” a theater review issued by Henry James. Although Henry James appealed to ethos due to the fact that this review was published in a London newspaper in 1875, James transitions throughout the piece by utilizing distinct forms of rhetoric to justify his perspective to the audience. James demonstrates the rhetorical purpose, which is to depict that “actor” Mr. Irving isn’t completely an actor, by utilizing diction, such as the figurative language juxtaposition and oxymoron, and the rhetorical appeal, such as pathos.
This quotation shows the relationship Lady Macbeth holds with power as she is encouraging herself to kill the