how lady Macbeth insults Macbeth

We will be discussing the way in which Shakespeare has used the character of Lady Macbeth to insult Macbeth; we are also expanding on how this affects the audience. This will include certain techniques and ways in which to bring across several ideas that influence the audience that is listing to this play.
Shakespeare uses the idea of Macbeth on a battle field having the desire and willing him to go for it, but he contradicts this by being afraid to kill someone.
‘Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art desire?’
Shakespeare uses this to state, that Lady Macbeth is evil and that she wants this more than Macbeth himself. The audience feels that she is the predominant person in the relationship and that she can make him do what she wants, also he has no control, like the image they would think of him. Shakespeare uses the stereotypical idea that soldiers are naturally used to killing people, but in this case, to a relative he is not this, then it shows that actually Macbeth has second thought on the idea of killing his relative. This sentence is merely an indirect way that Lady Macbeth pressure’s Macbeth into to doing this act of horror. ‘As thou art desire’ this is stating that he is afraid of his desires, that he is pressured into showing that he is not.
Shakespeare uses a contradiction of idea to really show weather Macbeth really loves her.
‘From this time such I account thy love’
The reader may feel that there love may fall apart or that she is thinking about what he has done and the affects. He is using a contradiction this is stating several ideas – which she thinks she has given more of her love and affection to this than he has, which in this instance is unusual as he is going to be king not her. Secondly, this shows how that lady Macbeth is desperate for the power which will come from this.
Shakespeare shows how brutal lady Macbeth can be by using exaggeration, to show what she expects of Macbeth.
‘When durst do’t then you were a man and to be more than what you are were you be so much more than a man.’
Shakespeare’s use of repetition of the word ‘man’ to convey these ideas – that there is a brutal attack coming from his wife, who is expected to be more feminine but her attack, seem much like the attack you would expect from a man. It is also a way of exaggerating this idea to make is a prominent idea. Also it is showing she thinks that he is not living up to the expected way in which a man should react to this situation and that he is not been the stereotypical image that he is expected to portray. This affects the reader as it is
Although, Shakespeare is using graphic images to show how Lady Macbeth is losing her feminine side.
‘Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out had I so sworn as you have done this’
Shakespeare uses this detail and graphic images to employ, to great effect, the evil of Lady Macbeth. He also uses imagery such as visual and auditory. ‘Dashing it brains out’ is a very specific, accurate way of describing how she killed her baby boy, it sounds like it has been done specifically like this to kill him in this way. The way in which she speaks is not stereotypical to the role that she has in society. Also, he has used lots of different types of imagery visual and auditory both of these can be recognised in the word ‘dashed’ it sounds violent and you can imagine, it also having a movement or an action. The reader is also affected by the sentence as it is disturbing and violent images that are not normally occasiated with the image of a mother and her new born son.
Also, Shakespeare has used his manhood again and used Lady Macbeth to show just how that he is not courageous like the image he is portrayed as.
‘He has almost supp’d. Why have you left the chamber?’
He also uses the stereotypical relation that a man of this time has, he is usually expected to not flee but in this case this has not happened she has insulted him by saying that he is not a man and scared of everything. Shakespeare creates doubt in the readers mind about Macbeth not killing Duncan but lady Macbeth verbally assaults and abuses him, about being a man who can only dream of been king and he can only be kind in his dreams and not in reality this then convinces Macbeth to kill the king. This shows how in control that Lady Macbeth is and how she can make him do anything she wants him to in this case kill the King, Duncan.
To conclude, Lady Macbeth is a brutal, monster like person with the thirst for power. She is the drive behind Macbeth becoming king. Shakespeare mainly uses the use of graphic images to employ the evil and devilish qualities she has but he also uses these techniques to show the reader certain things he makes the reader feel on edge almost unstable, they do not know what brutality may happen. He uses her as a way of employing this.