Sunday, July 12, 2009

When does Lady Macbeth use flattery on Macbeth whilst persuading him to kill Duncan in Act 1, Scene 7?

In this particular scene, Lady Macbeth uses a great deal more insult that she does flattery to sway her husband.  However, after calling him a coward and saying that he's not really acting "like a man" at this point -- now that he's ambivalent about committing the murder of Duncan -- she does say, "When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man.  Nor time nor place / Did then adhere, and yet you would make both" (1.7.56-59).  In other words, she says that the decision Macbeth had made earlier, to kill the king, was a really manly decision, and he will be even more manly if he goes through with that decision now.  At the time, when he'd initially conceived of the plot to murder Duncan, nothing was ready -- it wasn't the time or the place -- and yet he still thought of and determined to enact this plan.  She seems to admire this and think it courageous and masculine.


Further, Lady Macbeth claims that if Macbeth can just pluck up the courage to move forward, there is no way that they will fail to succeed.  She says, "screw your courage to the sticking place / And we'll not fail" (1.7.70-71).  She makes it sound as though the whole plan hinges on him: if he can muster his courage then there is no possible way for things to go wrong.  This is relatively complimentary.

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