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In Macbeth, Macbeth is considered a man who seizes opportunities or is controlled by women. What are some quotes to represent that he is controlled...

By the end of Act 1, Scene 5, Macbeth and his wife have met and figured out that they are both on board with a plan to eliminate Duncan.  However, Lady Macbeth is the one giving all the instruction to her husband.  She tells him, "Look like th' innocent / flower, / But be the serpent under 't" (1.5.76-78).  In other words, she tells him to appear loyal and kind as he has always done,...

By the end of Act 1, Scene 5, Macbeth and his wife have met and figured out that they are both on board with a plan to eliminate Duncan.  However, Lady Macbeth is the one giving all the instruction to her husband.  She tells him, "Look like th' innocent / flower, / But be the serpent under 't" (1.5.76-78).  In other words, she tells him to appear loyal and kind as he has always done, but prepare his dark and disloyal thoughts beneath the friendly facade.  Further, when he says that he wants to speak more with her about their plan, she takes it all into her own hands, saying, "Leave all the rest to me" (1.5.86).  He hardly gets a word in edgewise because she is so determined and controlling, just as she'd planned to be before he came home when she said that she wanted to "pour [her] spirits into [his] ear" and make him feel as ruthless as she does.


After Duncan's arrival, however, Macbeth has changed his mind and says, "We will proceed no further in this business" (1.7.34).  Lady Macbeth is not having any of this.  She berates him, calling him "green and pale" and saying that he'll have to "live a coward in [his] own esteem" from now on (1.7.41, 47).  He tries to shut her up, but she goes on, insisting that when he was willing to perform the murder, "then [he was] a man," implying that he is not a man now (1.7.56).  She even interrupts him when he begins to wonder what would happen if they fail.  If you compare how much he says to how much she says during this exchange, Lady Macbeth speaks so much more because she just sort of runs roughshod over him!  In the end, she convinces him, and he says, "I am settled and bed up / Each corporal agent to this terrible feat" (1.7.92-93).  In other words, he's recommitted to their plan as a result of her prodding and manipulation of him.  She knew just how to get him to do what she wanted.  This exchange shows how easily he can be controlled by a woman.

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