Essay plan: P1-manipulation and emasculation towards Macbeth P2-strips her femininity-subversion of gender P3-Contrast her initial cold ruthlessness with her later mental decay Throughout the play, Shakespeare explores Lady Macbeth's descent to madness by constructing Lady Macbeth as a ruthless,manipulative character. This is potent when Lady Macbeth receives the letter from Macbeth about the witches prophecies, which is when her ambition begins to spark which she regrets later in the play. Perhaps Shakespeare intends to use Lady Macbeth as a powerful force to expose the catastrophic dangers of deception, which links to the theme of appearance vs reality, as Macbeth viewed her as his 'direst partner of greatness', which makes them seem close. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a dangerous character through uncontrollable manipulation tactics and emasculation towards Macbeth. She becomes absorbed into the witches prophecies and her morality gradually begins to vanish when she tells Macbeth to "leave all the rest" to her and 'pour my spirits in thine ear', suggesting that Lady Macbeth wants to gain control over Macbeth which was atypical during the Jacobean era. The imperative verb 'leave', said by Lady Macbeth, subverts in gender norms as during the Jacobean era, women were expected to be obedient and men had control, suggesting Lady Macbeth wants to be superior over Macbeth. Perhaps Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth as a dangerous character to demonstrate the dangers of being a naive individual and how others can take advantage. Alternatively, Shakespeare could also be using Lady Macbeth's desperation to Macbeth committing regicide to promote the dangers of unchecked ambition and descent to madness. Similarly, she also expresses her instinct when she indicates to Macbeth "When you durst do it, then you were a man", which messes with Macbeth's masculinity and strong connection with King Duncan as he called Macbeth 'O worthiest cousin, Worthy Cawdor!'. Lady Macbeth's use of the lexis 'durst', serves creates an imperative tone, and gives Macbeth more pressure to fulfill the rigid expectations of Masculinity. Perhaps Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to challenge the traditional Elizabethan gender roles, and strong beliefs in gender norms to reveal the struggles within a patriarchal society. Similarly, Lady Macbeth is associated with violence throughout the play through her desperation to strip her femininity when she demands 'unsex me here, and fill me to the top to the toe with direst cruelty'. Lady Macbeth's use of imperative verbs adds to her violent and forceful acts and manipulation that will be destructive to Macbeth later in the play. Furthermore, the sound devices of 'thick' and 'direst', create a dark and urgent tone which adds to the tension of her desires. Perhaps Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth's violence and engagement with the supernatural when she emphasis the lexis 'unsex' to mirror the witches tone and elevate her character to a more forceful and violent character. Following on, Lady Macbeth also rejects her femininity when she commands 'Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall', which contrasts to her elevates her overpowering commands. Lady Macbeth's use of the imperative verb 'come' is used to acknowledge Macbeth that she has control over other by her repetition of violet imperative verbs throughout the play. Additionally, 'milk' is associated with kindness and motherhood, contrasting to 'gall' which is associated with cruelty and hatred. Perhaps Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to subvert gender norms, Lady Macbeth acts more like a man whilst Macbeth has been manipulated into thinking he has feminine stereotypes,which links to the theme of masculinity as men were expected to be strong and commit violent acts, contrasting to women's roles which were to be obedient. Lastly, Lady Macbeth is presented as violent through her contrast in her initial cold ruthlessness with her later moral decay. Shakespeare explores this by crafting Macbeth as ruthless through her command 'Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't', where the simile contrasts nurtue and hideness. The 'flower' represents a welcoming and harmless appearance, nevertheless the 'serpent' has associations with evilness and deception. This metaphor advises hiding, murderous intentions behind a welcoming, innocent facade to mask hidden ambition. This could link to the theme of expectation vs reality as Lady Macbeth is encouraging Macbeth to hide his true desires until committing regicide. This contrasts to later in the play when Lady Macbeth gets haunted with guilt when she cries 'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand'', which is a hyprerbole which emphasises her extreme guilt and regrets, which later leads to her sleepwalking. Perhaps Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth to expose the consequences of disrupting the great chain of being to encourage the Jacobean audience to avoid commiting regicide. Overall, Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth's dangerous character at the beginning of the play to sharply contrast to her regretful transition at the end to teach the audience the dangers of unchecked ambition which can lead to violence and murderous actions.