Luz Zapata 

Professor Lui 

Reading Journal 

Week 11 

Reading Journal 

I enjoy reading “Macbeth” because is a very interesting play and is also very similar to “Oedipus the King” which is my favorite reading. In Macbeth there are several interesting characters. The witches and Lady Macbeth are perhaps the most interesting because they are the ones behind the tragedy of the assassination of kind Duncan. They don’t kill the king physically, but they encourage Macbeth to do it. The roles of this woman in the play is to guide Macbeth in the path to kill Duncan even if he does not want to. To begin with, if the witches will never tell Macbeth about the prophecy, that he will be king, Macbeth will not think of killing King Duncan. The witches were the one that put that thought in his head and Lady Macbeth pushed it to the end. In page 170, lines 60-62, Lady Macbeth says, “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail.” This shows that she is pushing him to move forward with their plan to kill the king by consolidating him, telling him that everything will be fine.  Even though Macbeth is scared, Lady Macbeth is telling not to worry because everything will be fine. This shows how women can push a man to do something even if he doesn’t want to. Also, we see that women are the ones that give ideas to the man, but the man does the work. In page 182, line 49-51, Lady Macbeth says, “Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there. Go, carry them and smear the Sleepy grooms with blood.” This shows how Macbeth does not know what to do with the daggers, and he goes to Lady Macbeth. His wife tells him what to do and how to do it which shows that she is smarter than him and that he needs her “brilliant” ideas in order to do things correctly. In this play we see women as the one who encourage man to do things and as the one with the good ideas.  Is like if the man is led by a woman or needs a woman in their life in order to not make mistakes.