Can a person be too self-confident? Too expressive? Too nice? Too smart? Perhaps, too much of some, or most, things are bad for an individual. Is this the same for good and noble traits? Is determination in a person always a trait to be looked up to, or can this trait actually become something unfavorable? Can too much determination make an individual pernicious? Shakespeare describes this determination as a sickness that taints the heart. He uses his character Lady Macbeth to portray this view; one of the most determined characters in Macbeth as of right now is Lady Macbeth. When a person first hears the title Lady Macbeth; beneficent, sweet, kind, caring, compassionate, patient and forgiving are all words that come to mind when there is mention of female nobility. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare in Act l Scene 5 readers are introduced to a dramatically different …show more content…
Juxtaposition is the act of placing two things beside each other for the sake of comparison. We are all familiar that determination is the exact opposite of cowardice, this is a classical example of juxtaposition. Through this, Lady Macbeth calls out that Macbeth is "not without ambition" and then goes on to make the adversative claim that he is "without the illness" that drives her own sickening determination, meaning that Macbeth is a coward for not fulfilling his prophecy. The contrast especially gives emphasis to the word "illness," which characterizes Lady Macbeth's disease that continues to ail her. Lady Macbeth is so infatuated with power and determination that she will stop at nothing. Therefore, this literary device of using contrast effectively depicts excessive determination as an illness and Lady Macbeth as a truly ruthless