In Act 1, Scene 7 of “Macbeth,” Lady Macbeth uses persuasive language to change Macbeth from a man full of worry to a hardened killer, ready to commit regicide. . She does it in different ways. The play was extremely controversial at the time; this is because it has effectively reversed gender roles in society. These roles were imprinted into the very fabric of the medieval community; women were considered inferior to men and were brutally oppressed by a largely patriarchal society. As a result, Shakespearean audiences would be shocked by the role reversal depicted in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth frequently uses insulting language, in an attempt to insult Macbeth's masculinity. An example where she does this is when she says, "Are you afraid to be the same in your own act and worth as you are in desire?" She asks him if he's afraid to be as brave as he wants and loves him. This was obviously intended to provoke retaliation from Macbeth and, to prove his masculinity, he would murder King Duncan. Another way Lady Macbeth insults him is when she says "Live a coward in your own esteem", meaning Macbeth will be a coward. if he fails to assassinate the king. In a conventional Shakespearean couple, a wife would never call her husband a coward; it was indescribable. This emphasizes Lady Macbeth's masculinity and shows her dominance in marriage. The word "live" is used, which, perhaps subliminally, indicates to Macbeth that they would survive the assassination and the events that followed. Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth will be a coward if he is content with his "golden opinions" and his lordship over Cawdor. In his soliloquy, Macbeth indicates to the audience his clear reluctance to kill the king, as he believes it to be a... .middle of paper ......e alchemical instruments. The most common form of alchemy involved transforming a base metal, usually lead, into gold. Lady Macbeth may have been referring to Duncan as the "lead" that would be replaced by "gold", Macbeth, the "receipt". " and the "limbbeck" being the tools they would use to achieve this. The final words of Act 1, Scene 7, are Macbeth pledging to assassinate his king. This completely reverses his earlier doubts and fears. He asserts his wife's power over him and her general dominance over the relationship Macbeth says, "The false face must hide what the false heart knows", this carries an element of certainty, proving once again that he now has. taken on the role of the murderer He is no longer the frightened man who delivered the monologue at the beginning of the scene. Lady Macbeth's power over rhetoric has made him a hitman;.