Lady Macbeth, one of the main characters in the play Macbeth, is an example of a character that throughout the course of the play has had a change of heart of some sorts. Lady Macbeth's conscience, which seems to have never appeared or mattered to her before, suddenly becomes an uncontrollable part of her psychological state of being.
Murder, which she deemed as such a small inconsequential act, later causes her to lose sleep and finally to take her own life.
In the beginning of the play, when Lady Macbeth is first introduced she is already plotting Duncan's murder. She even wishes that she were not a woman so that she could do it herself saying in Act I, Scene 5, "Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here." Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with astonishing success, overruling all his objections. When he does not wish to murder, she frequently questions his manhood until he feels that he must kill King Duncan in order to prove himself. They are both blinded by ambition; nothing will stop them from gaining the throne. Macbeth feels remorse immediately following the murder, but Lady Macbeth assures him that everything will be fine. When he worries over his blood stained hands she tells him in Act II, Scene 2 that "A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then!" Lady Macbeth also logically explains to her husband that as long as he is the new king, he can never be punished for the murder of Duncan, for no one possesses more power than he. She seems completely unaffected by the murder they two have conspired to commit. This apathy does not last for long however.
A little later in the play, Lady Macbeth also sees the blood, and thus their moral wrong doings. She is completely consumed by guilt and slowly slips away into madness. In the planning stages of the murder Lady Macbeth felt much more strongly than Macbeth about the necessity to kill Duncan, and now in the aftermath she feels the guilt much more strongly than Macbeth. At one point in the play she is completely lost in her guilt; she sleepwalks around the castle saying "Out, damned spot. Out!" She is speaking of the bloodstains she now also sees for her part in this murder. In the beginning of the play she seems much more blood thirsty in her quest for power, but later it seems that the throne was not worthy enough to constitute the means used to gain it.
After the slaughter of his former comrade, Macbeth explains to his wife, “Strange things I have in head that will to hand/Which must be acted ere they may be scanned” (3.4.137-140). This assertion from Macbeth paves the path for his future misdeeds. Lady Macbeth is concerned by her husband’s announcement and responds with, “You lack the season of all natures, sleep” (3.4.141). Lady Macbeth believes that her husband has lost his sanity. She no longer supports Macbeth’s murderous plans, and resents his new impulsivity. Following this conversation, Macbeth continues to kill harmless people, such as Macduff’s wife and children. He implies that he will no longer think about his actions before completing them, which is a deranged approach to life. The change in Macbeth’s behavior reshapes Lady Macbeth’s personality. She realizes that “what’s done cannot be undone” (5.1.57). Lady Macbeth now recognizes the lasting impact of the murders on herself and her husband. Initially Lady Macbeth approves Duncan’s murder, as it leads to her queenship. Her sadism and zeal for power declines after Macbeth’s killing spree. Lady Macbeth’s newfound heart is the outcome of her husband’s wicked
Not much further in the play, we see that Macbeth decides not to murder Duncan but rather, carry on serving as his Thane. However, Lady Macbeth starts her persuasion again, but this time she questions his manhood, saying "When you durst do it, then you were a man: And to be more then what you were you would be so much more the man." (1.7.49-51). Had she not challenged his manhood and his love for her, he would not have usurped the throne and she would not have become a Queen. Not only did she get him to think about the murder, she even knew what to say after he had started thinking about the murder.
When she learns Macbeth has been given a fortune of been given thane of cawdor then king and half the prophecy has become true, she knows if Macbeth is king she will be queen. She is willing to do anything to get it. On the night that Macbeth and lady macbeth have planned to kill Duncan. Macbeth is having second thoughts but Lady Macbeth is not letting him back down by saying he is a coward and she would do it if she was in his place by saying ”When you durst do it, then you are a man. And to be more than what you were you would be so much more than a man”. Macbeth is a hearty warrior and feels as though he has to prove to Lady Macbeth he is a man and he is not a coward. Therefore due to Lady Macbeths manipulation Macbeth murders Duncan. On Macbeths return Lady Macbeth is happy but Macbeth is Filled with regret Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to forget what happened “ A little water clears us of this deed”. Which is Ironique as At the end of the play Lady Macbeth has been in the anxiety and it has finally eaten away at her and she has gone mad and keeps seeing blood on her hands. “Out damned spot out, I say !” which in turn leads to her own suicide and portrays Lady Macbeth as taking her fate into her own hands in an evil manner, However the guilt from doing the evil task highlighted Lady Macbeth was not as manly as she wanted to be and she still had feelings, showing the audience by her suicide as an act showing she was unable to withstand the guilt of being queen knowing the great evil she had to do to get
After Lady Macbeth reads his letter and Macbeth arrives home, she is excited about becoming queen. She asks Macbeth when King Duncan is to be arriving and tells Macbeth to leave the plan up to her, his only job being that he has to look innocent and hide their true intentions. Macbeth seems to be stunned and nervous, telling his wife that they will talk later when she begins to tell him of her plan. In the seventh scene, at the castle, Macbeth speaks of the intense guilt he is feeling even before he is to kill Duncan; “… this even-handed justice/ Commends the ingredients of our poisoned/ Chalice to our own lips…” (1. 7. 10-12) (Shakespeare), “… He’s here in double trust…” (1. 7. 12) (Shakespeare), “… Besides, this Duncan/ Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/ So clear in his great office…” (1. 7. 17-19)(Shakespeare) all express Macbeth’s discomfort with murdering Duncan to steal the throne. Not only does he convey these emotions during this monologue, but he does so when Lady Macbeth enters the room, saying “We will proceed no further in this business./ He hath honored me of late, and I have bought/ Golden opinions from all sorts of people…” (1. 7. 32-34) (Shakespeare). To respond to this, Lady Macbeth does what she does best: emasculating her husband. She first articulates her questioning of his manhood after she reads Macbeth’s letter in the first act when she says “Yet do I fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness…” (1. 5. 2-3) (Shakespeare), which contrasts with the heroic description the dying Captain gives of Macbeth in the opening scene. After Macbeth tells his wife that he is calling off the plan to kill King Duncan, she
As Lady Macbeth becomes consumed by fear and guilt, she is slowly losing her sanity. This is a result of her not being able to handle what she has done to Duncan. In one scene, Lady Macbeth is trying to wash out what she sees as being blood on her hands, even though she is sleepwalking, though the doctor and woman in the room dare not blame her for anything, for fear of being accused and executed for treason. At the start, Lady Macbeth was pushing the fearful Macbeth to kill Duncan. Now, late in the play, their roles have reversed, and it is Lady Macbeth who is fearful, not her husband.
Lady Macbeth is a very 'crazy' character. She is blood thirsty and she will do anything she possibly can to gain power even if it means forever being cursed. Lady Macbeth is the farmer who planted the seed in Macbeth's head to become murderous and after that you couldn't stop him. She enters around the fifth scene of act 1 and her first impression is to kill her husband's best friend.
In the first scene, Macbeth is unaffected by magic and has the ability to make good decisions. When the witches encounter him and predict that he will be king, Macbeth has a choice to believe the witches or to ignore them (Shakespeare 1.2). Macbeth later acts on the witches’ predictions that he interprets as the truth. Macbeth also has the choice of listening to his wife, Lady Macbeth, and her insistence that he murder Duncan. Macbeth has the opportunity to recognize the evilness and greediness inherent in her persuasions, but instead he goes along with her plan. Macbeth has control over every physical action he does; no one murders Duncan for him, and no one else in the play hires murderers to kill innocent people. Ultimately, all of Macbeth’s actions are up to him and are controlled only by him, though those actions are greatly influenced.
After the death of King Duncan, Macbeth becomes the more controlling one, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually becomes too much for her to handle which leads to her death. Lady Macbeth is in fact the one that performs the preparations for the murder of King Duncan, but still shows some signs of humanity by not committing the murder herself because he resembles "My father as he slept". After the murder has been committed, she also shows signs of being a strong person because she calms Macbeth down in order to keep him from going insane.
The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. It artfully takes its audience to a place that allows one to examine what a human being is truly capable of once tempted by the allure of power. In the play, Scottish noble Macbeth and his wife inevitably fall prey to their own self corruption. Initiated by prophesies made by three mysterious witches, the Macbeths set their sights on the throne. When the curtains open on the plot to murder King Duncan, Lady Macbeth is the driving force. Her criminal mind and desire for ruthlessness have led many a critic to define her as evil. Closer examination, however, reveals that she is a multifaceted character; other sides to her persona include: genuine good will towards her husband, coy manipulation, and feminine tenderness.
After struggling with the thought of killing Duncan, Macbeth is reprimanded by Lady Macbeth for his lack of courage. She informs him that killing the king will make him a man, insinuating that he isn’t a man if he doesn’t go through with the murder. This develops Lady Macbeth as a merciless, nasty, and selfish woman. She will say, or do anything to get what she desires, even if it means harming others. It is this selfishness that makes it hard for the reader to be empathetic towards her later in the play, as it is evident in this scene that her hardships were brought on by herself. If she hadn’t insisted on the murder, she would not be driven in...
He no longer is the innocent soldier he once way, he now has “unclean hands”. Lady Macbeth however, assumes his innocence. She claims she cannot murder Duncan herself because Duncan looks to much like her sleeping father. She is all words and no actions. Macbeth is devoid of any human emotions as the play goes on, and Lady Macbeth assumes the emotional role. Lady Macbeth begins to have dreams in which she cannot get the blood off her hands, and ultimately commits suicide from guilt of her actions. This breakdown of Lady Macbeth really highlights how inhuman the murder of Duncan has made Macbeth.
In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is overly whelmed by the letter she receives about Macbeth. This pushes her to the extreme and causes her to react outrageously. " Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here…make thick my blood…take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers…come thick night." (I;v;40-50) All these images of darkness and horror reveal the true character of Lady Macbeth; she feels the need to become wicked. Her attitude is even more horrific when she calls on evil spirits to come and possess her, taking control of her actions. This sort of behavior causes the audience and reader to assume Lady Macbeth is a psychopath, and therefore would have reason to hold her responsible for having a major impact on her husband and driving him off, enlightening a twisted sinister and threatening dark side of him.
When the three witches had met with Macbeth, and then he had told his wife, he did not feel sure that murdering the King was right, although he was the King’s savior. When Lady Macbeth hears about the news, she awakens, starts to plot Duncan’s murder and backstabbs Macbeth to kill him. She tells him to ‘be a man and go get what he wants’. At this point, Macbeth doesn’t have a choice. When she thinks that she can kill the King, she cries, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex
When Macbeth was off at war, and told Lady Macbeth that the witches greeted him as Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland before he received those titles, she was probably scheming on how to fulfill those before he returned home. Once home, they had King Duncan stay at Dunsinane. Lady Macbeth then b-tches at her husband and ridicules his masculinity in order to make him commit murder (Friedlander). Macbeth reluctantly murders Duncan, even though he wanted to wait and have it all play out without killing anyone. When he went to the well to wash off his hands he speaks of his remorse, and lady Macbeth finds out that he did not implicate the guards, so she tells him to go do it.
Lady Macbeth is the first to strategize a way to kill Duncan. As a character foil to Macbeth she juxtaposes their possession of guilt and ruthlessness, which creates irony and excitement to the play. Originally, she is very power hungry and wants to utilize her husband’s position in status to become queen. Macbeth objects to the plan to kill Duncan because he believes Duncan is Macbeth’s kinsman, host, and an overall virtuous ruler (Act. 1 Scene. 7) and thus feels very guilty for taking advantage of Duncan’s trusting quality towards the Macbeth family. She refers to Macbeth as weak and rebukes his manhood (Act 1. Scene 7.) . As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a character role reversal of their possession of guilt and ruthlessness. The character foil is extant, however Macbeth’s ruthlessness overcomes his guilt, and Lady Macbeth’s guilt vanquishes her drive for power. In addition to an alteration in character foils, Shakespeare introduces situational irony because now Lady Macbeth succumbs to the weakness Macbeth once possessed and Macbeth is the one who is formidable and ambitious. Macbeth’s ability to transcend his guilt exemplifies his struggle for power and reinforces the theme of evil ambition because Macbeth is able to secure the throne and power only by mass