The Rise and Fall of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth

The Rise and Fall of Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth's character is one of complexity; slowly, but

continuously changing throughout the play. What begins as a struggle for power

and a longing to shred her femininity turns Lady Macbeth into what she fears

most - a guilt ridden weakling.

In the beginning ( I, v, 43-54) , we see Lady Macbeth reacting to the

news of her husbands success and King Duncan's visit. This ignites her lust for

power. In the quote “...unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe

top full/ Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;.../ Come thick night,/ And

pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,/ That my keen knife see not the wound it

makes,” Lady Macbeth talks of wanting all of the cold blooded aspects of “

manliness” so she can kill King Duncan with no remorse - she sees herself as

having these qualities more than her husband, and because of this, in a sense,

wishes to shed her womanhood. We can see this ruthless nature more in depth in

the quote “I would, while it was smiling in my face,/ Have pluck'd my nipple

from his boneless gums,/ and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you/

Have done to this” (I,vii,56-59) She is obviously a very bitter female,

frequently referring to her role as a woman, both physically and emotionally in

negative ways. In the above quote, Lady Macbeth is commenting on her husband's

lack of gall, stating, that quite frankly, she would make a better man than

he.

Although still a very strong woman, we see the first signs of weakness

in Lady's Macbeth's character in Act II, Scene ii, 12-13. She says, “Had he

not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had done it.” She is giving an excuse

for not killing Duncan herself. As you can plainly see, this is not the same

Lady Macbeth that would bash a baby's brains in in the beginning of the play.

Throughout the play, Macbeth's character grows stronger as Lady Macbeth's will

regresses. It even gets to where Macbeth will not include his wife in his

villianous schemes, where at one time, it was Lady Macbeth who was

implementing these schemes in his head in the first place. In a sense, the two

characters switch roles; Lady Macbeth taking a backseat to her husband almost

becoming wallpaper for the rest of the play. The turning point for Lady Macbeth

is when she learns of her husband's slaying of Macduff's family.