Lady Macbeth in Acts One and Two of William Shakespeare's Play

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Recommended: Macbeth analysis for the quote unsex me here

Lady Macbeth in Acts One and Two of William Shakespeare's Play

We first see Lady Macbeth in act one scene five and she is reading the

letter sent by Macbeth to her. We instantly see a side of evil and

hate which was not expected of a woman at that time.

We see right from the start the Lady Macbeth is the driving force

behind the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth is too

kind to kill Duncan and that he is " too full o'th milk of human

kindness"

Lady Macbeth wants to be like a man, for the spirits to take away her

womanly kindness and to fill her with evil and hate. This is clear as

she makes her speech "unsex me here" speech. Lady Macbeth also wants

the spirits to take away her milk from her breast as she says "come to

my woman's breast and take my milk for gall", gall meaning poison.

Lady Macbeth has intentions for Macbeth to kill Duncan when she hears

from the messenger that he will be coming to their castle that night.

She quotes "the raven himself is hoarse that croaks the fatal entrance

of Duncan". We know now that if Duncan goes there he will not see the

light of the next day.

The impression we have of Lady Macbeth is that she is two faced or

"fair is foul" (as quoted by the witches in scene 1 of act 1).

We can see as a result from her speeches that she intends for her true

feelings not to get out when Duncan comes so, she tells Macbeth "look

like the innocent flower but be the serpent under't". This is was Lady

Macbeth is like when Duncan arrives.

In act 1 scene 7, we see the full extent of Lady Macbeth's control

over husband, which makes her a very important character in the play.

Macbeth has a soliloquy at the beginning of the scene and he comes up

with only one reason why he should kill Duncan, for his "vaulting

ambition" and about seven reasons why he should not kill him.

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