Lady Macbeth's Downfall

A woman receives a message from her husband, suggesting a path to power, although paved with unspeakably wicked deeds. She has a choice, but rather than steering him clear of that path, she pushes him down it, leading to the murder of the King, and a reign of tyranny and death. This woman, Lady Macbeth, is responsible for King Duncan’s grisly murder, shows a complete lack of compassion for others, especially for her husband, and is, therefore, fit for the title of evil.

A character in Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace remarks that “It is not always the one that strikes the blow, that is the actual murderer” (213); the same is true when it comes to Lady Macbeth. If it were not for her, Macbeth would have decided against the killing. He told her “We will proceed no further in this business” (Shakespeare 1.7.32), but rather than listen, she chose to take advantage of his weaknesses and manipulate him to kill Duncan. The murder was nothing short of orchestrated by her; Duncan was killed using her plan. Lady Macbeth treated her husband like a tool in her shed, ringing a bell when she wanted him to be

She shows an utter lack of respect for her husband, manipulating him and treating him with utmost cruelty. She wields her insults like a whip used to bend Macbeth to her will. To convince him to murder the king, she peddles the lie that it would make him “so much more the man” (Shakespeare 1.7.51), although, after the assassination, she continues to call him weak and questions his manliness, especially when he is at his most vulnerable. In the scene following Duncan’s murder, she calls him “infirm of purpose” (Shakespeare 2.2.55), and weak-hearted. When he hallucinates the ghost of Banquo, she ridicules his manhood, exclaiming that he is “unmann’d in folly” (Shakespeare 3.4.73). This abusive nature, coupled with her evil temperament, and the murder she committed, paints a picture of an undoubtedly wicked