Immediately after the murder Lady Macbeth calms down Macbeth and keeps him sane, but still looks down upon how Macbeth is acting for example after she has put the daggers with the grooms “My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”. Lady Macbeth seems to be the person who takes charge and is very calm and doesn’t care how Macbeth feels even though he has just killed someone, she just wants to get the job done which makes her an efficient criminal. She uses imperatives, she has to use this type of language so she can get Macbeth under control because he is risking them getting caught. She just washes her hands and tells Macbeth that a little blood will clear them of this deed, but later on in the play when she is sleepwalking she is rubbing her hands and saying her hands cannot be cleaned. An Elizabethan view on this behaviour would be them thinking that she is a witch because she is telling Macbeth what to do which was unnatural for that time. Lady Macbeth knows she can control Macbeth’s actions but not his mind. The audience starts to learn that Lady Macbeth is the cause as to why Macbeth killed Duncan but they then see that Macbeth is now starting to become more independent from Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth becomes more involved than she originally intended because she has to take the daggers back after Macbeth refuses because he is to traumatised, then she sees Duncan lying there like her father which shows the audience that she is less evil than we first thought. The water image shows the audience that Lady Macbeth thinks that a little water will clear them off this deed whilst Macbeth can’t even say Amen which shows the couple are completely different on how they react to the situation. I think that Shakespeare chose this image because it shows the contrast and later on in the play, it helps clearly define the role reversal when Lady Macbeth is rubbing her hands as if washing them whilst sleepwalking. When Lady Macbeth is covered in Duncan’s blood the audience realises that Lady Macbeth doesn’t just talk and plan she can also do the practical work in the plan and that the blood does not affect her. In this scene Lady Macbeth is under a lot of pressure because she has to keep Macbeth sane and stop him giving them away but she has to make sure she is ok and not traumatised by the site of Duncan. There relationship has already changed because Lady Macbeth can no longer control Macbeth or his actions.
Lady Macbeth is under a lot of pressure as the play continues because she is partly to blame for Macbeth ordering people to kill Lady Macduff and everyone in his castle in Fythe. When Macbeth kills Duncan he realises that he I damned to hell so he just keeps on killing people who cross him and when he’s king he takes advantage of his powers like ordering the murderers to kill Banquo then he kills the murderers. Macbeth doesn’t talk to Lady Macbeth and he stops consulting her about important things like he didn’t tell Lady Macbeth of Banquo’s murder or when he went and saw the witches instead of her. Lady Macbeth took this deeply and this affected her deeply leading to her breakdown and suicide.
Lady Macbeth’s change is dramatically effective because earlier in the play she is a very powerful and domineering character and now she seems very weak and we can see she is scared of the dark because she has to have a light by her side when she’s walking around the castle, also she is trying to get blood off her hands which isn’t there and she says ”what will these hands ne’er be clean”, but earlier in the play in act 2 scene 2 where she say’s “A little water clears us of this deed”. The idea of madness links back to act 2 scene 2 where lady Macbeth makes a prophecy, which then comes true when Lady Macbeth goes mad, and then commits suicide. The audience do have sympathy for Lady Macbeth because I believe that she only wanted the best for Macbeth and when he got into power he forgot about her and that deeply affected Lady Macbeth.
In Act 5 scene 1 shows the dramatic change in Lady Macbeth’s feelings about the killing. In the scene, a Gentlewoman informs the Doctor that ‘I ace seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon’t, read it afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep’ meaning she has seen Lady Macbeth do a whole lot of sleep walking. Then whilst the Doctor and Gentlewoman are discussing what she has been doing, Lady Macbeth enters the room – sleepwalking with a candle. The doctors questions the Gentlewoman asking her ‘How came she by that light?’ which means ‘How come she’s got that candle?’. The Gentlewoman answers by saying that she has been ordered that there should always be one next to her (probably as she is scared of the dark now). Lady Macbeth then began to rub her hands as if she was getting the blood off and the Gentlewoman told the Doctor she had seen her do this for 15minutes once before, as Lady Macbeth screams ‘Come out, damned spot! Out, I command you! One, two, O, it’s time to do it now. Jell it murky! Nonsense, my lord, nonsense! You are a soldier, and yet you are afraid? Why should we be scared, when no one can lay the guilt upon us? But who would have though the old man would have so much blood in him?’ and ‘The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will my hands never be clean? No more of that, my lord, no more of that. You’ll ruin everything by acting startled like this’. The doctor then proceeds by saying ‘Now look what you’ve done. You’ve heard something you shouldn’t have’ as the scene ends. This scene shows how Lady Macbeth has opposite feelings towards what she has done than before.
Lady Macbeth’s language is now very basic and she can’t even put sentences together anymore, which shows the audience that Lady Macbeth has gone mad. Lady Macbeth’s muddled show her emotion because she repeats conversations from the past which she’d had with Macbeth. Shakespeare weaves in phrases from earlier in the play like when Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth in act 2 scene 2 that “a little water can clear us of this deed” and then later on in the play when she is sleepwalking she says not even the purest water can wash these hands, and also Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth if he doesn’t calm down they’ll both go mad, and only Lady Macbeth fulfils her prophecy.
My impressions of Lady Macbeth in this play changed after the murder in Act 2 scene 2 and the sleep walking in Act 5 scene 1. Straight after King Duncan’s killing Lady Macbeth was in control, confident, calm, brave, deceptive, ambitious, fearless, ruthless, aggressive and vicious. All these feelings had changed by Act 5 scene 1, where Lady Macbeth was nervous, guilty, confused, fearful, remorseful, weak and manipulated. She is in control of her feelings and soul at the start but then goes through a stage where she no longer is in control which causes her breakdown and then leads to her suicide.
I believe the reasons for Lady Macbeths madness was caused by Macbeth’s negligence of her like when he visited the witches instead of her, the way Macbeth goes round killing people without telling her, when he sent the murderers to kill Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s character fascinates Director’s and actress’ because she is such a complex character and also there is no wrong way to play Lady Macbeth as a character because you could play her as a innocent character who only wanted the best for Macbeth or a domineering woman who used Macbeth to gain power. Though she should never have interfered by persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan. She had let her dreams get in the way of reality in this play but she did need someone to confess her sins too. Shakespeare managed to make the audience sympathise with Lady Macbeth as he wrote all her about her true feelings by the end of the play and proved she was not all evil inside. Overall Lady Macbeth was an important part of this play because without her Macbeth may not have had the guts to continue with all his bad deeds.
Natasha Kay
English Coursework
Macbeth Essay
