During her first appearance she makes 2 strange comments which are “under my battlements” and “my keen knife” these show a slightly deranged side to her as battlements are part of a castle and her saying “under my battlements” is saying that she is actually part of the castle. The keen knife comment can be taken in 2 ways. 1: it can be taken literally as in her knife is looking forward to making a wound on Duncan or 2:it can be taken in a more metaphorical way in that she is saying that Macbeth is her “keen knife” and that she does not want him to see the long term damage that the one wound would make.
In this scene she comes over as a powerfull character and she dominates the scene without a doubt as she speaks about 60 of the scenes 72 lines, even when the key character in the play enters she still seems to shadow over him as if he were insignificant this shows a very powerful and controlling woman.
In Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth does not even start on the stage now if you compare this to her first scene where she was the only person in the scene at the beginning this shows she is slowly deteriorating. We have heard in the beginning of this scene that Lady Macbeth has been doing strange things while she sleeps some of which include: making a motion with her hands as if she were washing them, she has also been known to sleep walk and talk. When she does speak she speaks as if she were either speaking to Macbeth or soliloquising about the killings that have taken place.
In Act 1 Scene 5 lady Macbeth says to Macbeth that “little water clears us of this deed” but now the guilt has got to her and she is now saying that “ all the perfumes of/ Arabia”(5,1,44-45) will not sweeten her hand. This contrasts in a major way to what she said to Macbeth. This shows one of 2 things either earlier in the play Lady Macbeth was fearless or she was putting on a show to give Macbeth more courage, to make it seem that it was ok. She is also said to have been talking in such a way that it were as if she were talking to Macbeth:
To bed, to bed; there’s a knocking at the gate. Come,
come, come, come, give me your hand; what’s done
cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed”(5,1,58-60)
These seem to be said to Macbeth as if he were there. Also in the lines she speaks she has what seem to be soliloquies, the main subject of these soliloquies is the many murders that have gone on, of Duncan, Macduff’s family and Banquo. This shows that she is feeling the guilt of what she has done and that it haunts her mind even while asleep. If you compare this back to earlier in the play where she was all for killing multiple people but it think this is because she was putting on a show to make Macbeth feel better about the murders.
The doctor sees all of this strange behaviour of Lady Macbeth’s and there is nothing he can do about it as he says: “More needs she the divine than the physician”. This is he basically saying she is going crazy and there is nothing a doctor can do, your only hope is god.
Something else that shows a contrast is in this scene Lady Macbeth is talking prose, she spoke prose in the first scene but that is because she was reading a letter. The use of prose shows that she is slowly losing her status. There is also a contrast in the number or lines she speaks and the power she gives while speaking them. In this scene she is quite a placid person but in her first scene she was a loud and abrupt person. This again shows a broken or breaking woman.
In the few lines in this scene Lady Macbeth speaks it reveals a lot about her character. Her soliloquising about the deaths of thee people shows that her mind is crammed full with remorse that she cannot control it.
In this scene the doctor and gentlewoman play a vital role as with them in the scene we get to see how much Lady Macbeth has deteriorated over the course of the play. We also see the only bit in the play where she shows that she was there and helped with the killings. As when she says “yet who would/have thought the old man to have so much blood in/him?”(5,1,34-36) The doctor and the gentlewoman automatically link it with Duncan. Although this was something that was unknown and very important they did not tell anyone about it, this is because they thought that she had obviously suffered enough.
I think that in this play Lady Macbeth starts off as a strong and powerful character, this is where she dominates the scenes she is in but as you read through the play it shows subtle signs of deterioration until the point when she allegedly commits suicide. This play surprised me as I have seen the play on stage and the two differed so much I couldn’t believe it and it shows how much the theatre companies manipulate the book.