Her use of flattery towards her spouse furthermore indicates her manipulative and cunning stature of mind. Upon the entrance of Macbeth , she flatters him with ‘Great Glamis, Worthy cawdor’, a manoeuvre solely purposed to soften his heart with the ‘milk of human kindness’, thus attaining much influence over him. The reason for such is that her aspirations require the complete loyalty and conformity of her accomplice, and thus is her intention, an intention that requires much comprehension of situations. Yet despite the excitement that prevails in her, her ability to conceal such emotions lest one should hear it further illustrates her sharp intellect, as the immediate switch in her focus to deter any listeners, and to question ‘what is your tidings’ again exemplify a mind of great stability. Her use of coded language to express this joy, and the strategy which she wishes to employ, as to ‘catch the nearest way’ further reinforce this point. To conjure further upon this, her employment of imperatives display her reign, with her husband. The key to her dominion, is to ‘look like the innocent flower’, ‘yet be the serpent beneath’. In essence her desire is for Macbeth to follow suit.
The final, yet most depictive method employed by the playwright to illustrate the great intellect, stability and assertiveness that beguiles the psyche of Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5, is her commanding role in the scene. For it is her, that desires a status that lay beyond their reach lest malice actions be enacted. Furthermore, hers is the plot, her planning and her persuasion that sanction the couple to royalty, and insanity. It is her invitation that summons the spirits ‘that tend on her mortal thought’, to reform them to the actions of the immortal. And it is her, that order Macbeth, into actions he was incapable of, he was morally barred from, for the night’s ‘ great business was in’ her ‘ dispatch’. And in end, she proclaims the prizes that awaits, should they enact such a plan. A prize ‘which shall give to all our nights and days to come, give solely sovereign sway and masterdom’.
In Act 5 Scene 1, the conduct, language and psyche of Lady Macbeth have suffered great set backs and have been denatured in an irrecoverable manner. The immensity of these reformations enable them to be a certainty, with great rampancy, in the scene. The eloquence and prosperity in her speech have departed from her, her conversations are in prose, and no longer bear the mark of a great lady. The complex and poetic fashion in which she discourses, is replaced, by phrases that are mono-syllabic, ‘ yet here’s a spot’. Furthermore, the variety and diversity in her diction and her uses of sophisticated grammar have strayed from her, and have been exchanged with the language of a child. ‘One; two: why, then, ‘tis time to do’t’. The style of infancy is further prolonged by the playwright, upon the occasion when she converses in poetry, thought nursery rhymes; ‘ The Thane of Fife had a wife’.
Continuing further upon of deranged state of mind, the topics upon which she dwells are of the most disturbing nature, and that, such notions are without any form of order. For in Act 1. Scene 5, her thoughts had been vicious, yet had no effect on her physical behaviour or upon the rest of her thought. For now, conscience has been besieged by consequences of her actions. Her imagination invents stains of Duncan’s blood upon her hand; her behaviour that of an obsessive felon. Her visions are ‘ hell is murky! fie my lord fie’, and that ‘ smell of blood’ continues to prevail over all other scents. Another manifestation of this incurable disease that her conscience suffers from, is her obsessive attitude towards washing. For in her illusive vision, the stains of blood that continue to tarnish her palms will never fade. ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’. Her mind suffers from severe form of schizophrenia, a form in which she enacts her sins of the past, and of those she has wronged. She relives moments in which her previous state of mind had devised with great skill and precision. An example of such is her command for Macbeth to go, ‘to bed’, for ‘there’s knocking at the gate’. Yet in essence, most exemplary of her mutated and deformed consciousness , is her childish perception that sleep shall cure the insanity and delusions which she suffers, for she summons her self ‘to bed’, in hope that she will wake a sane woman. Her persistent belief that she is in the company of Macbeth, further illustrate this, for she request of him to ‘give me your hand’, though his presence is in a distant location.
The irony contained in her dialogue continues to indicate her indefinite state of mind. Her certainty in Act 2 Scene 2 of how ‘ a little water clears us of this deed’ is discarded, more over, its substitution is her obsession with washing, for her illusive vision permits her to believe that her ‘hands will ne’er be clean’. Her use of fricatives further indicates the loss of her solidity and calculative nature. Her rampant usage of diction commencing ‘ch’, assigns a bitter tone in speech. Words, the likes of ‘come’ ‘croak’ ‘cruelty’ induce a malice intent to all conversation; yet such constant usage indicates a sub conscious intimation.
In conclusion, the disparities in Lady Macbeths language, behaviour and state of mind are most evident to one comparing the two scenes. The these most extreme forms of behaviour are abnormal and are cause only by the unnatural. The deterioration of her metal capacity from act1 Scene 5 to Act 5 Scene 1 illustrate to the reader the consequence of allowing ambition to be sought after with no bounds, moral or malice. The playwright exploits Lady Macbeths language to illustrate to the reader the transformations in her behaviour, and with great success, creates a character that suffers from a conscience that carries a burden far greater than it can bear. His employment of numerous methods, such as the soliloquy’s, imperatives and strategic, almost poetic discourse of Lady Macbeth in contrast to such childish, monosyllabic and incompetent speech in later scenes assure such stark results. Further more, by entangling forces of the unknown into the play, Shakespeare adds an extent of exorcism and allows way for the possibility of possession, for in such a case, her voice would merely be a means of out put for the possessing spirit, thus satisfying the reason for such alteration. Her beckoning for the spirits to ‘unsex’ her, and to grant her the strength and stability of man had, without doubt, been unheard, for in end her sensitivity and weakness, all of which are characteristics of the feminine group had consequated her insanity, for she remained a lady. Her load had been one of great immensity, and exceeded her capacity and thus it crumbled upon her. Lady Macbeths language in Act 1 Scene 5, and Act 5 scene 1 explicitly reveal the enormity of the alterations that have plagued her, thus adding further peril to this dark tale.
