There is a sudden change in her tone of language as the messenger enters. This indicates her full awareness of her surroundings. At this stage, her language changes to being more ‘down to earth’ as she simply asks him ‘what’s your news?’ Her briskness is best shown a she leaves her exemplary spoken English to a more basic one. This sudden change of tone indicates her mental readiness to take on the great challenge that faced herself and her husband.
Her anger is shown as the messenger informs her of the sudden visit where she states ‘Thou ‘art mad to say it!’ (Line 31). Putting her anger aside, she focuses on the situation at hand as she gives good tidings to the messenger. Once again her use of language changes dramatically as soon as the messenger leaves the room. It is here where she begins her second soliloquy and uses fricatives (harsh c’s), ‘croaks, come, crown, cruelty’ to reinforce and emphasise her feelings.
She uses imperatives to order the evil spirits to enter her and destroy her feminine nature, as she knows her own nature would cry ‘hold, hold!’ (Line 53). But once again she immediately switches tone and begins flattering her husband ‘Great Glamis Worthy Cawdor’ in an attempt to persuade him into the murder of Duncan. She expresses her complete faith in his victory as she says ‘o never shall the sun that morrow see.’ And that she feels ‘the future in the instant’ (Line 57). To demonstrate her absolute supremacy over the situation and not just over her husband she dictates how he should be behaving with the arrival of the King. This might seem as if though Lady Macbeth (the mother) is telling what (her son) Macbeth should be doing. For instance she says in line 64 for him to ‘look like an innocent flower’ whilst being the ‘serpent’ lying under it.
Act 1; Scene 5; Lines 47-51 shows her ultimate strength in speech as she tries to convince her husband not to give up his evil ambitions and that he wouldn’t be of the man that he was before if he failed to take this ample opportunity up. It is as though the evil spirits have started acting upon her decree to unsex her already. I have used this section just to state her ambitious feelings which seem to have reached its climax as everything that was woman about her has vanished.
Act 5, Scene 1 opens with a doctor and a Lady (nurse) discussing the seriousness of Lady Macbeth`s situation. She is then caught sleep-walking. Whilst doing so she speaks for the first time in this scene as a totally different woman as she says ‘yet here’s a spot’. It seems to me that Lady Macbeth might be suffering a type of anxiety disorder called ‘obsessive compulsive disorder’ whose symptoms can be seen in Lady Macbeth as she consistently tries to clean her hands several times from blood that’s not there. The event of her seeing blood and repeatedly washing her hands is evidence of the manifestation of her guilt. It seems to me that from this small line we are able to see that Lady Macbeth’s highly spoken English seems to have totally disappeared with just a few simple words remaining on her tongue. As she carries on speaking, ‘out, damned spot! Out’ it becomes clear that she has not only lost control of herself, but also over her spectacular English, which she previously had a grasp on. She almost reverts to her simplistic childlike language as she says ‘one: two: why, then ‘tis time to do’t’ (line 31). Her childish language is shown again as she chants ‘ The Thane of Fife had a wife…’ (Line 37). In Act 1; Scene 5, it is her controlled language that is swiftly altered. This, also changes to her uncontrolled/wild switching of her hallucinations as she suddenly switches back and re-lives the time in Act 4; Scene 3 when she warns him that he will ‘mar all with this starting’, as in his panicking at the banquet (Line 39). It is noticeable here that she might be suffering from a disorder called ‘Post-traumatic stress’ where she begins re-living the trauma in her dreams. This shows her total disorientation and lack of cohesion in both her language and thoughts, ‘Hell is murky!’ (Line 32). She is further tormented by her persistent unwelcome thoughts a she smells her hands to find that ‘the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’ (Lines 43-44).
Shakespeare uses repetition to describe/show her in her utmost pain by the mentioning of ‘Oh! Oh!’(Line 44) over and over again. He could be doing this so that the audience feel a little remorse for her current situation and therefore about her also. When Lady Macbeth was sane, she thought that if they ‘clamour roar upon his death’ (Act 1:Scene 7:Lines 79-80) this would fix all her problems. But it was her two faced personality together with the pressure of managing Macbeth which had left her in such a disoriented state. Lady Macbeth relives her conversation which Macbeth when they were at the banquet and she pleads him to ‘look not so pale’ as ‘Banquo`s buried; he cannot come out on`s grave (Lines 55-56) (Banquo`s ghost was seen at the banquet). Her confused state of mind forces her into thinking like a little child where she thinks that if she goes ‘To bed, to bed, (Line 58) all her problems will disappear when she wakes up, although this is not the reality of the situation. These words again indicate an end to everything Lady Macbeth was, and most of all an end to her highly sophisticated language.
In these two scenes evil is seen as an illness. When given access, evil can flourish and grow inside a person’s mind like it was forced to access Lady Macbeth in Act 1:Scene 5. It seems to me that Lady Macbeth`s ambition was the weakness that let evil into her. Evil, when flourishing, turns on and destroys itself taking its bearer which meant that Lady Macbeth would have to go along with it. In Act 1:Scene 5 Lady Macbeth`s instrumental language persuades Macbeth to murder King Duncan. She is ruthlessly ambitious, and is prepared to sacrifice all of what she has including her fertility (Act 1: Scene 5: Line 40) for the powers of evil.
At the start of the play Lady Macbeth is stronger in will, which can be seen in her language as a result of her using fricatives, imperatives…. ect, than Macbeth. As the play moves on she exchanges roles with Macbeth finally becoming the dominant partner and Lady Macbeth failing and finally falling into suicide at the end of the play.
