In this scene she speaks her thoughts out loud in a soliloquy-a speech not intended by the speaker to be overheard. They are dark and frightening thoughts: they frighten us, for sinister things are on her mind.
The soliloquy has a sense of verse and is intended to make Lady Macbeth seem like she is chanting a spell. This also gives the audience the impression that she is almost turning into a witch herself and this might have pleased and interested the audience as people of the 17th Century believed in witchcraft.
Lady Macbeth knows that she will have to urge her husband on to become king, and so she calls for evil spirits to help her: “Come you spirits…unsex me here.” This phrase also shows us how she is willing to give up all the gentle qualities of a woman and let the devil possess her body and soul. She also then calls upon the night shrouded in “the dunnest smoke of hell,” to hide her murdering dagger from the sight of heaven and so go forth with the terrible deed. The audience would be taken aback here as the soliloquy reveals her sinister and malevolent character.
Shakespeare uses a lot of disturbing words in Lady Macbeth`s speech such as: “fatal,” “mortal,” “gall” and “knife.” These words might again slightly startle the audience as all the words are associated with death and implies to them that Lady Macbeth has homicidal thoughts on her mind.
In Act One Scene Seven however, the audience begin to see the true strength of Lady Macbeth`s character. In this scene Lady Macbeth tries to persuade Macbeth to kill King Duncan. She calls him a coward and declares that she would have murdered her own child while it was feeding at her breast, rather than break such a promise as Macbeth had done: “I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out.”Here she uses emotional blackmail and the phrase paints the most horrific image as the words “plucked” and “dashed” are extremely harsh and ruthless words, especially to be related with a tiny, helpless infant.
Shakespeare phrases the dialogue in a way that makes Lady Macbeth sound like a very commanding woman: “when you durst do it then you were a man.”Here she is manipulating Macbeth by insulting his virility. She knows exactly what she wants and keeps interrupting Macbeth and this helps her get the better of him. Lady Macbeth also uses personal pronouns such as “us” and “we” to try and encourage her husband and to help him understand that they are in the situation together.
In the end, Lady Macbeth manages to persuade her husband and so Macbeth agrees to murder his king. Women of the 17th century would definitely admire Lady Macbeth`s character in this scene as she seemed to be in control of her husband Macbeth and women of those times were thought to be inferior to men.
Later on in Act Two Scene Two, Lady Macbeth is still portrayed as a courageous and commanding woman, but this is where the audience might seem slightly disturbed by her actions. In this scene, Macbeth kills King Duncan. When he comes from the King`s room, his hands red with Duncan`s blood, Lady Macbeth greets him with relief and pride: “My husband.” she now thinks that Macbeth has proved himself, in her eyes to be a man. Macbeth realizes what a terrible deed he has committed, but on the other hand, Lady Macbeth shows, terrifyingly, how little she thinks of the guilt that she shares with her husband: “A little water clears us of this deed. The audience would be stunned at this lack of guilt and it makes us realize what a brutal and unmerciful character Lady Macbeth really is. Shakespeare uses a lot of short snappy sentences in the speech to create more tension: “alack, I am afraid they have awak`d.” This makes Lady Macbeth sound jerky and this gives us the impression that she is slightly anxious and worried.
Act Five Scene One now shows us how Lady Macbeth now suffers from a guilty conscience: “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”Here she says that nothing even as divine as all the sweet spices of Arabia will ever be able to remove the unpleasant smell of guilt from her hand. She also now has nightmares that she and her husband are murdering King Duncan and she walks in her sleep. Shakespeare brings out Lady Macbeth`s change in character by using a lot of broken, incomplete language in her speech: “come, come, give me your hand…to bed, to bed, to bed.” This again makes her speech sound jumpy and implies to the audience that she feels insecure and that her emotions are an uncontrolled wreck. All she can think of now is the night of the murder and this leaves her confused and vulnerable. The repetition used in the line: “come, come, come…” could indicate that she is frustrated and is confused, but this could also just mean that Shakespeare phrases the words more than three times, so that the actor can address the audience on all three sides of the stage.
The fact that Lady Macbeth doesn`t realize she is being watched by the nurse and doctor gives us a clear insight to what other people think of her strange behavior. I think that this is where the audience might be slightly disappointed that she`d blown her cover and that she was facing this terrible meltdown. The doctor says “remove her from the means of all annoyance,” which basically means anything she could use to harm herself should be removed. This shows us how the doctor knows she is facing psychological malfunctioning and that she could be very dangerous in the way that she might be capable of seriously harming herself.
Personally, I think Lady Macbeth deserved her downfall at the end of the play. I believe that this was her punishment for being so greedy and selfish and for also dragging other people into her selfishness and yet all her greed earned her nothing. She had now lost her relationship with her husband, she lost all of her royalty and she just had to live the rest of her life with the guilt growing inside her. It seemed that the only way she could find peace was “by self and violent hands,” to kill herself…
