This shows us that Lady Macbeth craves to be filled with evil so that she will not be filled with guilt when she commits the murder. She wants her blood to be “thickened” so that she has the courage to carry out the task of killing the King. Lady Macbeth also asks them to remove “the milk in her breasts” and to replace it “with bitterness and hate”. This is another example of her wanting her feminine qualities to be taken away.
She says “come thick night”, showing that she wants the night to cover the actions of Macbeth and herself killing Duncan.
“That my knife see not the wounds it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark to cry ‘hold, hold!’ ”.
This shows us that she is worrying about killing Duncan and that she knows it is wrong, as she does not want “heaven to peep through” to see her do the deed and possibly prevent her from doing it. By this point in the play I feel no sympathy towards Lady Macbeth, because she shows herself to be ruthless and manipulating in her quest for her husband’s power. However she does show some remorse as although she wants her husband to be king, she does not really want to commit murder in order to achieve this.
When we first encounter Macbeth and Lady Macbeth on stage together, Lady Macbeth is the first to speak, greeting her husband by praising him:
“Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,
Greater than both, by all-hail hereafter,
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel know
The future in an instant”
Lady Macbeth greets her husband by saying that “Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor” which shows us that she thinks that his titles are good but they are not as good as King. She also states that the letter has enabled her to behold the future that awaits them.
Lady Macbeth then reveals her intentions of killing Duncan to Macbeth:
“O never shall sun that morrow see”
This suggests that Duncan should never see the light of day again, which means that she plans to kill him that night.
She then carries on, saying:
“Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
Your hand, your tongue; look like th’ innocent
Flower
But be the serpent under’t”
This shows us how ambitious Lady Macbeth is as she doesn’t let her husband say his thoughts on the matter but tells him how to act whilst greeting Duncan. Shakespeare metaphors to display how Macbeth should act, Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth to welcome Duncan into the castle with open arms and be polite, but yet be cunning in his mind.
Lady Macbeth then tells Macbeth to leave “the night’s great business” to her and she will take control of the matter. Macbeth’s reply is that “we shall speak further” proving that he is still unsure about killing the king.
At the beginning of act one scene six, Duncan has just arrived and Lady Macbeth greets him with a great deal of respect, she tells him what is ours is yours.
She is acting as the perfect hostess and as an “innocent flower” just as she told Macbeth to be. She is being polite towards Duncan as she calls him “majesty”. Macbeth was there to greet the king so the scene ends with Lady Macbeth leading Duncan by the hand to go and look for him. This scene increases my lack of sympathy for Lady Macbeth, as she has a two sided personality; “the innocent flower” while being “the serpent under it”.
At the beginning act one scene seven, there is another soliloquy where Macbeth is wondering whether to commit the murder or not, he considers the consequences of the murder:
“First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door”
Here Macbeth singles out the reasons he should not kill Duncan. He believes that because he is Duncan’s subject and that Duncan has praised him recently he should not kill him. Macbeth does not want to kill Duncan but his wife is about to change that.
When Macbeth breaks the news to her that he does not want to kill Duncan and “we will proceed no further in this business” she get very angry. She begins to challenge Macbeth’s masculinity, his love for her and his strength in character.
Macbeth never mentioned the killing of Duncan, but Lady Macbeth asks him “was hope drunk?” which means where you drunk when you promised me that you would kill Duncan.
“From this time such I account thy love”. In this quotation, Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth did he always love her, or was his love false like his decision to kill Duncan.
Macbeth shows a sign of weakness when he replies “I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none”, which shows that he wants peace for the night.
Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth with an aggressive speech
“When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than that what you were, you would
Be so much more than man”
This quotation insults Macbeth’s masculinity, she says that when he said he would kill Duncan he was a man, and if he was to kill Duncan he would be even more of a man.
“I have given suck to, and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me-
I would while it was still smiling in my face
Have plucked my nipple from its boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you
Have done this”
This quotation is one of the most graphic and emotional in the whole play. It demonstrates Lady Macbeth’s love for husband as she says she would rather dash her own child’s brains out, rather than break promise she made to her husband.
At this stage in the play I still have little amount of sympathy for Lady Macbeth, as she isn’t showing any for her husband, she is pressurising him into killing the king. Also the king’s arrival does not give Macbeth a lot of time to consider the consequences, such as treason.
In Act two scene two, Lady Macbeth delivers another soliloquy; Shakespeare uses bird imagery to indicate when Duncan will draw his last breath. Shakespeare compares an owl to the fatal bell man, who is ringing for Duncan’s death.
She admits that she needed a drink to calm her nerves, and she drugged the king’s guards so that she can frame them for the king’s murder, “that hath made them drunk hath made me bold”. This also adds to my lack of sympathy towards her as she is going to blame to innocent servants just so she can pass the blame onto someone else.
After the murder takes place, Shakespeare uses short sentences to create tension between Lady Macbeth. She unconcerned about the murder whereas Macbeth has instant regrets, he calls the murder a “sorry sight”. Lady Macbeth “a foolish thought, to say a sorry sight”. She does not fell any sympathy to the killing of Duncan.
Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to:
“Get some water and wash
This filthy witness from your hand”
This shows us easy she thinks it is to get away with the murder, as all Macbeth has to do is wash the blood of his hands and no one will know it was him.
She tells Macbeth not to worry so much about the murder, “Consider it not so deeply”. This is another example of how little sympathy she has towards her husband.
“These deeds must not be thought after these ways, so, it will make us mad”.
This is very ironic as she goes on to lose her mind and eventually kills herself.
She realises that Macbeth has brought the daggers back with him and this makes her mad, she refers to Macbeth as being weak minded and says that she doesn’t see the dead or sleeping as a threat to uncovering the truth.
Lady Macbeth shows no sympathy towards her husband and ever after the murder she insults him.
In Act two scene three Macduff finds out that Duncan has been murdered, she acts shocked “what, in our house?”
Macbeth’s reaction is very different as he says a long speech which is strange. The speech was because of nerves and it is not something people do when they find out someone has been murdered. She realises this and faints to draw attention away from herself.
In Act three scene one, we learn that Macbeth has become king. With his new found power he no longer needs her assistance with major decisions, such as the murder of Banquo.
At this part in the play I start to fell more sympathetic towards her, as she and Macbeth are starting to drift apart.
In Act three scene two, Lady Macbeth wishes to speak to Macbeth. Lady Macbeth shows him that she is still there for him even though he made decisions without her opinion.
Macbeth admits to his wife that his mind is filled with the thoughts about Banquo, and how he should dispose of him “O full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife”. She replies “what should be done?” which shows us that the power in the relationship is his. As Lady Macbeth has no control of his actions, Macbeth is now compelled to do evil deeds.
I feel sympathetic towards her at this point because her husband is not sharing his thought and actions with her anymore.
We do not here of Lady Macbeth in the whole of Act four, the next time we hear of here it is in Act five. In this scene we see Lady Macbeth go from a powerful woman with ambitions, to a broken and pitiful woman. She has become mad like she said in act two scene two.
She realises that the washing of the blood from Macbeth’s hands was not the simplest ways of getting away with the murder. Her own “bloody mission” led to her own death.
In the end Lady Macbeth died a lonely woman she was there for her husband when he needed her the most, and when she needed his assistance he was nowhere to be seen.
By the end of the play I feel a lot of sympathy for Lady Macbeth as she supported her husband and when she needed him most he was not there to help her.
