This mirrors the ambiguous sexuality of the witches themselves. It is as if, at this level of evil, one abandons being either male or female – one is a neutral ‘it’.
Lady Macbeth starts to make plans of Duncan’s death; she predicts that Duncan will never see another day’s sunrise,
“Shall sun that morrow see!”
“But be the serpent under’t”
Lady Macbeth is very persuasive while Macbeth is anxious of what the consequences will be,
“If we should fail –”
She tells Macbeth that without evil, he cannot achieve his ambitions.
This, in my opinion is the beginning of the downfall of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
Later on in act 1 – scene 7, we see that Macbeth has changed his mind. He no longer wants to be part of the evil that Lady Macbeth foretold,
“We will proceed no further in this business.”
Macbeth states that he is thought of too highly by Duncan to do such a deed,
“He hath honour’d me of late”
This angers Lady Macbeth,
“Was the hope drunk?”
She therefore attacks her husband exactly where she knows it will hurt: his courage and manhood are at stake,
“And live a coward in thine own esteem?”
This is also a big influence to Macbeth’s downfall because she basically dares him to commit the murder, using words that taunt rather than persuade. Lady Macbeth is very forceful and she explains how far she would go to get what she wants. She makes the point that she knew the joy of being a mother, and would have given that up for Macbeth to be king. She uses terrible, violent imagery as a shock tactic:
“I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you.”
It is Lady Macbeth who plans the murder,
“When Duncan is asleep … his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince … what cannot you and I perform upon the unguarded Duncan?”
In a way, I believe that Lady Macbeth wanted her husband to prove to her that he was a man. This is another serious part of Lady Macbeth’s responsibility for both of their downfalls. After the murder, Macbeth says,
“Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep.”
This means that never again will Macbeth or his wife have any rest. Lady Macbeth takes charge of the situation,
“A little water clears us of this deed.”
By this, we can tell that Lady Macbeth did not take the killing to heart. She merely only thinks of the physical side and not the mental side if killing the king.
We feel that during the start play, Lady Macbeth is very domineering and she has more power than Macbeth, but the power switches. Their marriage becomes less trustworthy because Macbeth sends murderers to kill Banquo, Lady Macduff and Macduff’s son. Lady Macbeth has no part in this.
After seeing the witches the first time, he returns again and sees them. They make a spell and Macbeth sees the three apparitions. An armed head who warns him of Macduff, a bloody child who tells him that he cannot be harmed by one ‘born of woman;’ and a crowned child carrying a tree who guarantees Macbeth’s safety:
1st apparition:
“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff; Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.”
2nd apparition:
“Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”
3rd apparition:
“Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.”
Macbeth is constantly relying on the witches prophecies. The witches predict that Macbeth would ask about his future and they give him three apparitions. These apparitions convinced Macbeth that this was his fate and he became over confident, and this lead him to his death.
Later on, Lady Macbeth completely gives the story of Duncan’s death away as she is being watched in her sleep,
“Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?”
When Macbeth kills Duncan, immediately after, he feels deep sorrow. But later on in the play, he does not care about it. Whereas with Lady Macbeth, immediately after the murder, she feels no remorse. But near the end of the play, in Act 4 – scene 5, Macbeth is told by Seyton that Lady Macbeth has committed suicide,
“The queen, my lord, is dead”
This proves that the murder actually drove her to her own death. But Macbeth’s reaction is not very shocked because he saw it coming,
“She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.”
In conclusion, I do feel that Lady Macbeth is deeply responsible for her own and her husband’s downfall. This is because, whenever Macbeth is tempted to do any evil, Lady Macbeth drives him to go on and do it. Also, she is practical – she plans the details of the murder – and she has the future worked out. She is pre – eminently cunning.
