“Your hand, your tongue; look like th’innocent flower,
But be the serpent under’t”
When Duncan arrives at the castle, Lady Macbeth appears to be a very welcoming and charming hostess and her flattery hides her intentions.
In Act1, Scene 7 Lady Macbeth’s true character comes to light and we see that she taunts and accuses Macbeth of cowardice. The way that she treats Macbeth in this scene contradicts the fact that she was a very supportive wife to start with. She taunts his strength and even accuses him of not loving her enough. Macbeth saying that he doesn’t want to kill Duncan makes Lady Macbeth very angry and she says that he has broken a promise and also that she would sooner kill her own baby that break a promise; feelings that very few women have. Lady Macbeth seems to manipulate Macbeth’s feelings very easily and it is obvious that she has a very big influence on Macbeth, and eventually, Macbeth decides to kill Duncan.
Even though there are many events which support the fact that Lady Macbeth is the villain of the play, in Act 2, Scene 2, we see that she is not as tough and as strong as she shows;
“That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold;
What hath quenched them, hath given me fire.”
This shows that Lady Macbeth had to have a drink to calm down and to make herself brave as she keeps on hearing noises in the night and she is convinced that they are the screams of Duncan, when in fact they are owls. When Macbeth returns from Duncan’s room with two daggers she fears that he has not committed the murder and then she says that she could not have committed the murder as Duncan looked too much like her father! Neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth think straight in this scene, but it is Lady Macbeth that decides to return to Duncan’s room with the daggers and put them next to the guards to ensure that their plan goes as they intended. This could be her way of helping put the murder to a complete close and to ensure that they do not feel guilty. Lady Macbeth then plans an alibi and tells Macbeth that she does not feel guilty. The enormity of his crime grows along with the confidence of Lady Macbeth which could be a sign of worse events to come.
When news of Duncan’s murder goes around the castle, Lady Macbeth again acts well in the defence of herself and Macbeth by covering up her guilt and knowledge of what’s happened by fainting in order to draw attention away from Macbeth as not to give too much away. The fact that Lady Macbeth is a consummate actress creates a feeling of insecurity in my mind as whether to trust her or to doubt everything she does, which I am sure is a feeling felt by any reader or audience of the play.
The fact that Lady Macbeth is the villain of the play so far is somewhat changed when we reach Act 3, Scene 1 when we see that Macbeth plans to murder Banquo. This murder goes underway without Lady Macbeth finding out which could then support that Lady Macbeth is not the villain of the play and the only reason that she planned the murder of Duncan as a way to fulfil her husband’s one and only ambition to become King. Macbeth shows that he is for once in complete control and that he is killing Banquo from his own choice, and is not being urged to do so by anybody else.
Lady Macbeth appears to be a very supportive and loyal wife in Act 3, Scene 2 where we see that Lady Macbeth helps Macbeth to overcome his feelings of guilt and insecurity.
At the banquet, Lady Macbeth again proves to be a very good actress as she welcomes the guests with a friendly smile and she then covers up Macbeth’s strange behaviour with a convincing story. When Macbeth starts to see the ghost of Banquo sitting next to him, Lady Macbeth reassures him that there is no ghost and then she covers up for him so that the other guests do not view his actions as strange or suspicious;
“Why do you make such faces? When all’s done
You look but on a stool.”
The way that Lady Macbeth acts on several occasions shows that she is capable of hiding her real feelings which could have lead to the events later on in the play.
The next time that we meet with Lady Macbeth is in Act 5, Scene 1 where we see that she is very ill and sleep walking. Lady Macbeth shows great feelings of remorse which shows that maybe she is not the villain of the play. Whilst asleep, Lady Macbeth re-enacts the night of Duncan’s murder through washing her hands in the air and talking;
“Out damned spot! Out, I say!”
Her words echo events of the past and this shows that she is permanently thinking of the murders that have taken place. Her caring and supportive manner comes through in the way that she speaks in her sleep and this would again support that she is not the villain of the play. At the end of this scene her true guilt and the fatality of her illness is expressed when the doctor tells Lady Macbeth’s gentle woman to take away any objects which she could harm herself with as he fears that she may commit suicide, this fore-warning does indeed occur later on. In Act 5, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth does actually commit suicide, this is true evidence that Lady Macbeth could not live with the guilt of what has happened and her unhappiness;
“The queen my lord is dead.”
The news of Lady Macbeth’s death brings great sorrow upon Macbeth and this makes him realise the futility of his life. This would say that he loved Lady Macbeth and that maybe she wasn’t the pushy and cruel wife that she appeared to be.
I conclude that Lady Macbeth was not the villain of the play because she was driven to suicide by the actions of her husband’s actions which she realised were wrong as soon as they were carried out. She did not take part in any of the murders she was merely the instigator of one. The fact that she could not bare to live any longer due to being over come with remorse makes me think that she obviously felt sorry for what happened and that she could not be a villain if she realised the serious nature of what happened as many people do wrong but do not realise that it was wrong. I think that the reason that she planned the murder of Duncan was to fulfil her husband’s ambition and to become queen, a title which she did not feel greatly any way.
