She gives us the impression that after the murder is done, there would be no more said about it therefore she could lead a peaceful and content life as the Queen of Scotland. At this point, we hear Macbeth speaking from within the chamber in an anxious manner. Lady Macbeth is startled and at once feels uneasy as to what might have come about. She worries that someone may have seized Macbeth in his path, and that they will be discovered and sentenced. She then states, “Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ‘em. Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” Here, she is again scalding Macbeth, because she believes him incapable of carrying out the murder successfully. She is extremely unstable and agitated at the start of this scene and therefore is also very jumpy when she speaks. This is important since in Act 5 Scene 1 where she is mad, she speaks in a similar manner. She then goes on to say that if Duncan had not so greatly resembled her father, she would have committed the murder herself. From this, we learn for the first time that Lady Macbeth does feel some emotion. It shows us that perhaps she is not quite as strong as she appears, and that she feels some compassion. This is also a contradictory term, since in Act 1 Scene 5 she summoned the evil spirits to take her compassion away so that she would feel no remorse, yet it seems as though this did not happen.
Macbeth then re-enters, having done the deed. He pronounces that the murder was accomplished but tells his wife of the strange noises that he had heard while he carried it out. The conversation between the two shortly becomes agitated and jumpy, telling us that both must be on edge and afraid. Macbeth proclaims that he is terrified of what he has done; yet Lady Macbeth says he is foolish to think so. Macbeth is very alarmed and does not seem to stop explaining about certain voices that he claimed to hear. Lady Macbeth persists with reassuring Macbeth and telling him that he should not think so highly of it. She then states, “These deeds must not be thought after these ways; so it will make us mad.” This is a highly significant quote since here Lady Macbeth is prophesising her own future, where in fact this very same prospect brings about her own insanity.
After noticing that Macbeth had unintentionally carried away the daggers with him, Lady Macbeth orders him to go back and return them at once. He is weak and afraid, therefore refuses to return. He informs his wife that she must go back and replace them since he could not bare the sight of it again. Lady Macbeth is appalled by his behaviour and chastises him for being so timorous. She then states, “The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures; ‘tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal; for it must seem their guilt.” Here we realise that Lady Macbeth is not at all prepared to see the sight of Duncan’s dead body since she states, “..if he do bleed..” meaning that she is expecting there to be very little blood, if any at all. “The sleeping and dead are but as pictures;” tells us that her expectations of what she might see are the same as that of a sleeping man, which will not be the case whatsoever. “ ‘Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil.” From this we can see that Lady Macbeth is labelling Macbeth cowardly, since she compares him to a child. She becomes distressed and must take over in the situation, so that they may not be discovered.
When she returns, Lady Macbeth’s hands are as bloody as that of Macbeth’s. Yet she does not seem to show any regard to this as yet when she states “A little water clears us of this deed; how easy is it, then!” This is a crucial statement since later on in the play she becomes crazed with washing her hands because she always senses blood to be on them. She seems to think that once the evidence of blood is washed away, her and Macbeth could finally be able to live a peaceful life as king and queen and she should never have to remind herself of the blood that once stained her hands. In spite of this, her very own prophesising statement later becomes her path to death. After hearing knocking at the gate, Lady Macbeth and her husband quickly retire to bed, so that they are not seen still up at the late hour.
The next morning Lady Macbeth enters just as the murder is uncovered. She is cunning in the scene and manages to keep calm very well, whereas Macbeth is greatly apprehensive. He behaves abnormally in the presence of his friends and as he produces such an elaborate speech, Lady Macbeth feels that her husband may unintentionally reveal the truth. She therefore must step in, to prevent them from being discovered. In this situation, she must take control and therefore she creates a distraction, to take attention away from Macbeth’s evident uneasiness. She does this by fainting at a convenient moment where Macbeth is in danger of giving them away. By doing this she not only diverts attention from Macbeth, but also makes herself out to be a delicate woman who shouldn’t hear about murder. Attitudes towards women in the Elizabethan times were very different, since women were looked on as the weaker sex and certainly would not be involved in an aspect such as murder or death. This way, Lady Macbeth shows herself to be weak at the thought of murder, even though we know that this is not the case.
Act 3 Scene 2 is where we first learn that after the murder all has not been well in Lady Macbeth and her husband’s relationship, as we see their bond begin to deteriorate. Lady Macbeth believes that Macbeth is continually living with thoughts that should have died when Duncan was killed. They communicate poorly and we learn that they rarely see each other. Even though he does not completely reveal his intentions, Macbeth has his hopes set on murdering Banquo and Fleance. He does not make this known to Lady Macbeth; hence it reflects their poor relationship and lack of communication. Lady Macbeth believes that he has gone too far and is obsessed with murder. As a result she feels that she can no longer control him, and that their relationship has fallen apart. This is important since Lady Macbeth and her husband used to have a very strong bond and would scheme everything together. After all, in Act 1 Scene 5, Macbeth calls his wife “…my dearest partner of greatness…” in his letter.
The final scene in which we observe Lady Macbeth before she goes insane is Act 3 Scene 4. This is the banquet scene, yet this is probably where she gets driven to the point of her final madness, since she is so unable to cope. Lady Macbeth and her husband play the welcoming hosts so that they may appear sincere and noble. This is where Banquo’s ghost appears and Macbeth begins to act most oddly. The guests are bewildered and start to take their leave, presuming that the king is unwell. Lady Macbeth again finds herself in a situation where she must cover up for her husband, so that he does not give their story away. She announces to the guests that her husband is but having a momentary fit, since it is a regular occurrence. Here she had to once again think on her feet, and yet again cover up for Macbeth even though she herself did not understand what he was doing. She takes him aside, and taunts him of being foolish while putting great pressure on him to keep calm while in the presence of the guests. When they return to the table, Macbeth visualises the ghost again, however he begins to shout strange remarks that relate to death and murder. This is where Lady Macbeth feels that she can no longer cope with the responsibility of covering for her husband, but at once orders the guests to depart since she claimed that the king was not well. Lady Macbeth had now lost all virtue to challenge Macbeth and no longer had the strength to carry on repressing hid mistakes. I believe that this is the last point at which Lady Macbeth attempts to conceal the truth. I regard her as extremely weak, and I feel that she is no longer the brave, strong character we first meet.
When they are alone, Lady Macbeth and her husband altercate about the night, but it is obvious that Lady Macbeth has given up on all hope that they might keep their story secret. She can no longer follow her husbands thoughts, and it is obvious here that her relationship with Macbeth is at an end.
Act 5 Scene 1 is the scene in which we last see Lady Macbeth. It is highly important since in this scene we can observe her insanity and collect good convincing evidence as to what drove her to this madness.
The scene is opened by Lady Macbeth’s gentlewoman and a doctor discussing her ill state. Through their text we learn that Lady Macbeth has been acting bizarrely in her sleep and that the gentlewoman has called on the doctor, so that he may witness her condition. The gentlewoman claims to have seen and heard Lady Macbeth doing strange things in her sleep. However she will not tell the doctor what she has heard since she could be accused of treason, therefore they wait till Lady Macbeth repeats her routine sleep walk. The gentlewoman does however state to the doctor that she has witnessed Lady Macbeth doing the most peculiar things while asleep. She states “I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon herself, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it,
write upon ‘t, read it, afterwards seal it, and again
return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.” This idea of the letter is very significant since it can represent what may be trying Lady Macbeth’s mind so to the point of insanity. We never find out what the letter may be, but we can presume that perhaps she might be writing to Banquo, or to the family of Macduff warning them for their safety since Lady Macbeth can now no longer stop her husband from committing more murders. Although it is possible that it may also relate back to the letter she received from Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 5, which first planted the prospect of murder in Lady Macbeth’s mind.
At this point Lady Macbeth enters the room sleepwalking, carrying by her side a candle. The doctor questions as to why she carries this light by her side and the gentlewoman explains that Lady Macbeth demands to keep it by her side. This shows us that maybe she has become afraid of the dark or that she doesn’t want to feel alone in the darkness. This is also vital since darkness represents evil and all bad elements. She feels she must keep light near her in order to rid her of any ‘bad spirits’, even though in Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth herself called on the bad spirits to rid her of her compassion so that she may be able to commit the murder.
The doctor then observes that Lady Macbeth persists in rubbing her hands, and gentlewoman confirms that washing her hands is something she has repeatedly carried out each night. Lady Macbeth states “Yet here’s a spot.” and “Out damned spot! Out, I say!” She does this while continually rubbing her hands and we can now see that she is crazed by the imaginary sight of blood on her hands. She then states “One; two: why, then ‘tis time to do ‘t.” This idea links back to where Lady Macbeth rang the bell in the castle as a signal telling Macbeth that all was clear for the murder to go ahead.
She is extremely agitated and jumpy since her words are very muddled. Her mind is insane and no longer logical; therefore her text makes no sense since with each statement she has skipped to a different notion. She then goes on to say “Fie, my lord- fie! A soldier, and afeared? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?” Here, she is linking back to the scenes in which she was determined to persuade Macbeth to commit the murder. This was where she was telling him that he is cowardly and not courageous enough to commit the murder. She assures him that no one will question them on how they gained their power. However she then states “ Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” This is a notable statement since in Act 2 Scene 2, she states “ If he do bleed, I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal…” This shows us that Lady Macbeth didn’t expect there to be so much blood at the scene of the death.
She then goes on to say “The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?” Where she refers to “The Thane of Fife”, she is in fact talking about Lady Macduff who had been recently murdered under Macbeth’s orders, of course these are orders that she no longer participates in, and has no control over. Ultimately, the way she says this short statement is as if it were a nursery rhyme, making her mind look as though it is almost as a child’s now. She also states “No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’ that…” Here she may be referring to the many times Macbeth almost gave their story away through his speech, and this was her reaction each time where she had to make a diversion or cover up for his mistakes. Her mind is evidently jumpy, since her next comment refers back to the imaginary blood on her hands, which she cannot seem to rid from her mind. She progresses this idea when she states “Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh! Oh! Oh!” This is an example of a hyperbole, where she claims that even all the perfumes of Arabia could never rid her hands from the smell of once stained blood. The blood she can continually see is a sign of her guilt, since in Act 2 Scene 2 she had said to Macbeth “A little water clears us of this deed; How easy is it then!” Yet this very prospect drove her to insanity.
The doctor is completely bewildered and claims that Lady Macbeth’s case is too far beyond his practise, and seems very afraid. Lady Macbeth continues and states “Wash your hands, put on your night-gown; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ‘s grave.” She is first referring to the scene of the murder where she had to take control of Macbeth in his unable state, then to the banquet scene where she had to calm her husband. Her last statement is “ To bed, to bed: there’s knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.” She refers back to the murder scene where herself and Macbeth must hurry to bed, since they heard knocking at the gate. Macbeth was unable, and she had to direct him to bed so that they were not discovered. She tells him that they cannot undo what they have already committed.
This is the last time we see Lady Macbeth, since she then returns to her chamber still rubbing her hands in her deep trance. The doctor and the gentlewoman claim that she is in a far too mentally ill state and they feel that she will not be cured.
I believe that Lady Macbeth has changed mostly in a way that she has become obsessed with the prospects of murder that on the night she was herself reassuring Macbeth about. He was weak and unable to commit the murder, yet now he is cold and Lady Macbeth cannot stop his obsession for murder, even though she forced him to commit the first. At the beginning, Lady Macbeth was strong, and most probably in control of the relationship, whereas now she cannot cope and is crazed by the prospects that she herself labelled as cowardly. She can no longer take control, since she has undergone so much of it to try and keep their truth secret. My attitude towards her changes very much since she is not the same person at the end of the play. Her character dramatically changes throughout the play, in many different stages and she results in a weak, unable wife at the end; compared to the strong, scheming leader first introduced to us as Lady Macbeth at the beginning of the play.
