Later on in the play in Act1 Scene7, Lady Macbeth tries to persuade Macbeth to murder Duncan. She constantly accuses Macbeth for being a coward who won’t do what he has to do to get what he wants: “Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour, As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem”- in this sentence Lady Macbeth clearly show that she is trying to make Macbeth think that he has to do this. She continues to accuse him of being a coward by giving examples: “Like the poor cat i’th’adage”- the cat in the adage wanted to eat fish, but didn’t want to get its feet wet. She doesn’t just accuse Macbeth for being a coward but also that he had made a promise to make himself King, and that if she had made a promise like that, even to kill her on baby, then she would do it: “while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done to this”. This is another part that shows Lady Macbeth is pure evil. She also persuades Macbeth by saying: “From this time, Such I account thy love”- in other words Lady Macbeth accuses Macbeth for not loving her, just because he will not murder Duncan.
Later on in the (same scene) Macbeth has been persuaded a little into murdering Duncan, so he questions Lady Macbeth on how her pan will work. She says: “Will I with wine and wassail so convince That memory, the warder of the brain, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep Their drenched natures lie as in a death, What cannot you and I perform upon Th’unguarded Duncan?”-she explains that she will get the guards drunk so they don’t know what is going on, and when they’re asleep they will go and do what they like to Duncan, and blame everything on the servants. Again Shakespeare does not use the word murder, instead he uses the word: “perform”, this makes the play a little bit more interesting. In this scene Shakespeare has shown that Lady Macbeth has planned the murder out really clearly. Not only does she persuade Macbeth in this scene, she also encourages him: “screw your courage to the sticking-place”- she encourages Macbeth by telling him to be really brave. This is the first sign that Lady Macbeth has shown of being considerate in the play. During the conversation in Act1 Scene7 Lady Macbeth could have been persuading Macbeth in many ways- she could have been very emotional and be concerned that Macbeth is a coward (as in Roman Polanski’s ‘Macbeth’), or she could be talking in a raging voice- as if she is really insulting him angrily.
In Act1 Scene7 Lady Macbeth manages talk Macbeth into murdering Duncan. After the murder Lady Macbeth and Macbeth meet again in Act2 Scene2. In the beginning of this scene Lady Macbeth is alone and she does a soliloquy, here is a parts of it: “That which hath made them drunk, hath made me bold”, Lady Macbeth has had a little bit of the wine that the guards drank, she had drunk it to keep her brave meaning that Lady Macbeth wasn’t not have been all easy with the murder.
In the same scene (after Macbeth comes) Lady Macbeth explains she would have done the deed herself but couldn’t because Duncan resembled her father: “Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t”. This shows that Lady Macbeth is not very strong in controlling evil like she said in Act1 Scene5.
Macbeth explains that Malcolm and Donalbain were praying in the next room and that they had said “Amen” at the end but Macbeth could not say it. To this Lady Macbeth comforts him by saying: “These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad”- in other words she is telling Macbeth not to think about the murder or it will make him mad. This is a sign of caring shown by Lady Macbeth to Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth realises that Macbeth had brought the guards’ daggers (which were used to murder Duncan), Lady Macbeth asks him to go and put the dagger away and smear blood on the guards’ faces, so everybody will think the guards murdered Duncan. But Macbeth says he won’t go back into Duncan’s chamber. So Lady Macbeth goes in place of Macbeth to put the daggers back. When Lady Macbeth has gone Macbeth says: “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand”. But when Lady Macbeth returns her hands have blood on them to, but she says: “A little water clears us of this deed”. This shows that Macbeth is taking the murder hard on himself and that Lady Macbeth is not worried as much.
In Act2 Scene3, when everybody has found out that Duncan has been murdered, Lady Macbeth pretends she has just got out of bed. In the scene Lady Macbeth faints: “Help me hence, ho”. She could have fainted outside Duncan’s room or inside it. If she had fainted inside it then there could be two explanations. One of the reasons could be that she was pretending to make herself look innocent, which is the most obvious reason. The other reason could be that she really did faint, she could have really fainted because she hadn’t seen Duncan’s dead body before but when she does see it now she finds it intimidating.
After Duncan’s murder Malcolm and Donalbain run away to England because they fear that they might be murdered next. Since Malcolm, the prince of Cumberland, so everybody makes Macbeth King. Macbeth fears that Banquo suspects Macbeth for the Duncan’s murder, since Banquo was the only person who was present with Macbeth when the witches made the prophesy about Macbeth becoming King. Macbeth sends people to go and kill Banquo and his son (because the witches predicted that Banquo’s son would be King). Macbeth does not tell Lady Macbeth about his plot to eradicate Banquo; this shows that Macbeth has changed. Macbeth was very terrified when he murdered Duncan and he had wished he had never done it, but now he already planning his next massacre.
In Act3 Scene4 Macbeth has a banquet. During the banquet he start seeing Banquo’s ghost. Macbeth starts shouting and screaming at everybody whenever he sees the ghost. Lady Macbeth tries to keep the lords thinking that they have got a bizarre King. She tries to keep everybody calm by saying that Macbeth is usually like this and that there is nothing to worry about: “Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom. ‘Tis no other”. This shows that Lady Macbeth doesn’t what Macbeth to be thought as a strange King.
In Act5 Scene1 Lady Macbeth is mentally ill and a Doctor of Physic, and a Gentlewoman are observing what she does. Lady Macbeth wakes up in the middle of the night and reads a letter: “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”. Lady Macbeth had also ordered her servants to have light lit all around her: “She has light by her continually, ‘tis her command”. Lady Macbeth also says: “Yet here’s a spot” and “ all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”. Obviously Lady Macbeth is remembering her past experiences. When she had ordered light by her continually she is frightened, she asked the darkness to come and take over her in Act1 Scene5, but now she wants there to be light. In Act 2 Scene2 she had said that a little water will clean the blood but now she still ‘sees’ the blood, meaning that she feels totally guilty. She also uses the words: “ little hand”, this makes the audience feel sympathy for her. In Act 5 Scene1 Shakespeare has cleverly made the audience feel sympathy for her that was really well done.
Soon after this scene Lady Macbeth kicks the bucket. So Overall Lady Macbeth is somewhat good. In the beginning of the play she thought she could control evil, but later on in the play she gets really scared of evil. I haven’t once heard Lady Macbeth say that she would be Queen. She always said that Macbeth would be King. This could mean that Lady Macbeth could have done the whole thing just because she wished the best for her husband, which is a good thing.
