In Act 1 Scene 6, Duncan arrives at the castle to visit Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth goes down to the door to greet her guest and acts with the upmost kindness and politeness, that no one could ever imagine she was the person behind the plan to murder the king “Against those honours deep and broad wherewith, your majesty loads our house.”.
In Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth delivers a soliloquy speaking about his thoughts and doubts about carrying on the murder of King Duncan. He says how can I murder him now when he has just been honouring me for my bravery and loyalty, “He hath honoured me of late”. Lady Macbeth then enters the room questioning Macbeth on what is wrong with him, when he then shares his decision not to kill King Duncan with her she asks him how can he changes his mind now when the plan is nearly in action. Upon hearing this Lay Macbeth goes into a rage saying things to Macbeth about him not making sense. Lady Macbeth goes on and convinces her husband to murder Duncan by belittling him and making him feel as though if he didn’t go through with the murder he wasn’t man enough for her “And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.”. She also says that if it was her and she had promised to kill her own child, then she would have gone through with murder of the child and stood by her word. Lady Macbeth also calls him a coward and says that he should want to achieve his ambitions and become king. She also reassures him that they won’t fail “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place and we’ll not fail.” because they are going to make sure the guards do not suspect them by getting them drunk and then putting the blame on the guards.
In Act 1 we learn a lot about Lady Macbeth’s character, for instance she must love her husband a lot to plan to kill another person so ha can achieve his ambitions. She is also not a gullible person as even her servants must prove every piece of information they share with her, she is a very determined woman, who is always finding ways to get what she and her family want. Lady Macbeth is also a very false person as she can put on an innocent act in front of Duncan even though she plans for him to be dead by the next day. She can be a very persuasive character as she always manages to get Macbeth back on track of the plan to murder Duncan when he is wavering or against the decision.
In Act 2 Scene 2, is when are next greeted with Lady Macbeths presence on stage. In this scene the murder of Duncan has already been carried out and we learn about Lady Macbeth’s reaction to this. At first Lady Macbeth reacts as though the murder has not been carried out “Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, and ‘tis not done; th’attempt and not the deed;” this is because she doesn’t think her husband has gone through with it. Once her husband returns and confirms that he has gone through with the murder. On hearing this Lady Macbeth’s reactions change completely, when her husband asks her did she hear anything she refers to owls screaming and crickets crying which her both noises associated with death. When Macbeth goes on to tell her about him not being able to say amen she simply says don’t consider it too much, “Consider it not so deeply.”. Lady Macbeth then realizes Macbeth has failed to leave the daggers beside the guards and his brought them with him. She then tells him to bring them back and leave them beside the guards; he then refuses saying he cannot face what he has done. Lady Macbeth then snatches the daggers off him and says she will do it herself and leaves. When she returns she says they just need to wash the blood off themselves and get too bed before someone awakens.
In Act 2 Scene 3, this scene begins with Macduff and Lennox coming to Macbeth’s home to call on King Duncan they knock and they stand for a short time talking to the porter who comes to let them in. They then continue into the castle grounds and meet Macbeth and enquire about the king, Macbeth then says he will show them to his room and tells them to follow him. Macduff comes out of his room and informs them the king has been murdered. The news of King Duncan’s death spreads throughout the castle and Lady Macbeth then appears. She acts absolutely oblivious to the situation and puts on a false act of innocence by saying how dreadful it was and that she can’t believe it was in her house “Woe alas, what, in our house?”. As they men all talk about what they should do and how to go about spreading the information of the king’s unfortunate death. Lady Macbeth then falls to the ground as though she has fainted and asks for help just beforehand, this is because she must act shocked by King Duncan’s death and she believes this is how to do this “Help me hence, ho.”. Lady Macbeth then exits the stage helped.
In Act 2, we learn about Lady Macbeth’s belief or rather lack of belief in her husband as shown in scene 2 when she doesn’t believe her husband could have carried out the murder. Lady Macbeth also shows that she doesn’t care about the fact the have murdered someone as she says a little water would clean away everything that happened that night and she doesn’t show any signs of guilt or remorse whatsoever.
In conclusion I agree with the statement the Lady Macbeth is ‘fiend-like’, this is due to the fact that in the first two acts she shows so much evil and dark sides of herself that it takes over any nice things about her like the way she loves her husband so much. I think she is very determined but in an evil way and also very false and not even remotely feminine, because she shows no compassion or gentleness. This makes me strongly dislike her character in the play.
