Macbeth was unaware that he had been made Thane of Cawdor earlier that day. Lady Macbeth who her husband calls her ‘My dearest Partner of greatness’ knows that for Macbeth to become King he will have to change his nature. ‘Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th milk of Human kindness’. It is at this point in the proceedings that Lady Macbeth decides that she will have to be the strong one and plots a path for success for her husband. ‘Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top full of divest cruelty! Make thick my blood stop up the access and passage to remorse, that no compuctious visiting of nature shake my fell purpose.’
She calls up evil asking that’s her blood should become thick to stop her feeling any remorse and asking that her sex taken away so that she will not display any weakness. At this point we wonder whether she is desperate to be Queen or whether her calling up of evil is to support her husband in what she now feels is his destiny
Act 1 Scene 7 is a key scene for examining Lady Macbeths character. She knows that for her husband to become King she will have to instil evil into him and goad him ‘What beast was’t then that made you break this enterprise to me? And 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 plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done this?
Again we see the power of Lady Macbeth over her husband, she makes him feel guilty she knows how to target his weak points to cause him to continue with his plans. This is certainly a display of evil by Lady Macbeth but her motive appears more to be to instil in her husband the killer instinct and the absolute resolution he will need if he is to achieve the destiny the witches have foretold.
Act 2 scene 1 sees Lady Macbeth intoxicated in her own power ‘That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold what have quenched them hath given me fire’ but this statement is tempered when she also say ‘ I laid the daggers ready he could not miss em. Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t. Which means that she couldnt kill Duncan as he looked like her father. This shows a very human side of her nature, but the evil façade of her comes back when Macbeth returns from killing Duncan with blood still fresh on his hands obviously shaken by the whole experience. She says to him ‘My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.’ Again she is putting on a strong front encouraging her husband not to be frightened because she isn’t.
Lady Macbeth shows her loyalty to her husband in act 2 scene 3 when under question from Macduff, Macbeth becomes a little jittery and Lady Macbeth feigns a faint and takes the heat off him. She is an excellent actress.
Act 3 scene 1 sees a change in the relationship between Lady Macbeth and her husband. Macbeth without encouragement or help from his wife plans the murder of Banquo.
Act 3 scene 2 ~ Macbeth has become bold and almost patronising when he says to Lady Macbeth ‘Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck, till thon applaud the deed.
The Banqueting scene sees Macbeth given the news that Banquo is dead as he had planned.
Lady Macbeth has to pull all of her strength and resources together in this scene as the ghost of Banquo visits her husband.
‘Thou canst not say I did it: never shake thy gory locks at me’ exclaims Macbeth but Lady Macbeth excuses his behaviour with ‘sit worthy friends: My Lord is often thus, and hath been from his youth.’ She again takes control of the situation and this could be perceived as either she is trying to hide the guilt in a fiendish way or could it be that she is protecting her husband standing by his side loyally.
When Banquos ghost appears for a second time Macbeth becomes more agitated ‘Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold : Thou hast no speculation in those eyes which dost glare with!’
Drawing upon her strength Lady Macbeth says ‘ I pray you speak not, he grows worse and worse: question enrages him, ‘At once good night stand not upon the order of your going but go at once’ and she dismisses the gathering and protects Macbeth from revealing his guilt.
By Act 5 scene 1 Lady Macbeth is beginning to feel the strain – she is having difficulty sleeping, she starts to sleep walk and is heard saying ‘Heres the smell of the blood, still : all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand, Oh Oh Oh!, She is displaying deep remorse and guilt in her dreams and yet a fiend feels no remorse? There is no doubt that Lady Macbeths conscience is making her ill
In act 5 scene 5 Lady Macbeth kills herself , she does this because she knows her secret is out, but given the nightmares she has been having earlier on in act 5 it is clear that she can no longer live with her guilt. Her nights bring her no peace, and the days are even worse, and finally she can take no more.
In conclusion it is clear that Malcolm feels very aggrieved at the death of his father but he is exiled to England following the death of Duncan and only returns to the action after the death of Lady Macbeth. He does not, as the audience do, witness the tortured soliloquies of Lady Macbeth which reveals her ordinary vulnerable humanity as she declines to an early death, apparently suicide ‘she as tis thought, by self and violent hands took of her life’
This is evidence that Lady Macbeth is very ambitious for her husband and this leads her to encourage Macbeth into doing evil deeds. She does not murder anyone.
She developed the murder plan and perhaps she was ambitious to Become Queen however to be fiendish is to be without remorse and Lady Macbeths remorse and guilt are clearly seen over and over again, Lady Macbeth was not a fiend, her flaw was her ambition
