“I would while it was smiling me in the face have plucked my nipple from hi boneless gums, and dashed the brains out” here she compares her womanliness to her husbands manliness.
Lady Macbeth has no concept of failing. When Macbeth asks, “if we should fail” her reaction is “but screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep… his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince, Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason a limebeck only” she is arguing with Macbeth and has come up with a plan to plant the blame of the murder on the chamberlains. “What cannot you and I perform upon Th’ unguarded Duncan”. She sees herself as clearly playing a role in the murder of Duncan and she is very convincing to Macbeth that they are right to precede in killing Duncan.
Act 2 scene 2, the influence of alcohol has made her “bold” but still at this point she is nervous. When she hears Macbeth return she is concerned that he has not been successful stating: - “Th’ attempt and not the deed confound us” this shows her lack of confidence in her husband. She clearly shows her first obvious sign of weakness, “had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t”. Therefore the seeds of her own downfall are clear because she does have a conscience, which is a prohibitive force. But still at this stage she is chastising, determined and scornful of her husband who fears he will loose the gods blessing because of his actions. She tells him, “consider it not so deeply” “these deeds must not be thought” this shows she is keeping determined at any cost.
Lady Macbeth believes her husband’s guilt can easily be erased: - “go get some water, and wash this filthy witness from your hand”.
When Macbeth refuses to go back to the murder scene, Lady Macbeth responds, “Give me the daggers” she feels “the dead are but as pictures” to her. She feels no guilt or fear while Macbeth remains conscience-stricken.
“A little water clears us of this deed”. She has no care for the villainous of the deed they have performed. However, these feelings change and this comes back to haunt her in her acts. She continues to organise him after the murder, “get on your nightgown”.
All her characteristics to this point show that she is selfish because only wants him to kill Duncan and become king because she wants to become queen. She is superstitious, like when she has to call upon the spirits. She has no care for his husband and tells him what to do frequently. She is almost like a ‘control freak’. After she has called upon the spirits, her attitude and thoughts become very manlike. Such as she has no guilt or conscience.
At the start of act 5 scene 1, Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking. In this generation sleepwalking was a sign of a diseased mind. The letter Macbeth sent to her in act 1 scene 5 haunts her mind, “I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night gown her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, write upon’t, read it, afterwards seal it… yet all this while in a most fast sleep” her actions clearly mimic that of the first letter.
The rubbing of her hands, is her trying to rub off the blood on her hands. The blood on her hands is metaphorical. It represents her guilt. She starts to describe her own guilt and speak about the murder of Duncan, “fie my lord, fie! A soldier and afeard” “yet who would of thought the old man to have so much blood in him”. She is now beginning to reveal Macbeth’s and her crimes (killing Duncan and Banquo) to the doctor. This is most feared by Macbeth because it makes his title as king insecure.
Her guilt is now clear, “heres the smell of the blood still, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” this phrase is similar to that of Macbeth’s, “Will all the great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand”. Also when she says to Macbeth “a little water will clear us of this deed”. Then she starts to recite conversation she has had with Macbeth previously in the play, “I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried: he cannot come out ones grave”. The conversations where she has been the brave figure, but now she is weak and riddled with guilt.
Act 5 scene 3, the doctor reports to Macbeth that he is, “not sick, my lord, as she is troubled with thick – coming fancies that keep her from rest” Macbeth responds “cure her of that” notice how he cares less for her now. His guilt has now become her guilt. Macbeth does not understand the implication of her guilt, believing it would be easy to, “pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow” and “cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous shift which weighs upon her heart”
Act 5 scene 5, Macbeth hears the cry of Lady Macbeth committing suicide. Lady Macbeth went from being normal to being overcome with selfishness and greed to become queen. She called upon the spirits to take away her feminine qualities, which made her wicked and cold hearted. She manipulated her husband and persuasively more than once changed his mind on killing Duncan. Her guilty conscience grew more as Macbeth guilty conscience grew less. Eventually her guilt was too much and this lead to her death.
