“Lady Macbeth is a character who deserves no sympathy” To what extent do you agree with this view?
In the play Macbeth, we see a very complex character, in the figure of Lady Macbeth. She changes throughout the play, first being a cruel and controlling woman, planning the murder of King Duncan, however we then see her suffer from guilt and later depression .This proves she regrets her and her husband’s actions. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are initially a team yet the ambition for power takes over. During the time when the play was written and along with when the play is set (11th/12th century) to kill the king was ultimate sin as of the Divine Right of Kings this was an encouraged belief. Guilt overtakes Lady Macbeth and she becomes weak and soft hearted. So when we think about her, we think of a cruel and evil woman who becomes a distressed victim. The audience, in my view, should consider the reasons for Lady Macbeth’s actions and have sympathy for her. However they should deliberate over her previous malicious activities which she participated in early on in the play.
When we first meet Lady Macbeth in Act 1 scene 5, we see a supportive side to her. She shows that all she wishes for her husband is happiness; Lady Macbeth knows that her husband wants to be king so becomes determined to see his dreams be fulfilled, letting there be no limits to what she is willing to do. Lady Macbeth does tell Macbeth "There shall be done a deed of dreadful note. Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” Sympathy should be given to lady Macbeth for her actions in this scene. . Lady Macbeth then becomes entranced and enraptured by the way he wrote about the witches, “Thane of Cawdor, by which title, before these weird sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with `Hail King that shalt be”. The first half of the prophecy has already come true, and Lady Macbeth is in a hurry to make sure the second half comes true too. This line that Shakespeare has used states that Macbeth is going to be the next King. As she reads on Macbeth then says, “Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full o'th'milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way”. This means Macbeth will let chance and fate decide what happens and try not to get involved and interfere. But Lady Macbeth does not see this way as she sees it as an opportunity to take the crown and believes that Macbeth will do this for her. Shakespeare also shows through out the play that when Lady Macbeth is foul, Macbeth is fair, and when Macbeth is foul, Lady Macbeth is fair. Here we see that Lady Macbeth is foul as she is so desperate to have power.
