Overall, Lady Macbeth’s power decreases as the play progresses. Her function is to push Macbeth into action at the beginning of the play, act as his partner in crime for the middle section, but then lose her mind as the inevitability of Macbeth’s fate approaches. The nature and tone of the language and imagery that Shakespeare writes for her reflect this.
Lady Macbeth has begun sleepwalking because her conscience weighs too heavily on herself. She tells about her crimes and the murder of the king, unaware that her doctor and waiting woman are watching her. She later dies, possibly from suicide. The doctor and the waiting women observe lady Macbeth as they try to figure out what is wrong with her “
This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their beds.” This quote shows that the doctor is speaking in a very puzzled manner, as he try’s to come to some conclusions of what is happening to lady Macbeth.” She has spoken what she should not, I am sure of that: heaven knows what she has known.” This is when the waiting women decides that she is speaking the truth.
The audience would, I think, have felt sorry for Lady Macbeth. They have just shared with the Doctor and the Gentlewoman their witnessing of Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and they also would have found the change in this strong, proud woman hard to bear. She is a soul in torment; she cannot come to terms with what she has been involved in and what she has witnessed. The audience would, I think see her as quite a pitiful individual, so unlike her previous self. It is strange that Macbeth gets increasingly ruthless as the play goes on, coping better and better with the wicked deeds that he does, whilst his wife copes less and less well with what the couple have been involved in, finding sleep - what she has called ‘the season of all natures’ - eludes her.
The scenes in Act 5 show a marked contrast. We learn that Lady Macbeth is in a sleepwalking trance. We see that in her sleep she writes a letter. Could this be a guilty confession? She rubs her hands as if to try and remove the blood left from the murder. Her language is disturbed and reflects the horrific events that have taken place the murders of Duncan, Banquo and Lady Macduff.
The Doctor gives the Gentlewoman these instructions concerning the treatment of Lady Macbeth, at the end of Act 5 Scene 1. He has witnessed Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and her extreme mental distress and he has just admitted that he cannot help her in practical terms, what ails her is beyond his medicine. In those days doctors struggled to cope with physical disease, mental problems were things that were totally beyond their competence.
The audience would, I think, have felt sorry for Lady Macbeth. They have just shared with the Doctor and the Gentlewoman their witnessing of Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and they also would have found the change in this strong, proud woman hard to bear. She is a soul in torment; she cannot come to terms with what she has been involved in and what she has witnessed. The audience would, I think see her as quite a pitiful individual, so unlike her previous self. It is strange that Macbeth gets increasingly ruthless as the play goes on, coping better and better with the wicked deeds that he does, whilst his wife copes less and less well with what the couple have been involved in, finding sleep - what she has called ‘the season of all natures’ - eludes her.
The Gentlewoman is told that Lady Macbeth must be kept quiet and calm, nothing must be done to disturb her and she must be watched at all times. There is here, I think, a suggestion that the Doctor fears she might try to take her life, which later Malcolm tells us is what she has done.
If I was to present this scene to a modern audience the film woulds be made up of single- shots, with which the audience becomes the witness. Almost all the dialogues lack music playing in the background, all that remains are words. Both Lady Macbeth, whom many consider tamer and softer than usual, and Macbeth are much younger than tradition goes. Lady Macbeth is an ambitious woman who rules her husband with her sexual power and whose strength shatters when she witnesses the disastrous outcome of her plans. The reason she is portrayed would be a mystery which maked the film more effective Lady Macbeth would be presented as a very nagging person . But people who do ghastly things in life, they are not grim, like a horror movie.
