For the play to be a true tragedy the main character has to have a flaw, Macbeth is no exception. Macbeths' fatal flaw is his 'vaulting ambition'; this is what pushes him on into Duncan's chamber and even Banquo recognises it when they come across the witches, 'look how our partner's rapt'. Lady Macbeth acts upon his fatal flaw and spurs him on, and even mocks him when he falters, ' art not without ambition'. In the letter, that Macbeth wrote he addressed her as, 'my dearest partner of greatness', and possibly an indication of the influence Lady Macbeth already exerts on his life. Lady Macbeth appears to become the corporeal catalyst for the predictions, the witches may plant the seeds of dreams, desire and destiny, but it is the unstinting allegiance and support of the single-minded Lady that finally persuades Macbeth into committing an act of regicide. 'The persuasion scene' Act 1, Scene 7, Macbeth's soliloquy clearly shows that he is struggling with his conscience, 'as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself'. Shakespeare uses this soliloquy so that the audience can see Macbeth has a conscience, but is also easily led by the powerful Lady Macbeth.
In using the adjective 'vaulting' the playwright personifies ambition and manages to externalise Macbeth's fatal flaw. This allows the flaw to become more real and palpable for the audience. In the end he can only come up with a reason for killing Duncan and it his 'vaulting ambition'. As soon as Lady Macbeth enters Macbeth tries to show defiance to her strong persona; 'we will proceed no further in this business'. He attempts to put his foot down, but Lady Macbeth berates her husband for his lack of conviction. She questions his love for her; she mocks him, saying 'was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?' Saying that he is less than a man, and calls him a 'coward'. This line also personifies hope, indicating that Macbeth had previously given her a reason to hope for him to become king. She uses a lot of rhetoric when first addressing Macbeth, she bombards him with questions, making him feel less of a man for saying he will not kill his king. She plays upon his mind very cleverly; her vernacular is very 'basic'. She gets to the point using blunt and shocking language, 'dashed the brains out', whereas Macbeth uses euphemisms, 'I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat'. Lines 60-72 shows Lady Macbeth describing her plan, which in itself is a subtle form of persuasion. Since she almost laying down what they are going to do and Macbeth has no chance to make objections against the plan. This indicates Macbeth to be the weaker person at this stage.
On receiving word from Macbeth of his great success and his subsequent meeting with the, 'weird sisters', their prophecy and its partial fulfilment, Lady Macbeth's mind is instantly engaged by murderous ambition. She is also aware that her husband, despite his heroic exploits on the battlefield, 'is to full o'th' milk of human kindness', to exploit the situation. Macbeth has already dismissed the thought of claiming the crown by perfidious means, 'if by chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir'. However the impending visit of Duncan offers the perfect opportunity, 'to catch the nearest', to dispose of Duncan. She is prepared to sacrifice everything, even her femininity, to fuel her murderous intent. The Lady pays little thought to future repercussions, as she invokes the spirits to assist her. She wishes for the inner strength of man as she invites the spirit to ' unsex me here', removing her feminine guile, so she may be possessed with man's ability to perpetrate evil. She may think that she could not cope with the treacherous acts that would have to be committed to secure the throne for Macbeth. So she has to summon supernatural forces to enable her to do what she is preparing herself for. I believe Lady Macbeth's flaw is Macbeth himself, he is an externalisation of her psychological flaw which is shown later in the play. For it was him that had talked to her previously about becoming king, giving her hope: 'Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself'.
For a Lady to summon these spirits she may already be mentally unstable. I believe Shakespeare is hinting at this fact and gives us insight into what she will eventually degenerate into. The language of Lady Macbeth in her demonising soliloquy indicates the deeds that have to be done would not be sanctioned in the depths of hell: 'Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, to cry 'Hold, hold'. Shakespeare gives Lady Macbeth such harsh language so that the audience immediately recognises that she is an unstable, but strong character in the play.
Before Macbeth goes into Duncan's chamber he sees an imaginary dagger. The dagger is an external representation of Macbeth's inner ambition. It leads him slowly towards the king's bedchamber, leading him towards his goal. The use of the dagger is for the audience, the effect of externalising his ambition in the form of a dagger is screaming to the audience that he will perform his task. Macbeth's opening rhetorical question, 'Is this a dagger which I see before me' is followed by 'come, let me clutch thee'. By addressing the dagger as 'thee' he is personifying the dagger, as though he is trying to touch his ambition, he is accepting his task. The following rhetorical questions highlight his inner turmoil within this soliloquy, almost question his own sanity. As he gets closer to Duncan's room his vernacular becomes more violent, 'blood', 'wicked', 'witchcraft'. This type of language is very similar to Lady Macbeth and the witches, relating Macbeth to them hints as to what will become of him in later stages of the play. It also shows that the witches and Lady Macbeth are indeed external manipulators. In line 52 of Act 2, Scene 1, Shakespeare personifies murder, 'thus with his stealthy pace, with Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design moves like a ghost', I think it is strange for the playwright to personify murder in something that is already dead. This may suggest that a murdered person will return to stalk the person that had killed them. The last three lines of Macbeth's soliloquy heighten tension, 'I go, and it is done: the bell invites me, hear it not Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven, or to hell'. Although the line is referring to Duncan it is also reflected upon Macbeth, because if he does the right thing and walks away he will go to heaven. But if he does murder Duncan then he will go to hell himself. This scene shows the last few moments of innocence for Macbeth before he commits the murder. This is the moment that is the beginning of the end, even though the tragedy began infinitely before this point. It is also near to this point that the first sign of Lady Macbeth's frailty appears. Just before Macbeth comes back with the daggers she says 'Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't'. It is not clear whether this is just an excuse or a sincere comment. Shakespeare has created brilliant suspense and stagecraft.
In Act 3 Macbeth is now on the throne of Scotland but is envious of Duncanfor 'Duncan is in his grave…nothing can touch him'. He is now becoming ever more paranoid, 'if I stop now, for Banquo's issue have I filled my mind'. That 'prophet-like they hailed him father to a line of kings, upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, and put barren sceptre in my gripe, thence o be wrenched with an unlineal had'. He is starting to concern himself with the witches' prophecies that Banquo would be the ancestor to a line of kings and Macbeth would not. 'To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus' is Macbeth's main worry, to be king is not enough, but to be a safe king is all that matters. At the moment Banquo is the way of Macbeth. To emphasise the importance of this scene where Banquo is killed, Shakespeare uses prose instead of the usual blank verse. This underlines the scene, it also sees Macbeth speaking in prose, suggesting that he has come down to the same level as the common murderers. The audience would soon realise the different speed of which the lines are being spoken and would identify that this is a pivotal moment in the play because it has been marked in this way.
Macbeth tells his wife to pay special attention to Banquo at the evening's banquet. He tells her she should be 'innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed'; he will not disclose any more of his plans to his wife. We begin to witness a dramatic change of roles. As Macbeth seizes control of events, Lady Macbeth begins to echo Macbeth's earlier anxieties, she warns him to 'leave this'. Shakespeare now begins to give Macbeth the vernacular that was more common to Lady Macbeth's evocation of the evil spirits and the witches at the start of the play. At a time when Lady Macbeth yearns for love and support from her husband, he embarks on matters far more important to him than offering her the support she craves, 'tis safer to be that we destroy, than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy'. From this statement in her soliloquy her mind is clearly depredating. The fact that she dare not say this in front of Macbeth also says something about her. She is still being the supportive wife to Macbeth, but she is keeping her problems inside her, not sharing them with him and she is also taking on his problems at the same time. She is overloading herself and only the audience will know this. They will also now begin to see far more clearly that Lady Macbeth is starting break underneath the strain of her conscience. The audience will be moved to feelings of pathos and catharsis towards Lady Macbeth because they can see she is under a great deal of pressure, yet she is still hiding underneath her 'false face'. Sigmund Freud's theory relating to a growing amount of psychological pressure and not releasing this pressure by talking about your problems is directly linked to Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare came to this conclusion hundreds of years before Freud, and he displayed his knowledge within the character of Lady Macbeth.
In Act 4, probably the most murderous act that Macbeth has committed is spoken in a great deal of prose, which is mostly spoken by Lady Macduff. This again underlines the scene and tells the audience it is an important part to the plot of the play. In Scene 1 Shakespeare has created a build up to Macbeth's entrance. The witches anticipate him, creating an enormous amount of tension within the audience, because they know that the witches' are using him as a puppet. Macbeth then plays directly into their evil grasp and his 'scorpion' filled mind reads the witches' prophecies in his own way. The witches are now toying with his decaying mind. He becomes alarmed and agitated when he sees the procession of kings and as a result his language becomes far more fragmented and incoherent. This reflects the growing inner turmoil in his mind.
Before Act 5, Lady Macbeth's mind has decayed quickly, 'Noughts had, all's spent' here she is saying that nothing is gained and all is lost. To have such great burden upon her conscience would have broken her from the inside out. It was clear that she was straining under pressure of her own conscience as well Macbeth's from well before this point. In Act 5, Scene 1 her vernacular is chaotic and agitated. She does not make any sense to the doctor or to the lady in waiting, Shakespeare does this to show the audience her state of mind her delusion, degradation of mind is so great she is sleepwalking. It is ironic because earlier in the play Macbeth said that 'Macbeth shall sleep no more'. Everything Macbeth had feared now rematerializes in her. All the sins of their murderous past are being revisited upon the lady; it is as if she has become the conscience of their union, allowing Macbeth to carry on his murderous reign unhindered. During her sleepwalking she revisits past events, 'you mar all this with your starting'. As though her mind has taken in too much evil deeds and is overloaded. The playwright has shown in his writing that Lady Macbeth cannot cope with these events, her speech displays her guilt. During her discourse she uses rhetoric, 'what, will ne'er be clean?' she is asking the audience for an answer in desperation. The audience at this point will feel a great deal of pathos for Lady Macbeth because the foul deeds have finally passed over into her innocent sleep. She mentions Banquo, her subconscious knows that Macbeth has murdered him but perhaps her conscious self does not, 'He cannot come out on's grave' referring back to when Macbeth saw Banquo's ghost in the banqueting hall, although she is also trying to reassure herself that the dead cannot harm her. Totally out of context she says 'hell is murky', this reflects her state of mind, and may also to point where she thinks she will go. Lady Macbeth also writes a small note, we never find out what it says, but I presume it was something about her guilt. The note is an externalised form of her guilt. Shakespeare uses prose in this scene to heighten the feelings of pathos from the audience, and also displays the dramatic descent that her character has undergone.
During most of Act 5 Macbeth remains publicly defiant for the most part holding onto the witches' words. Privately though he reveals that he has 'lived long enough' and has 'supped full with horrors' on hearing of his wife's untimely demise. 'She have died hereafter', which his as much a reflection of her life as it is of his. He then thinks about the futility of life, 'a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more'. Shakespeare uses Macbeth's thoughts on life as an extended metaphor, 'it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound of fury, signifying nothing', this quote sums up his views of life. He realises the ephemeral nature of life, but it has become too late to change. The audience should feel a sense of pity for Macbeth for all he has seen and committed. He has no wish to 'play the Roman fool' which is one last stand against life. Bringing more pathos from the audience. His wife may have played the 'Roman fool' but he was not about to follow her path. At the time of Macduff's confrontation Macbeth's demise is now in sight. The audience can see this and sympathise with Macbeth, which is the key ingredient to a tragedy.
In examining the facts before me I believe that Lady Macbeth suffers greater tragedy than Macbeth does. She suffers far greater inner turmoil than Macbeth. It is not until after Lady Macbeth has died does Macbeth finally begin to show signs of repent and guilt. Penny Woolcock's 1996 adaptation of 'Macbeth' supports my views; she also saw that it is Macbeth that is her fatal flaw. Shakespeare makes sure through his language, that the audience feels the suffering of the main characters; he exploits language well in order to heighten tension.
