Lady Macbeth is the one who first gives Macbeth the courage to kill Duncan. With her strong will she can assure Macbeth that the plan will succeed. She is so determined because her ambition to become Queen is far greater than of Macbeth’s to become King. Her change of character is apparent from the letter she receives from Macbeth. As she knows that even herself cannot be that inhuman she asks the witches to take away her femininity by saying, “come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts. Unsex me here and fill me…full of direst cruelty.” She on her own plans the murder and takes full responsibility of this. She is in control as she doubts Macbeth would do anything about it, or have the courage, ‘Yet do I fear thy nature: It is too full o'the milk of human-kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great: art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.’ Her determined attitude shows her confidence in her words, this is what makes Macbeth act on. As you think she cannot be human she shows a little bit of humanity when she almost acts out the killing of Duncan herself but cannot as he resembles her “father as he slept.” As she is in control at the beginning it shows she has not really realised the full effect of what she has done and therefore oblivious. She shows how together she is when the murder is discovered. Macbeth acts far too open and obvious but her quick thinking by fainting takes his limelight away.
He has a conscience throughout the whole play, this is shown when he has hallucinations of the dagger and his fear of when Banquo’s ghost appears to him. He is very insecure and shows this when he has Banquo and Lady Macduff’s children killed. His insecurity is again shown when he kills the guards so no one might remember him being there the night before. The play shows he is very superstitious which brings out his evil side as he believes the witches which are associated with evil meaning that Macbeth has an evil side. Macbeth can be summarised into a character who is physically strong yet mentally weak and this causes his downfall and his change of character. He has a good side because he needs to be pushed to killing Duncan but his strong minded wife , his ambition and trust in the witches contributes to his evil character.
By the end of the play, Macbeth has brought death and destruction to his country. Despite all this he has good qualities, he is courageous, and loyal by identifying right and wrong. He does not want to kill Duncan as ‘First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.’ He also loves his wife although how he shows it is bad. Lady Macbeth also shows some goodness, she is very loyal to her husband and feels guilty once she sees the body of Duncan, which also shows her human feelings. She wants to be unsexed which can be seen as good and bad. She shows that she is not ‘upfront’ enough to do the deed, which is good but she wants to be and that shows she is evil. Macbeth shows his evil side, and becomes obsessed with being incontrol but he is really being paranoid and that is what gives him away. Where, before he was king, Macbeth was acting according to his ambition, by the beginning of Act III he is fighting for survival. He realises that he has come too far and killed too many people to turn back: "I am in blood Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o'er."
Over the play the Lady Macbeth and Macbeth swap characters. Macbeth is mentally weak yet Lady Macbeth is mentally strong. This changes. At first Lady Macbeth is in control and can make Macbeth catch evil like the flu as she says “The illness should attend it.” Macbeth has a conscience until the middle of the play when he becomes uncontrollable whereas Lady Macbeth does not until the middle. It may be right to call Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, ‘The Dead Butcher and his Fiend-Like Queen’ but at the beginning they were normal respected people with an ambition. They were maybe not so evil after all as Macbeth still needed to be pushed to kill Duncan and Lady Macbeth needed to take away her femininity. By the attempted kindness of sparing Macduff his life, and the courage he shows by fighting to his death, we see that Macbeth is not a butcher, but a good man with the tragic flaw of ambition.
It is clear by their behaviour that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not evil. Lady Macbeth's obvious suffering and regret, shown by her sleepwalking and suicide, and Macbeth's fighting to his death, like the fearless soldier in the first Act, prove that Malcolm's describing them as "this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen" is unfair and inaccurate.
