At first, Macbeth felt he had no reason to kill King Duncan, because of the witches’ prophecies which stated that in the future, he will become king. "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir." However, when Lady Macbeth found out about the prophecy that stated that Macbeth will become king, she immediately felt reason to murder him. "Is too full o' the milk of human kindness" shows that Lady Macbeth considers Macbeth to be a "wimp," and that she’ll have to do this all by herself. "Leave all the rest to me" clearly states that Lady Macbeth takes control over Macbeth’s thought which was not to kill Duncan, for he found no reason to. Lady Macbeth continues to convince and persuade Macbeth into her "plan" which is to kill King Duncan. Macbeth agrees to follow Lady Macbeth’s thoughts and kills King Duncan. He regrets his actions afterward, which is proof that he never was willing to kill him in the first place.
Macbeth has become deeply involved with murder, and eventually kills several others. This is proof that Lady Macbeth has transformed Macbeth into being a greedy, coldhearted human being, by saying things such as "Are you a man?" She undermines his masculinity, to make him feel at fault, and have it her way. Eventually, Lady Macbeth is driven to Madness by the guilt she holds on her shoulders, and ends up committing suicide. If it weren’t for Lady Macbeth, Macbeth would have never killed anyone.
One of the main characters in the Shakespearean play Macbeth, is the wife of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a very two sided character in this play. She consistently acts differently when she is with her husband than she does when she is not. There are various examples of this exhibitied in the play.
One of the most notable examples of this is contained in Act I Scene v when Lady Macbeth reads the letter written to her by Macbeth. Shortly after reading it, she makes the comment that she feels Macbeth is too kind to murder Duncan and that he will need her help, strength, and willpower to commit it. However, after she hears that Macbeth is returning home, she calls upon evil spirits and other demonic entities to give her some aid. She does this because she realizes that she doesn’t have the strength of will to persuade Macbeth into murdering Duncan after all. Then, when Macbeth arrived, just after she finished praying for help, she acts as if she has a heart of stone and that Macbeth is not a man if he is afraid of killing Duncan. This is a prime example of her deception towards him, and how she acts differently when she is alone than when she is around him.
Another example of her being two sided is the role she talks about playing in Duncan’s death, and the role that she actually does play in it. There are a few times in the play, mostly when she is attempting to persuade Macbeth into committing the murder, that she says he should just leave the murder to her. Throughout the play she gradually decreases her role in the murder until it becomes Macbeth’s job to kill Duncan, not hers. This is another very large trick on her part, but one that Macbeth also fails to see;
Whether it is because he chooses not to, or because he is too naive to realize it.
The last noteworthy example of her inconsistency occurs between Act I Scene vii and Act II Scene ii. In Act I Scene vii she severely scolds Macbeth for having second thoughts about committing the murder. She tries to get rid of his rational thoughts by saying that he must not really love her if he can change his mind on the murder, which she says he promised her he would do. She then says that if she promised him something, even if it was as awful as killing her newborn babe, she would do it. Despite the fact that he never made such a promise, he once again fails to realize that she is lying to him.
She then continues by making fun of him until she has weakened his position on the subject and he finally agrees to her plan. However, in Act II Scene ii, when she is alone, she makes the statement that she would have killed the sleeping Duncan had he not looked like her father. This just proves that she isn’t nearly as strong and as evil as she pretends to be around Macbeth.
It is easy to see how two-sided Lady Macbeth is. When around Macbeth she seems to have no emotions, but when she is alone with the audience it is quite clear that that is not really true.
Macbeth is a basically good man who is troubled by his conscience and loyalty though at the same time ambitious and murderous. He is led to evil initially by the witches' predictions and then by his wife's goading, which he succumbs to because he loves her so. His obsession over the kingship shows a certain kind of egotism.Lady Macbeth is a good wife who loves her husband. She is also ambitious but lacks the morals of her husband. To achieve her ambition, she rids of herself of any kindness that might stand in the way. However, she runs out of energy to supress her conscience and kills herself.
