In the sleepwalking scene, while Lady Macbeth sleepwalks she gets up and writes something on a piece of paper. It could be a letter, but it’s more likely to be a confession of guilt because she can’t tell anyone while she’s awake, so she gets it off her chest in her sleep. She washes her hands and it’s not with water, it’s more like rubbing. “Out, damned spot!” Lady Macbeth is washing her hands as she does after they kill Duncan. She’s trying to wash the blood off her hands and rid herself of guilt. She’s reliving the night of the murder because she’s repeating everything that she said. “Look not so pale.” She hears the knocking again as she did on the night as well. “There’s knocking at the gate”. Its as if she’s stuck reliving the night because she knows what she has done is wrong, and is not allowed to be guilt free until she shows remorse. This pitiful scene creates sympathy for Lady Macbeth as she is trying so desperately to rid herself of guilt, but knows that “this little hand” will never be clean. On the other hand, you may feel that she deserves it and Shakespeare does this to show how this is how she should have become for what evil deeds she has committed. Although her husband murdered King Duncan, Shakespeare maybe feels that since she had such a big part to play in it, that she should be feeling the guilt. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth is seen as the criminal mastermind behind the killings and also as an evil villain. At the end peoples views change, as they start to develop a degree of sympathy due to her mental state deteriorating.
After the killing of Duncan Macbeth is feeling very guilty and Lady Macbeth uses calming words to make him feel as though he has done no wrong, "A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then!” This makes her seem as though she is proud of her husband, but yet still keeps her very carefree attitude towards the deed. She says "A little water clears us of this deed" As though murdering someone is simple washed away with the blood. Ironically, she later shows that the guilt cannot be washed away so easily and while her husband continues on his one-man campaign of terror she dwindles into a pitiful woman who ‘is consumed with guilt’.
In her soliloquy, Lady Macbeth is weak and begs the spirits to take over her. Although this is a bad thing, sympathy kicks in. Lady Macbeth has to stoop so low to get what she wants that the audience is horrified at what she is becoming. This comes after Macbeth’s battle, between Scotland and Norway, where he fights so well, and captures the thane of Cawdor who was a traitor to King Duncan. He then meets three witches. Lady Macbeth’s anxiety and naivety takes over her and plots to kill King Duncan. Her ambitious nature, which turns out to be a bad thing, also makes you sympathise with her. She wants her goodness to be replaced with evil and this seems desperate. “And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full”. The pun on “crown” meaning head and also regal ornament shows that she is imagining her money, wealth and her status. So the word play shows her innermost desires, and the driving force behind her actions. She compares her body to an empty cup. First thoughts may be that she is doing it all for the good of her husband, Macbeth, but then again she could be selfish and just wanting to be higher up in the hierarchy and more popular and wealthy.
During the banquet scene you feel sorry for Lady Macbeth as the scene marks the final emotional and spiritual separation of Macbeth and his wife. Macbeth was a potentially great man at the beginning of the play and it’s part of the tragedy that he’s fallen so morally low since that time, and yet it’s ironic that he has considered himself to raise in his position in the world. Although Lady Macbeth has also risen, emotionally and mentally she is suffering an extreme downfall. You can either feel sympathy for what she has become and that she has lost control of her husband and her dream, or you can feel spite towards her. During the banquet scene, although Macbeth is a more marked example of playing a part, Lady Macbeth is actually more adept at this type of pretence. She seems warmer, friendlier and more genuine in welcoming their guests than her husband. Then Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost. Lady Macbeth is forced to excuse her husband’s strange behaviour, her explanation, “my lord is often thus,/And hath been from his youth.” This appears more plausible stated by her, than the same excuse, worded differently and stated later by Macbeth. You may be able to sympathise that her husband has taken over from what she wanted, and she has finally given up, or you can see that she deserves it, and has not just taken her down, but her husband also.
When Lady Macbeth first enters the play, the relationship between her and her husband is strong but it shows that she is the dominant one. We can tell this by they way she orders him around and blackmails him into doing things for her benefit. Towards the end of the play Macbeth has become more dominant and is more in control of what he does. The news of his wife's death sets him back "I have almost forgot the taste of fears", For what he fears is of course true and so he goes on to say "She should have died hereafter; there would have been such time for such a word" meaning that although he upset about the death of his wife there is no time to grieve over her, because he had to fight for the battle she started for him. He is emotionally dead and he lost her a long time before her death, anyway. His response to her death may make the audience feel pity for her because no one else does.
Lady Macbeth was seen as a strong, manipulative and brave character we see this in the text where she "Give me the daggers" this is seen that she takes them from him to wash away the deed that she blackmailed her husband into doing. She goes on "'Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt". This shows her bravery because although she manipulated her husband into doing the deed she is prepared to pick up the pieces and clear up after him. The last thing lady Macbeth says in the play is "To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, give me your hand; what's done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed." This is the audience start developing a degree of sympathy towards Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare is portraying her as weak, suicidal and highly guilty for the deaths that she provoked her husband into.
Lady Macbeth is a very important character as without her the plotting and planning to the take over of kingship Macbeth would be a thane still. Macbeth was always motivated by what his wife told him, and so she if to blame for the way her behaves.
In seventeenth century life women were seen, as far from equal to men, so Lady Macbeth's role was very hypercritical and yet still so strong. Shakespeare created this character in a way to stand out, and show people that women are just as powerful as men. You can feel compassion for Lady Macbeth as her wildest dreams, which seemed almost impossible for women in the era were almost complete. The only thing that stopped her was here cowardly husband and her emotional instability. Without her the play would just be about a psychological study of a murderer's mind, but with her we also see the consequences of inviting evil into your soul and them not being able to control it.
