The Character of Lady Macbeth.

Introduction

Act 1 scene 7 is very important in the whole of the play because the string of murders started here, and what Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wanted to do was accomplished. This was the scene in which Macbeth became King and the original King (King Duncan) was murdered. Before this scene what had happened was that King Duncan came to Macbeth’s castle and there was a great banquet. Lady Macbeth had played a part of a man instead of Macbeth because Macbeth was worried about the murder that he was going to commit. This scene was the most dramatic out of all the scenes because Macbeth had/was going to kill King Duncan.

The Character of Macbeth

The scene opens with the solitary Macbeth wrestling with his thoughts of murdering the king, and he seems to be losing to his conscience. We know this because first he is ok with the idea of murdering Duncan but then he says to his wife: “We will proceed no further in this business. He is also saying that if everything could be over with as soon as Duncan is killed then he will commit the murder and we know this because he says: "If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done quickly.” This shows us that there is a side of Macbeth that doesn’t want to commit murder, but there is also a side that does, and the side that does want to commit the murder was created by Lady Macbeth. He is bothered that Duncan is his kinsman and that the execution would take place at Inverness when he should be serving as the king's kind host. He also reckons with Duncan's virtues: his kindness and his success in his position. He knows that the people support Duncan and will weep his loss and this tells us that he may be changing his mind. He ends his soliloquy by stating that only "vaulting ambition" makes him consider the evil deed; he has no complaint against the king, which makes the murder seem doubly vile to him. He is obviously vacillating between good and evil. The audience would react differently to how Macbeth is like now because in this scene he is not represented as a power-hungry and heartless butcher, and this is because he says that he doesn’t want to murder Duncan but is forced into it. The audience don’t know quite how to react because sometimes Macbeth is evil but sometimes he is good. The motivation behind Macbeth’s words and actions is that he doesn’t want to murder the king because he feels that he hasn’t any complaint against the king so the murder will be pointless.

The Character of Lady Macbeth

In this scene lady Macbeth is angry and is insulting and we know this because she says things like: "Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since?" and she also says that if he's going to go back on his word, he doesn't really love her, and he's a coward, no better than the “poor cat i' the adage,” who wants a fish, but doesn't want to get its feet wet. Lady Macbeth says to Macbeth:

I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the ...

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The Character of Lady Macbeth

I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this,”

And this saying that Lady Macbeth is more of a Man than Macbeth.

All of this suggests that Lady Macbeth has a very masculine character in the play. She is even more masculine than Macbeth. Before the scene Lady Macbeth was calm and calmly told her husband about the murder and what they were going to do, but during this scene Lady Macbeth is angry and not slightly calm.

Lady Macbeth is very responsible for the play’s tragedy because she is the one who told Macbeth to murder King Duncan and Lady Macbeth is also telling Macbeth what to do and she thought that she had full control of him, but this scene proves that along.

The audience would think of Lady Macbeth as heartless, power hungry and selfish person at this point. This is because she is talking in rage and giving out insults, but not to just anyone, but her own husband.

How does Lady Macbeth persuade Macbeth to murder Duncan?

Lady Macbeth was emphasising her own determination

Themes and issues

The main theme in this scene is the Murder of King Duncan. This theme is significant throughout the play because this murder leads to a string of other murders in the play and also that it is after this murder that Macbeth becomes King. This scene contains: deception, guilt and masculinity.

Another Main theme was the masculinity of Lady Macbeth and her powerful and violent insults. In this scene Lady Macbeth had shown the masculinity of her that wasn’t shown before in the play. Lady Macbeth also used violent and powerful insults such as: “But screw your courage to the sticking-place” and "make our griefs and clamour roar / Upon his death"

Conclusion

This scene is a very important scene as it contains a lot of tragedy. It leads to the king getting murdered and there is a lot of verbal violence. In this scene there is DECEPTON, GUILT, and MASCULINITY. There is a new King in the play and a long string of Murders that had started from King Duncan.