Soon after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's relationship begins to change. During the planning of the murder, Lady Macbeth is in charge, instructing her husband on what to do. After hiring the murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, Macbeth tells his wife to "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,/Till thou applaud the deed" showing that he is beginning to take control, plotting on his own and not even informing Lady Macbeth on what he is planning to do. Yet it is not until later on that Macbeth gains complete control after organizing the murder of Lady Macduff and her son. Angry at Macduff for leaving the country before he has a chance to kill him frustrates Macbeth. If he is evil in this play at all, it is now, when he takes out these frustrations by having Macduff's family killed.
Originally Lady Macbeth’s ambition is far greater than that of Macbeth’s. She knows that both Macbeth's conscience and indecision will hinder his ambitions. It is due to this, and her own hunger for power, that she plays on his manhood and encourages him to commit the deed that will obtain the crown telling him he would “be so much more the man” if he did and that he’d “live a coward in thine own esteem” if he didn’t. It is her persuasiveness and assertiveness, which lead Macbeth into seriously considering weather or not he should murder the king. Her strength motivates him, yet it is himself that chooses to follow the murderous, bloody path.
An example of us being given the impression that Lady Macbeth has no sense of moral conscience is when we see how calm and logical she is immediately after the murder. Her attitude is rather flippant and it seems as though Duncan’s death has had no effect on her. She is in complete control over the situation. She is practical, brisk and almost business like as she tells Macbeth, “You do unbend your noble strength to think/So brain-sickly of things. Go get some water/And wash this filthy witness from your hand.” Later on in the act to divert suspicion away from Macbeth she cries, “Help me hence” as she pretends to faint, and then again in Act Three, Scene Four when the banquet is being held she shows another sign of how she is still strongly in control. She excuses his behaviour on seeing the Ghost of Banquo as a “momentary” fit to conceal what is truly taking place.
Although at the time Lady Macbeth did everything in her power to persuade her husband to murder Duncan with her strong desire for ambition and her cold nature, she did not force him to do it. Macbeth decided to kill Duncan of his own free will, fueled by ambition and greed. For ‘Macbeth’ to be a tragedy, as Shakespeare intended, no one other than himself could make the final decision that ultimately brings him down. He reached this conclusion, based on his ruinous fault, alone.
Macbeth’s devising and heroic leadership during battle, although seemed butcherous and barbaric, at that time was only seen as courageous and loyal towards his country. He was not considered a butcher because of his actions, instead was well respected, and after his feat of braveness, Duncan believed him worthy to receive the title of Thane of Cawdor, which was a huge honour. The problem with this, though, is that, along with the witches’ prophecies, it helped to spark his ambition, which is ultimately his tragic flaw.
The idea of becoming King appealed to Macbeth, yet he did not wish to kill Duncan to achieve this, and he listed his reasons in Act One, Scene Seven by saying, "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." If Macbeth were truly a butcher, his kinship and duty to the king would offer no hindrance to his decision to murder him.
Once Macbeth does eventually murder Duncan he realises the enormity of the crime he has committed. He becomes extremely agitated and frightened. Unable to wash away his guilt Macbeth therefore believes he will also be unable to rid his hands entirely of Duncan’s blood saying, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine." He regrets killing him, wishing that he could "Wake Duncan with thy knocking."
His hesitance towards murdering Duncan, and hallucinations of the dagger and the Ghost of Banquo reveal Macbeth’s conscience throughout the play to the audience. His vivid imagination and constant worry provoke him. If Macbeth was a ‘butcher’ as Malcolm stated him to be he would be incapable of feeling guilty or letting his emotions get the better of him.
While fighting Macduff in Act Five, Scene Eight, Macbeth does not want to kill him, because he has hurt him enough by having his family murdered and says “My soul is too much charged/With blood of thine already." This act of kindness on Macbeth’s behalf reminds us of the character we had been introduced to before he was corrupted by his ambitions and the witches’ prophecies. On discovering that Macduff had been “untimely ripped” from his mother’s womb instead of being born by natural birth Macbeth realises that the witches’ prediction was to come true, “the power of a man, for none of woman born/Shall harm [him].” Yet still he continues to fight even though he knows it is only to be slain. This reminds us of the fearless soldier from the first Act and shows that he is not afraid of death. It seems like he has resumed his natural role as he fights fearlessly.
Lady Macbeth performs the necessary acts in preparation for the murder of Duncan she considers completing the task herself, yet she doesn’t for he resembled her “father as he slept.” This shows she does have feelings and emotions, and she is capable of good therefore she doesn’t live up to Malcolm’s assessment of her.
Her subconscious ultimately reveals the unfairness of Malcolm labeling her a ‘fiend-like queen’. When we see her at the beginning of the last Act, and she is far from the confident, calm person that she was in Act I. We see she has begun sleepwalking, due to her obvious torment over the murders that she played a part in. Since the murder her mind has changed drastically, before she thought that “a little water cleared [them] of this deed” whereas while sleepwalking her subconscious tells us different. Thinking that her hands are covered in Duncan’s blood she constantly rubs them, “it is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. She hysterically cries out “What, will these hands ne'er be clean?” and imagines the smell of the blood still remains which “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten [her] little hand." This behaviour shows Lady Macbeth is paying the penalty for the mistakes she helped to make. Her suffering is such that it leads to suicide, which shows that to call Lady Macbeth fiend-like is not at all accurate, for if she were, then the murders would not have had such a huge effect on her or even no effect at all.
By the attempted kindness of sparing Macduff his life, and the courage he shows by fighting to his death like the fearless soldier we saw him as, when he was first introduced to us in the play, we are made aware that Macbeth can not be labeled as a butcher, but just a good man corrupted by the tragic flaw of ambition. Lady Macbeth's obvious suffering and regret is shown by her sleepwalking and suicide, when her subconscious reveals the true effect the murder of Duncan had on her. All the evidence I have considered was enough to lead me to the conclusion that Malcolm's assessment of the couple as "this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen" is altogether inaccurate.
