At the beginning of the play, Macbeth can be described as being loyal, courageous and noble. He is liked, trusted and respected by everyone around him. It is also clear from the outset of the play that Lady Macbeth is also a respected noble like Macbeth. King Duncan calls Lady Macbeth "our honoured hostess." She is shown to love her husband and Macbeth feels the same towards her. He shows this by wanting to protect her from danger; this is shown when Macbeth says to her "Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." At the same time Lady Macbeth is very ambitious, she has one big ambition to become queen as shown by her immediate determination for Macbeth to become king. She believes that her ambition will come true following the witches’ prophecy to Macbeth. “Shalt be king hereafter.” This outcome will benefit her and her husband equally. Lady Macbeth is determined that Macbeth and herself will become king and queen and plots to ensure that this happens.
Lady Macbeth is delighted with her husband’s letter which indicates that he will become king. After reading the letter Lady Macbeth appeals to the spirit world to “unsex me.” She knows that no normal woman would be able to think of regicide and to be able to plan the murder. Lady Macbeth wants the power of darkness to take away her womanly weaknesses and fill her with “direst cruelty.” Lady Macbeth also calls upon the devil after reading the letter “pour my spirits in thine ear.” She also calls upon the dark of the night “come, thick night,” to hide the murder she’s planning.
Although Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is ambitious “vaulting ambitions,” she also realises that he lacks the ruthlessness to kill the king “yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness.” From this the audience can see that Lady Macbeth is saying that Macbeth is too kind hearted to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth believes that for the witches prophecy to come true, Macbeth needs to kill Duncan and that she needs to persuade him to do so. From these actions the audience is shown the deceiving and devious side of Lady Macbeth and her fiend like ambition. She realises that Macbeth will take any opportunity that comes his way that meets his ambitions but he only wants to do it honestly. “Poor cat I’th’adage?” This implies that Macbeth will not go out and do something and would act like the proverb that means that the cat wants to eat fish but doesn’t want to get its feet wet to get what it wants. This is the same for Macbeth who wants to become king but doesn’t want to kill Duncan for this to happen. Lady Macbeth believes that Macbeth should “look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t.” The audience can see from this Lady Macbeth’s duplicitous nature as she is saying to Macbeth to look and act innocent but to be evil in his soul.
To persuade Macbeth to kill the king Lady Macbeth intimidates him and plays upon his insecurity to convince him to go through with her plot. Lady Macbeth plays upon Macbeth’s manliness to get him to proceed with the murder by saying “art thou afeard,” and calling him a “coward.” Lady Macbeth knows her husband well and knows that this will aggravate him. Many people regard Macbeth as courageous “for brave Macbeth well he deserves that name.” Lady Macbeth wants to dent Macbeth’s confidence so that he will commit regicide. The audience can see from her words that Lady Macbeth is fiend like. When Macbeth says “if we should fail?” Lady Macbeth reassures him by saying “but screw your courage to the sticking – place and we’ll not fail.” This hints that Lady Macbeth has faith that Macbeth will not fail in the assassination of Duncan. Lady Macbeth shows her fiendish side again when she smears the blood of the daggers on to the guards “give me the daggers.” This was after Macbeth refused to do it “I’ll go no more.” This suggests to the audience that Lady Macbeth is cunning and devious by shifting the blame onto the guards “spongy officers…bear the guilt.” Lady Macbeth does this to try to cover up the act of Macbeth who has just committed regicide.
After the murder Lady Macbeth shows her devilish side again when she pretends to grieve, “help me hence ho.” Lady Macbeth does this to avoid people being suspicious about her involvement in the murder. The audience knows this as earlier in the play Lady Macbeth says “our griefs and clamour roar upon his death?” The audience can see from this that Lady Macbeth is deceitful and shrewd. Lady Macbeth covers up for the murder further by saying “what’s the business that such a hideous trumpet calls to parley the sleepers of the house.” Lady Macbeth is carrying on with her plot by acting shocked when the murder of Duncan was discovered.
Lady Macbeth gives the impression that she is a witch by saying in her chilling soliloquy “come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here; and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top – full of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, stop up the access and passage to remorse; that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between the effect, and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers.” This powerful soliloquy from Lady Macbeth resembles a witches’ enchantment or incantation. Lady Macbeth uses evil language like “stop up the access and passage to remorse….murdering ministers.” This suggests that Lady Macbeth is calling up evil spirits like a fiend would do. Shakespeare writes this passage in block verse which is similar to the use of rhythm given to the witches. It was believed in the 16th century that woman were not born witches, but invited the devil into their souls just like Lady Macbeth.
However it could be argued that Lady Macbeth is not a fiend. Later on in the play Lady Macbeth has a guilty conscience and is not a fiend like queen. When she was the queen she did not actually do anything fiendish. All of her wicked acts, words and thoughts took place before she became queen. When Lady Macbeth was queen her relationship with Macbeth was strained. Immediately after the murder although Macbeth is with Lady Macbeth it appears that their conversation is not communication between the two but Macbeth talking to himself ignoring Lady Macbeth. Their strained relationship is also show in the scene where Macbeth dismisses Lady Macbeth with the rest of the court “till supper-time alone. While then, God be with you?” even though she is uneasy and wants to talk.
The audience may be given the impression that Lady Macbeth is not a fiend by her saying “not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.” The reason that the audience may feel that Lady Macbeth is not fiendish is as this proves that Lady Macbeth has her ethics and does not want to kill the king as it reminds her of her father. This implies that Lady Macbeth has a sense of love for her father. A fiend could not feel the guilt in this way. Lady Macbeth could however want Macbeth to commit the murder to prove her power over him, nature and God. The resemblance of Duncan to her father would encourage Macbeth’s manly, protective side to act. Later Lady Macbeth states that “the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures,” it is difficult to believe that this resemblance is the real reason for her inability to act herself.
Lady Macbeth shows her wickedness when she sleepwalks. When she’s asleep Lady Macbeth expresses her guilt by reliving the murder experience “here’s the smell of the blood.” When she is reliving the experience she gives the plot away by telling the doctor and servant everything without realising it. Her way of coping is to deny reality and try to rely on strength of will but in the end the awful truth forces itself out of her unconscious. Lady Macbeth shows a totally different side of her character at the end of the play. This is shown by her saying “fie, my lord, fie!” Lady Macbeth is saying here that she wants the lord to help her clear her guilt. This is the antithesis of earlier in the play when she was calling up evil spirits and the devil like a fiend; now she is remorseful and contrite. This is also shown when Lady Macbeth says “all the perfumes of Arabia,” this is the opposite of Lady Macbeth earlier in the play when she said “unsex me,” Lady Macbeth is now a true woman wanting perfume but earlier in the play she wanted her womanly characteristics to be removed. In an early act in the play Lady Macbeth was calling upon the evil spirits but now Lady Macbeth wants the spirits to go, she believes that this will happen if she acts more like a woman. This reinforces that Lady Macbeth is trying to deny the reality of what has happened. Lady Macbeth gives away her plot by saying “here’s the smell of blood still.” This suggests to the audience that Lady Macbeth is now not a fiend and is guilt ridden. Lady Macbeth is not a fiend due to her strenuously washing her hands to remove the guilt “wash your hands.” This displays to the audience that Lady Macbeth is now washing her hands to get rid of the guilt. At the time the play was written people thought that witches carried the devil’s mark on their bodies somewhere, so the spot that Lady Macbeth is trying to wash away could be a metaphor for this. Lady Macbeth’s guilt eventually forces her to kill herself.
Overall the audience sees two different sides of Lady Macbeth. At first Lady Macbeth is fiendish in her thoughts, words and deeds. Lady Macbeth has a ruthless determination to get what she wants, which is to become queen. Later on in the play Lady Macbeth is shown to be repentant and rueful. She is fiendish early on in the play when she is plotting to kill the king but later on she is shown to feel guilty and conscience stricken showing her other repentant side. On the whole I do agree with the idea that Lady Macbeth is a fiend but I do not agree that she is a fiend – like queen. I believe this as when Lady Macbeth became queen she did not act in a fiendish manner. At the end of the play when Lady Macbeth is mad she becomes afraid of the dark and always keeps a candle by her. Early in the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are seen as creatures of the dark which symbolises treachery cruelty and evil. By wanting to have light with her Lady Macbeth seeks to remove the darkness of evil. However when Lady Macbeth was fiend - like in plotting the kings murder she called upon darkness “blanket of the dark,” to help her and Macbeth commit the murder. A true fiend would never be afraid of the dark like Lady Macbeth is at the end of the play; this is why I judge that Lady Macbeth is not a fiend – like queen.