Firstly, she manipulates him. She plays with his ego and challenges his manhood, saying ‘When you durst do it, then you are a man;’ -Act 1 Scene 7 Line 49. She suggests you are only a man when you achieve your desires by committing a crime. She tells him off when he thinks about not committing murder, and she also manipulates him by testing his love. At the start if the play in a letter to her he says ‘my dearest partner of greatness,’ –Act 1 Scene 5 Line 10. Therefore we can assume they have a high co-dependence and communicate well at that point. Later on she uses this to her advantage when again he is thinking about not murdering Duncan, as she says ‘Art thou afeard / to be the same in thine own act and valour / as thou art in desire?’ –Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 39-41. So we see she is asking if his love is as feeble as his courage. She suggests he is fickle and cowardly, and questions if he truly loves her, and as we see after her challenges and encouragement he does indeed murder Duncan. Her questioning is clear and leads us to query whether Macbeth would have acted on his desires if not for her intention.
Many other reasons point towards Lady Macbeth’s responsibility for the tragedy of Macbeth. She finishes Macbeth’s deeds by framing the servants, making her an accomplice. She in fact plans the details of Duncan’s murder. She acts evilly, calling on the supernatural and ignoring morality.
The first thing that she thinks of upon hearing that her husband has been told he will become King is that Duncan must be murdered. She also thinks Macbeth will need help to carry out this deed and she says ‘Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear’. Act 1 Scene 5 Lines 32-33. Evidently she is planning to attempt to manipulate him. She doesn’t seem to consider that he could become King without taking matters into their own hands.
Lady Macbeth herself tells us of her responsibility when she is sleepwalking and talking to herself saying ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ –Act 5 Scene 1 Line 42. A metaphor showing her guilt. When sleepwalking as when dreaming it is people’s purest thoughts that come out they show their truest and deepest beliefs; she seems to know that she will never be free from the guilt. From this we see she must be partially responsible because her actions tell us she is. However, although she is a timely influence on Macbeth, there are also other influences on Macbeth.
The supernatural also has a great influence, and fate takes a part in the tragedy as well. Not just the supernatural links to the witches, but the supernatural that has nothing to do with any one person or group of people, the supernatural of fate, consequences and coincidence. There is the strange occurrence of Duncan’s horses on the night of the King’s murder by Macbeth. ‘Tis said they ate each other.’ Act 2 Scene 4 Line 18. Not only do they break free from their tethers and run wild, which is strange enough for supposedly tame horses, but also they eat each other! If fate is to blame then it can be said it was all just meant to happen. One could perhaps argue that it was simply his destiny and therefore not his fault, as he had no choice. This is very unlikely though, and I believe the blame, although there is responsibility placed on Lady Macbeth and the witches, should really be placed on Macbeth.
The witches are a help and a hindrance to Macbeth. They tell him what he wants to know and what he wants to hear, yet in fact they are twisting their words to bend him to do what they want. Crucially though, he knows that they are not to be trusted, yet he still uses them to try to find out what is going to happen, ‘for now I am bent to know, / By the worst means, the worst.’ Act 3 Scene 4 Lines 134-135.
The witches themselves admit that they are simply trying to twist a person to their own devices, which places the blame on them. Also the queen of the witches, Hecate, says ‘all you have done / Hath been but for a wayward son,’ Act 3 Scene 5 Lines 10-11, this clearly shows that he is obviously open to corruption and he is easily manipulated. However it really shows that Macbeth is responsible to an even larger extent than we thought. It is the ease with which he is manipulated and corrupted, more major flaws of his, and the fact that he acts so dramatically on what he is told that makes him responsible to such a huge extent. So, although the supernatural is an influence, he gives into the temptation.
Ultimately Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth. He’s responsible because it’s he that actually commits the murder of Duncan. It’s also he that plans the murder of Banquo and Fleance. He orders the murder of Macduff’s wife, children and servants. We saw how in Act 1 Scene 7 he decides his only reason for killing Duncan is his ‘vaulting ambition’ and yet he still does it. When he kills Duncan we can see why, even though his motives are flawed. Although his wife manipulates him as well, it is his flaw, the fact that he succumbs so easily to her wily ways that makes the murder his fault. But, his reasons for murder get less and less valid as the play continues. He kills Banquo because he’s simply scared he’ll get caught, and he kills Fleance because he’s scared of him, a mere child! Evidently he doesn’t appreciate his ‘borrowed robes’. He himself says ‘To be thus is nothing; / But to be safely thus’. Act 3 Scene 1 Lines 48-49. He is worried and jealous about Banquo’s prophesy and the way Banquo stole his limelight.
‘But screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail.’ Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 60-61. This statement follows Macbeth revealing a fear of being caught which rises later in the play, with the murder of Banquo. Also, although Lady Macbeth does encourage him, its because the ambition and the desire is already there that he allows her to manipulate him.
He also orders the murder of Macduff’s household with no reasonable explanation. He’s been told that he should fear Macduff, yet he is told: ‘For none of woman born / shall harm Macbeth.’ Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 80-81. Therefore he assumes no person born, no human effectively, can harm him. Yet seemingly for some kind of security he orders the death of women and child, who are no threat and are perfectly innocent. This is cruel and cold-blooded. This decision has nothing to do with Lady Macbeth; she is uninvolved, as with the earlier murder of Banquo. And this is possibly the worst part of the tragedy, that he ends up so desperately trying to seek security that he orders the murder of totally innocent people.
It is also made explicitly clear that Macbeth realises that what he is doing is wrong, and therefore he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s guilty, ‘Stars hide your fires! / Let not light see my black and deep desires;’ Act 1 Scene 1 Lines 50-51. Yet, even through all of this he never listens to his own conscience. We know he has a sense of morality, however, another major flaw of his is that he simply ignores it. He has the chance to turn back and mend his ways, yet he chooses not to. ‘I am in blood / Stepp’d so far, that should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.’ Act 3 Scene 4 Lines 136-138. So we see he chooses not to turn back, when he knows he can clean up his act, and he himself says that going back is as easy as going forward (both are equally tedious!)
Another point that places the responsibility onto Macbeth’s shoulders is the fact that although Lady Macbeth is manipulative, her knowledge of what’s happened comes about because of a letter from Macbeth himself. From this we see he acted as the catalyst for her thoughts! ‘What beast was’t, then, / That made you break this enterprise to me?’ Act 1 Scene 7 Lines 47-48. Also, unless they are only recently married, which is unlikely, he should know her. She knows he is ‘too full o’ the milk of human kindness’ Act 1 Scene 5 Line 18. Its possible he knows it to, and is therefore looking for someone more strongly willed to back him up. He wants to do it, he just needs a helping hand to carry out the deed, and all she does is to tell him what he wants to hear. It seems to be very easy to put the blame on Lady Macbeth after Duncan’s murder, however, looking at all the evidence, she must only be partially responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth.
With the murder of Duncan we hear from Macbeth’s soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 7 lines 1-28 that he has many reasons not to kill him, like the facts that he’s Duncan’s subject, he’s his host, Duncan’s a good king and Macbeth knows he has already benefited greatly from him. From all of this we see Macbeth is must be mostly responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth, as the name of the play and the definition of tragedy seem to point out.
The direction of the play can also impact upon our views of Lady Macbeth’s responsibility. There are a few major ways in which the direction of the play, the casting, and how the audience is made to see it can change their views on who is responsible. In directing the play it is important therefore from the evidence above to emphasise Macbeth’s responsibility in his downfall, and to keep the blame away from his wife, the witches and the supernatural.
The first way to do this is to control who is on stage. If, for example the Director chose to put on Macbeth, having Lady Macbeth on stage most of the time, quite possibly with her brooding in the background, it would make the audience see her as the planner and the responsible one behind things. When Macbeth makes his decisions to kill people like Banquo and Fleance, if Lady Macbeth was in the background it would surely change the audience’s perspective, possibly seeing her as the driving force in the marriage.
Another expression which has the opposite effect on the audience is to leave the witches on stage, having them watch over things, this accents their responsibility. By emphasising the supernatural in the play, for example making the witches’ scenes important and grabbing the audience’s attention with those scenes it will probably lead to people thinking Lady Macbeth less responsible and putting more of the blame on the supernatural.
However if neither Lady Macbeth nor the supernatural were emphasised in a performance, but merely used for entertainment and providing the audience with information, it would leave the responsibility on Macbeth. Making Lady Macbeth appear insane, and downplaying the supernatural or making it seem slightly comic would be a good way of doing this.
Also, the casting of the characters would make a difference in who the audience sees as responsible for the tragedy. By careful casting the witches could be made to seem comic or severe, and the casting of Lady Macbeth would also be very important. So we see that by the direction and casting of the play, the impact people get as to who is responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth can be greatly changed.
All in all, Lady Macbeth doesn’t totally escape blame, however she is not largely responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth. Although she did plan Duncan’s murder, she didn’t commit it, and although she manipulates Macbeth, in the end it is his choice. Also fate, it seems, plays a role. The supernatural, especially the witches who are the catalyst in the play, are also responsible. Finally, as the tragedy unfolds, Lady Macbeth becomes smaller and smaller in the plot, so we see when things get bad it is really Macbeth who is guilty. However she doesn’t escape blame, as she still had a hand in the tragedy. Even she knows she is guilty, as we see that when she sleepwalks she tells us she is. So, to conclude, she is partly responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth, and the direction of the play can either accent this or make her seem almost innocent, but she is responsible only to a small extent.
