There are many other reasons that point towards Lady Macbeth’s responsibility for the tragedy of Macbeth. She finishes Macbeth’s deed by framing the servants, making her an accomplice. She in fact plans Duncan’s murder and sets everything up. She acts evilly, calling on the supernatural and ignoring morality. She also says ‘Had he not resembled / my father as he slept, I had done’t.’ –Act 2 Scene 2 Lines 13-14. So we see, although she has some feelings, she does admit that if Duncan didn’t resemble her father she would have done the murder herself. This seems to be a hint of conscience, however it may actually be cowardice. I would think though, that it is conscience, for when she sleepwalks she seems to feel guilty, another hint of conscience. Again, this may just be the fact that she wants it over and is afraid of being caught. Also, although Macbeth writes the letter to her telling her of the prophesy, so he can be blamed for her thoughts, however she does think about murdering Duncan before Macbeth mentions it. Actually it is almost the first thing that she thinks of upon hearing that her husband has been told he will become King. She must be responsible for her own thoughts, but is such a small thing going to make up a large part of the tragedy? I think not. She doesn’t seem to consider that he could become King without taking matters into their own hands.
Another major point is that she actually tells us she is responsible when she is sleepwalking and talking to herself saying ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ –Act 5 Scene 1 Line 42. 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. She seems to think she is responsible as she acts guiltily. From this we see she must definitely be partially responsible because she tells us she is.
Also we see throughout the play that she is extremely strong willed to do what is necessary to become Queen. She constantly encourages, convinces and even makes Macbeth do what he she says he must. With the murder of Duncan he eventually decides after his soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 7 lines 1-28, that: ‘I have no spur / to prick the sides of my intent, but only / vaulting ambition,’ –Lines 25-27. Therefore as we hear from the rest of the soliloquy 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. We see in the quote he realises that his only reason is his vaulting ambition, which isn’t reason enough. So he decides not to. However, still in Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth enters and manipulates him. Even though he had decided not to, because of her persuasion he changes his mind. But, this does not make it entirely her fault, as it is because of one of this major flaws, the fact he is easily manipulated, that he succumbs to her wily ways. Therefore we see she though that she must be quite largely responsible for Duncan’s murder as she plans the murder, is an accomplice in the murder and effectively makes him do it at this point. ‘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 she does manipulate him, its because the ambition and the desire is already there that he allows her to manipulate him. Lady Macbeth uses very strong-willed, forceful language to convince him to murder Duncan. So from all this, we see she is indeed very responsible. She wants to make him murder Duncan, which starts the whole tragedy off. But, it is he who commits the murder, and even though he explicitly acknowledges his only reason for murder is his ‘vaulting ambition’, showing moral insight on his part, he still does. Not that she is let off for having no morals, for that is her own fault. She also ruins their relationship, which is a part of the tragedy in itself, for their marriage falls apart. She plans and sets up the murder of Duncan; she ignores morality, acts evilly and even calls on the supernatural to take hold of her.
There are also many reasons that she is only partially responsible. Just because she has a timely influence, and acts as a catalyst, this responsibility for a small part of the ply doesn’t make her responsible to a large extent for the tragedy of Macbeth. The main reason is because Macbeth is mostly responsible. He’s responsible because its he that actually commits the murder of Duncan. It’s also he that plans the murder of Banquo and Fleance. It’s he that 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, 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! He is worried and jealous about Banquo’s prophesy and the way Banquo stole his limelight. This is another one of his major flaws in his character. Still, I don’t think that this justifies the attempt at murdering a child. Near the end of the play he orders the murder of Macduff’s household for no apparent or decent reason. 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. So he thinks he need not fear Macduff, yet seemingly for some kind of security he orders Macduff’s household killed. This is cold-blooded and extremely cruel. He orders the death of women and child, who are no threat and are perfectly innocent. 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.
Also, it is made explicitly clear that he 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. This quote also shows he knows what he is doing is evil as he tells us his desires are black .He also knows his only reason to murder is his vaulting ambition. Yet, even with all of this he never listens to his own conscience. We know he has a sense of morality, yet, another major flaw of his, he simply ignores it. He has the chance to turn back and mend his ways. He has the chance to change his direction in life and live cleanly, 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). Yet he chooses to carry on, and by the end of the play when he orders the murder of innocents he ignores his wife. In fact such is the failure of their relationship that he doesn’t care when she dies! ‘She should have died hereafter’ Act 5 Scene 5 Line 17. He tells us ‘she would have died someday anyway!’ So from this we can see that she cannot be largely responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth, because Macbeth is so responsible.
Another point that places the responsibility off of Lady Macbeth’s shoulders is the fact that although she does encourage him, even manipulate him, her knowledge of what’s happened comes about because of a letter from Macbeth himself. Therefore she only really thinks these things because of the information he sends her. In fact we see, he acted as he catalyst for her thoughts! Also, unless they are only recently married, which is unlikely, he should know her. Therefore it is possible she isn’t manipulative but simply encouraging, he may actually need the encouragement and they would both know this already because they are married. In a way we can therefore assume that he may be actually looking for the support. 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, all she does is to tell him what he wants to hear. This is unlikely though as nothing else in the play points to this. From these points we see that Lady Macbeth is only partially responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth.
The final answer that we can come to from the essay question is that Lady Macbeth is not at all responsible for the tragedy. I find this very unlikely. This would mean the responsibility is so highly on other people that Lady Macbeth’s actions are effectively nullified. Obviously therefore Macbeth is largely responsible, which can be taken from the paragraphs above. Also other people who are greatly responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth are the witches.
The witches are a help and a hindrance to Macbeth. They tell him what he wants to know and what he wants to here, yet in fact they are twisting their words to bend him to do what they want. He knows that they are a bad, 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 there own devises, which places the blame on them. Also however 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 already a corrupted person and he is easily manipulated. This puts the responsibility of the tragedy of Macbeth on both the witches and Macbeth largely.
We know that Lady Macbeth manipulates him and encourages him to murder Duncan as I explained at the beginning of the essay, but this is a very small part of the tragedy. The further you go through the play the worse the tragedy is, and the further through the play you go the less Lady Macbeth has to do with it. In fact by the end the break down in the relationship and his coldness at her death is a part of the tragedy in itself. Also at the death of Banquo and the murder of Macduff’s household Macbeth acts without consulting his wife. Although she acts as a slight catalyst as well, again the actually blame for this is really placed on the witches shoulders as it is they who gave him the prophesy and they that planted the beginnings of ideas into his mind. Also it is his letter to her that gives her the idea, making him the catalyst for her ideas.
Finally there is the idea of fate and the supernatural. Not 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. ‘’Tis said they ate each other.’ Act 2 Scene 4 Line 18. This is the strange occurrence of Duncan’s horses on the night of the King’s murder by Macbeth. Not only do they break free from their tethers and run wild, which is strange enough for supposedly tame horses, but they eat each other! If fate is to blame then it can be said it was all just meant to happen. It must be said that Macbeth or Lady Macbeth are not to blame, if it just had to happen, then even the witches cannot be to blame. Therefore the blame is on nobody, because if its simply down to fate then it would have happened whatever anyone did. So although Lady Macbeth planned Duncan’s murder, and although Macbeth caused so many deaths it would’ve happened anyway, so it isn’t his fault. One could argue that it was simply his destiny and therefore not his fault, as he had no choice. From this we see it is quite possible that no one is responsible, therefore Lady Macbeth certainly isn’t.
The second part of the essay question, though somewhat less important I feel, shows that the direction of the play can impact upon our views of Lady Macbeth’s responsibility. There are as I can see a few major ways in which the direction of the play, and how the audience is made to see it, their views and the play itself can be slightly twisted.
The first is in controlling who is on stage. If, for example the Director chose to put on Macbeth, having Lady Macbeth on stage most of the time, except when it is obviously not possible, 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.
The second is similar and yet has the opposite affect. By leaving the witches on stage, or having them watch over things, it accents their responsibility. By emphasising the supernatural in the play, like the horses eating each other, and making the witches’ scenes important and even grabbing the audience’s attention with those scenes it will probably lead to people thinking Macbeth and Lady Macbeth less responsible and putting most of the blame on the supernatural.
Thirdly, as is often done, the play can be modernised and changed. If the words are changed and things are played around with by those putting on the production it can be quite possible to change words, actions or scenes to manipulate people’s view on who is responsible. From this we see that by the direction of the play, the impact people get as to who is responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth can be greatly changed. The dramatic role, making the play entertaining, can change our views to place the responsibility largely on Lady Macbeth or not at all.
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 and therefore she isn’t largely responsible. Also fate, it seems, plays a role (although how large is up to the individual). 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 he who is guilty. However she doesn’t escape blame, as she still had a hand in the tragedy. Even she knows she is guilty, we see when she sleepwalks that she tells us her hands still smell of blood. So, to conclude, she is partly responsible for the tragedy of Macbeth, but only to a small extent.