‘Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round, which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal.’
I, v, 25-30
This is a clear illustration of her character, whereby she intends so set a path for Macbeth to follow and intends to see him follow into it. By ‘chastise’, she refers to her husband mind as she wishes to manipulate and use him to get what both he and she want, and the ‘valour’ of her tongue suggests that her person is not a kind being, with a blunt feeling and lack of consideration for both sides. She then goes on to say she will combat her husband’s good will, for she refers to him earlier as being ‘too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness’ to achieve his determination in spite of others. The last reference is to the stars and metaphysical aid, but can be interpreted as referring to the Witches’ and their beginning prophecies that Macbeth will become King in the future. With chance supposedly on their side, the Lady presents the plan to him in Act 1 Scene 7.
In Act 1 Scene 7, she begins to encourage Macbeth to commit murder in order to make himself more of a man. She begins the manipulation with by attacking Macbeth’s masculinity and the question ‘was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?’ is spoken in a scornful and contempt manner. The hope is the act which he wishes to perform, and yet his physical strength allows him to do these naturally in combat. However, this man of conscience is described by his wife as looking ‘so green and pale’ at the thought of killing a person with higher authority than himself, yet he did so freely with the previous Thane of Cawdor. She then employs emotional blackmail ‘from this time such I account thy love’ and Macbeth is lowered to cowardice and openly replies to allow Lady Macbeth the opportunity to change her practice. During lines 47 and 59 of Act 1 Scene 7 Lady Macbeth reworks the origin of the plan and presents it to Macbeth as if he had done so beforehand to her. By calling him a ‘beast’ she can further bother his attitudes to his manhood by saying he would be ‘so much more than a man’ if he were to perform the removal of Duncan from, what Lady Macbeth to as being, ‘the ornament of life’, when in fact Macbeth would be indeed higher than any other man. The heartless descriptions which Shakespeare has placed into the Lady’s mouth is a foul image of a baby’s brain ‘dashed (…) out’ to fulfil whatever requirements Macbeth would have asked her to do. This dire description is one of emotional blackmail and it seems to take effect after a response from Macbeth is one of question and exploration. In return, the Lady unfolds a long and premeditated plan in which her true character comes to light.
Furthermore, it can be said that the Lady could make have influence Macbeth to make this decision to eliminate Duncan’s power, but Macbeth had an equal or larger part to play in the beginning of a tale of greed. He would have not needed a lot of drive from his wife to make his decision, as shown in Act 1 Scene 4. Here, Macbeth refers back to the theme of the whole play, asking for the light not to let people ‘see black and deep desires’; he is known here that he does not need to someone else to drive him to strike Duncan, for it is what lies within him which led himself to decide he wants to get the throne by force under the new circumstances. However, not so much earlier on in the play, Macbeth is also depicted as having a clouded judgement and needing someone to help him understand, with his own conclusion coming to something where ‘If chance will have me King, why chance may crown me Without my stir.’ These lines tell the audience that Macbeth has no problem in becoming King if he does not need to inflict any harm upon any other body. Also during Scene 3 he contemplates the outcome of Duncan’s death by murder as it ‘cannot be ill, cannot be good’. The entire soliloquy (I, iii, 127-142) expands on his uncertainty as he goes through the process of making a decision, which ends in an answer which will leave a gap for others to influence, highlighting his own inability to cope with such an ordeal and this pinning less blame upon his body. Macbeth may be further involved in this himself by his own determination to deflect the chances of the new Prince of Cumberland from taking the throne after the death of King Duncan, whereby he is ‘a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, for in his way it lies’; a passionate response to the pronunciation of Malcolm as the rightful heir to the throne, the audience can now see that Macbeth is determined to become the next king, whether it be by overcoming Malcolm as well, or if he is willing to die trying.
The Witches can also be accounted for the assassination of Duncan. It is them whom we opened the play with, and it is them who stated three truths, one of which has become true. In Act 1 Scene 3, the witches meet the Thane of Glamis upon the heath (which was foretold in Act 1 Scene 1) and state two truths which were yet to unfold. ‘All hail Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!’ was the second of the two truths yet to unfold, and Macbeth knows the only way to make this true is to assassinate the King. These words could be seen as a way of the Witches triggering something in Macbeth’s mind and thus making the audience believe the Witches knew what Macbeth was thinking. Once the second prediction became a truth, Macbeth would have believed the final prediction to be no exception, and thus want to continue with an effort to kill in cold blood. Another scene where the witches are seen to know Macbeth’s mind is in the opening scene of the play. They correctly identify that they will meet with Macbeth ‘upon the heath’ and this witchcraft may be interpreted as having a lasting impact upon the decisions made by Macbeth. Witchcraft could be attributed to being the origin of Macbeth’s hallucinations during Act 2 Scene 1when he visualizes various daggers leading him to Duncan’s chamber.
Likewise, Duncan’s own judgement could be considered as a cause of his own death. The lack of sound judgement that Duncan seems to hold is remarkable, in that he has now chosen two Thanes of Cawdor who are going to attempt to betray him, with the most recent Thane ending his own life. A clouded judgement it may seem, it is partly his own fault for having found his trust in both Cawdor and Glamis, and both seem to be deadly with their power. ‘He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust’ is talking about the previous Thane of Cawdor, displaying an example of theatrical irony whereby the new Thane of Cawdor will walk in after this prompt. The irony is that he too will deceive the King, but if Macbeth had not been given such a high position, making the second of the Witches’ truths come true, then he would not have needed to kill him.
In the final scene of Act 1, the most ‘noble’ Macbeth is deliberating whether he should perform the assault, when the Lady Macbeth enters to console him. However, her spitefulness appears once more where she appears to be attacking Macbeth’s manhood.
‘Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor car i’ th’ adage?’
I, vii, 39-45
The use of words such as ‘afeard’ and ‘coward’ attack Macbeth in such a way that he must retaliate by proving to his spouse that he can commit these crimes, and for this the malicious woman is in this respect exceedingly responsible for the assassination of Duncan. The application of the word ‘adage’ highlights a comparison between want Macbeth wants but cannot get in fear of fear, and the cat who could not get the fish it wanted of fear it would get wet. Such a cruel remark to be mortifying your own husband accuses one of pressuring Macbeth to doing something he didn’t particularly want to do in the first place, taking
I, iii, 143-4 into further consideration. Additionally, Act 2 Scene 2 is a very important scene to show the Lady’s derision towards Macbeth when he hasn’t performed the deed to plan. ‘Go get some water’ is a key line, with ‘Go’ being in the imperative and shows that she is very much in control and has once again made Macbeth seem mentally weak, even after performing a physically strong act.
It is known that the Lady Macbeth is a very prominent character, and the level of dialogue used by Shakespeare to portray her sinister character is strewn across the late Act 1 and earlier Act 2 with various literary devices to help associate a seemingly harmless character to Duncan’s eyes as the person with the most responsibility upon her shoulders. The extent is a very large one, but it is nevertheless also important to recognise the determination that Macbeth has lying not far from the surface and just a push from his wife made the assault inevitable to prove himself to his wife.
