‘I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this’ which, although the image is grotesque and fiendish, implies that she would do anything out of love for him, which is not a characteristic often found in fiends.
During the first act there is a definite balance of power in the relationship between the Macbeths, with Lady Macbeth generally giving the orders and Macbeth following them with little or no resistance.
Act two Scene two opens with Lady Macbeth saying ‘that which hath made them drunk hath made me bold, what hath quench’d them hath given me fire.’ This implies that she has taken some of the liquor that she used to subdue the servants with. This shows an un-fiendish quality to her because she had obviously had to drink some alcohol in order to calm her nerves. Another quality, which is not found in fiends, is shown when she says ‘had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t’ which is something that fiends wouldn’t think about: a true fiend would kill their own kin. The way they speak, in short sharp sentences or one word answers shows that they are panicking and a little apprehensive of getting caught.
Lady Macbeth does not appear until halfway through Act two Scene three and when she does it is with elegant words that she does: ‘what’s the business, that such a hideous trumpet calls to parley the sleepers of the house?’ This is a display of her innocence towards the murder. Another display of innocence is when Macduff has announced the murder to Banquo and she says ‘what! In our house?’ which implies that she knows nothing about it. The fact that she can lie so blatantly without remorse is a fiendish quality in her. The last time she speaks in this scene is to say ‘help me hence, ho!’ and then she faints. This could either be fabricated in order to prevent further discussion of Macbeth’s passionate murder of the servants, or t could be a genuine faint caused by remorse from her conscience. The events in this scene can be described as both fiendish, where she is lying to remove suspicion from her husband and herself, and not fiendish, where she may be fainting because of conscience.
Lady Macbeth only appears once in Act three Scene one but it is still quite important to her changing character. The only time Lady Macbeth appears in this scene is to say about Banquo ‘if he had been forgotten, it had been as a gap in out great feast, and all-thing becoming’ which implies that they want him at their feast but Lady Macbeth does not know that Banquo knows what the witches prophesised about Macbeth, that he would become king, nor does she know that they prophesised that his sons would be kings also. The only other important aspect of this scene is the way Macbeth hires the murderers to kill Banquo. He does this without telling Lady Macbeth and so this scene is important in the sense that it shows the changing balance of power in their relationship. Ho no longer needs her to give him a push in the right direction each time they need to do anything, and is even now doing things that are not really necessary quite independently. Lady Macbeth is now losing control of him.
At the beginning of Act three Scene two Lady Macbeth shows a side of herself which is not fiendish. She says ‘nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content: ‘tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy’ this means that they ought to be content with what they have and, by saying this, Lady Macbeth is implying that she is content with what she has. This is not often the case with fiends, as they never seem to be happy with what they have, they always want more. Throughout the scene, after Macbeth has entered, Lady Macbeth tries to make him be as content as she is. This is also not fiendish because she is showing love for him and a necessity for her to make sure he is happy.
Act three Scene four is when Lady Macbeth finally realises she has lost control of Macbeth. When Macbeth sees the ghost sitting in his seat at the table Lady Macbeth tries to cover up for him by saying ‘sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus, and hath been from his youth’ which shows she is not a fiend because she does not want any harm to come to him. When the ‘fit’ finally stops Lady Macbeth does, in effect, actually throw her guests out by telling them ‘stand not upon the order of you going, but go at once’ which is another way to cover up the madness that is slowly taking hold of Macbeth. She finally realises that she has lost her hold on him when he says ‘I will – to the weird sisters’ which means that he is now turning to them for a source of evil, instead of her.
Act five Scene one is where the audience sees Lady Macbeth in her most pitiful state; it is also the last scene where they will see her at all. She is quite mad and this in itself is a characteristic, which shows she is not a fiend because it is the guilt that she has felt from aiding Macbeth in the murder of Duncan that has driven her to this extent. Her knowledge of losing control over Macbeth is shown when she says ‘The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now?’ which shows that she did not know that Macbeth was going to kill Lady Macduff. Her obsession with blood is also evident throughout this scene with the words ‘who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him’ and ‘here’s the smell of blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.’ She thinks she’s got Duncan’s blood on her hand and it will not come off. The paragraph ‘wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on ‘s grave’ where she is talking to Macbeth about Banquo’s murder shows how mad with guilt she has become because Macbeth is not there. The entire scene shows a non-fiendish aspect of Lady Macbeth’s character because no one who is mad can be truly fiendish.
The final scene where Lady Macbeth is mentioned is Act five Scene five where Macbeth hears of Lady Macbeth’s suicide. His apparent lack of remorse – ‘she should have died hereafter’ shows a fiendish, uncaring quality I him aswell as all the qualities in her. He is no longer the passionate partner from the beginning of the play. The fact that she committed suicide makes her even less a fiend because it was done out of remorse, guilt, or both.
In conclusion, I think that Lady Macbeth is not a fiendish character. She has many aspects which are far from nice, and she strives to be a fiend, but these are countered by all the aspects of her personality that are not fiendish. She is positively evil at the beginning but, as the play wears on, she become more and more human until the audience can almost believe that all her actions up until she goes mad were all for Macbeth’s benefit, so that he would have the power and a good life instead of being for her benefit so that she would have a good life. That is merely my opinion, but I feel that it is an accurate on given all the evidence in the play.
