Throughout the original play Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are disrupting the natural order of events, for example when they kill the King and Macbeth takes his place in it seen to be wrong to displace what was seen as the path made by God. This disrupting of order could be why Lady Macbeth eventually breaks down in this particular scene as she is being punished by God for the evil that she has committed.
In Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth is confused and she remembers words and events from earlier on in the play. She is seen as a very weak and defenceless character in some versions of the play but in others she is a lot stronger and louder. But any way you look at it she is very stressed and disorientated in her head. If you just saw this one scene you would get a completely different view on what type of character Lady Macbeth is than if you watched the whole play. I think that Malcolms comment at the end of the play referring to Lady Macbeth as a “fiend like Queen” could be said about Lady Macbeths character in many scenes of the play but judging on this scene I believe that it is wrong to say that. I think this for many different reasons:
In the scene Lady Macbeth has deteriorated to her lowest point in the play, before committing suicide. She is sleepwalking while she talks through the whole scene. I think that in this scene Lady Macbeth is feeling very sorry for herself and she regrets what she has done. Powerful language is used such as “Hell is murky!” Here she is almost announcing a statement which indicates that she is looking at the negative side of things. At the time that Macbeth was written everybody would strongly believe that they could go to heaven or hell and Lady Macbeth shows this.
I think that the sleepwalking element of the scene adds to the drama and sympathy for Lady Macbeth and also does the element of blood which can not be removed - these are dramatic devices which change this part of the play and add much to the scene.
Lady Macbeth has deep regrets for what she had done earlier on in the play - she thought that a bit of water was all that was needed to wash her hands of Duncan's blood, but, while sleepwalking, she thinks that her hands are covered in blood that cannot be removed. She says: "Yet here's a spot…Out, damned spot! Out, I say! What, will these hands never be clean? Here´s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." By her behaviour, you can see that Lady Macbeth is paying the penalty for the mistakes she helped to make because of her very shocking and powerful language. From just viewing this scene you may believe she was just trying to be a good wife by helping her husband receive what she believed he deserved. Her suffering is so bad that it leads to suicide, which shows that Lady Macbeth is not at all fiend-like at this time in the play. When she mentions the Thane of Fife’s wife and asks the question “Where is she now?” She is asking herself and the audience questions which show you that she is almost asking for a response and is truly sorry for the murders which, again, show she is not fiend like in this scene as Malcolm said. This scene makes you feel sorry for Lady Macbeth and it does not seem like she would be the person who could have masterminded the plot to kill the King. You could say that the ambition of Lady Macbeth is what is to blame for the trouble she got herself into and why in this scene she is so stressed. I believe that Lady Macbeth was a tool of fate. I think the witches used Lady Macbeth and their supernatural powers took over her.
In the overall play, I believe that Malcolm was right to call Lady Macbeth a fiend because she would have been considered as an unnatural person in those times, she would have been considered evil and like the devil. However as I said I think that in my particular scene Lady Macbeth did not show any fiend like qualities.
