During this speech, she also says, “No compunctions visitings of nature shake my fell purpose”. This shows that Lady Macbeth is prepared to completely upset the popular belief of Natural Order and to disturb the way the world functions in order to achieve her goal.
For the Elizabethan audience, treason would be the worst crime to commit because it was strongly believed that the King was placed on the throne by God
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and that by committing regicide, a person would not only be going against their country but also God and disturbing the Divine Right of the King.
Everybody and everything had a place in the Chain of Being and since it was broken with the murder of King Duncan, many strange events occurred the next morning. The falcon, a bird of prey, was hunted and killed by an owl, Duncan’s horses ate each other and Lenox states that the owl was restless during the night. This would have shocked the audience because the owl was regarded as a very supernatural creature, causing them to realise that Lady Macbeth had disturbed one of the main foundations of life.
Another reason why Lady Macbeth would have been so horrific for the audience is because of the way she demoralises and has control over Macbeth. Macbeth was a loyal man and highly honoured by the King. However, he allows his wife to dominate him in order to suit her. The reason why he lets her do this is revealed in his letter where he says, “My dearest partner of greatness” (1.VI. 10). This is proof that he has a very strong bond with his wife and the reason why he allows himself to lose his loyalty to the King so easily.
Lady Macbeth informs him to, “Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (1.VI. 64-65) meaning to act trustworthy and kind when facing the King but to deceivingly plot against him in his head. She uses this method to deceive those around her very often. She also tells him to, “Leave the rest to me” (1.VI. 73). This shows that unlike other women of her time, Lady Macbeth shows that she has power over her husband. She orders Macbeth to “Go get some water and wash this filthy witness from your hand”. Here
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Lady Macbeth proves that she has no care about what she has done. However, Macbeth already regrets it. It was very unusual for a woman to have such power and control, which would astonish the audience. When Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost in the dining room, his wife tells everybody to ignore him before he nearly confesses his secret. She turns to him and says, “Are you man?” (3.IV. 58). She then orders everybody, “Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once” (3.IV. 119-120). This shows the dominating and controlling side of her personality and would certainly horrify the audience.
In Scene 4, Act 2, Shakespeare tries to make Lady Macbeth appear more horrendous by contrasting her against Macduff’s wife. Lady Macduff is seen having a conversation with her son, much unlike lady Macbeth ever would. In fact the only time that we ever hear about children from her is when she says to Macbeth, “I have given suck and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me…dash’d the brains out. Lady Mabeth says this to Macbeth to inform him that she is perfectly capable of sucking a baby. However, if she needed to, could violently kill it. This dialogue also shows that she knows what to say to keep Macbeth from backing out of killing King Duncan.
Although Lady Macbeth is such a horrific character, she shows rare signs of kindness. If she was always such an malevolent person, then Duncan would never have invited himself over to her castle. She must have been an excellent hostess and very trustworthy if the King was to dine with them. Lady Macbeth also tells her husband that she would have murdered Duncan, “had he not resembled my father as he slept” (2.II.12). This proves that inside, she does
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have factors of concern and apprehension or she would not have hesitated to commit regicide. Shakespeare uses these signs of kindness to create a more horrendous character when the audience see her two faced personality.
In Act 5, the audience see that Lady Macbeth has let the crime she has committed distress her and drive her to insanity. The doctor reveals that she has been sleepwalking. For the audience, this would have shown a seriously guilty conscience. The gentlewoman informs the doctor that Lady Macbeth has told her the secret but will not repeat it because it is too dreadful to be said but gives the excuse that she has, “no witness to confirm my speech” (5.1. 15-16).
Altogether, if Lady Macbeth had have been a character in the twenty-first century, an audience of today most likely would not have been astonished and shocked by her mannerisms. It s because of the disturbance of Natural Order and the Chain of Being, which was the common belief in the seventeenth century that allowed lady Macbeth to be such a horrific character for Shakespeare’s audience.
