"Look like th' innocent flower, but be the serpent under't."
She tells Macbeth to put on a pleasant face and leave the rest to her. This shows that Lady Macbeth is the dominant character in the relationship at this point in the play.
Lady Macbeth ordered her husband around, instructing him on how he should act, and encouraging him to betray his loyal and trusting leader, Duncan. I think one of the main reasons Lady Macbeth tried so hard to persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan was because she wanted the power and glory that came with being Queen, but knew that it could only be gained through Macbeth. In those days, females were seen as the weaker sex, and therefore could not play an important role in society.
Macbeth's conscience pricks him long before he carries out Duncan's murder, and when he starts to have second thoughts about killing him, Lady Macbeth is furious and starts verbally assaulting Macbeth's courage and manhood.
"I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless hums
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this."
Lady Macbeth said this to prove that if she had promised to do something as Macbeth had done, she would kill their child rather than break her promise.
Immediately after the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth looks to Lady Macbeth for comfort and support. He is frightened and remorseful, and Lady Macbeth is forced to go back and cover up Macbeth's mistakes. I think that it is because of Lady Macbeth that the murder was successful.
When Lady Macbeth hears Macbeth talking about his bloody hands, she says:
"My hands are of your colour, but I shame
To wear a heart so white."
She meant that her hands are red too, but she would be ashamed to have a heart as white as Macbeth's. At this point in the play, it seems as if Macbeth would be helpless without his wife.
It seems, however, that Macbeth's lack of self-control is only temporary. By the time Macduff has arrived, Macbeth seems to be composed, at least on the surface.
After this point, Macbeth's character begins to gradually change. He becomes so absorbed in his mixed feelings about the murder, that he withdraws from the loving relationship he had with Lady Macbeth at the beginning of the play. Macbeth starts to shut Lady Macbeth out of his thoughts, and gradually she becomes less and less involved with him. It seems that lady Macbeth failed to see that one murder would inevitable lead to others.
During the time between Duncan's murder and the banquet, the relationship between the Macbeth's becomes very troubled, and neither of them can sleep.
In Act 3, we know that the Macbeth's have not been communicating as well as before Duncan's murder, because Lady Macbeth has to ask a servant to call Macbeth for her, so that she can speak to him. It is in this scene that Lady Macbeth says:
"Nought's had, alls spent
Where our desire is got without content:
'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy."
Lady Macbeth only admits that possession has brought unhappiness when she is alone. As soon as Macbeth arrives, she tries to comfort him, and encourages her husband to confide in her again, because she doesn't want to worry him. However, Macbeth sense that it is her who feels helpless, and that he should be the one comforting her.
When Lady Macbeth asks "What's to be done?", Mabeth attempts to protect her from further involvement by replying:
"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck."
Although he has recognised how mentally fragile his wife is, Macbeth pushes her even further from his life.
At the banquet, Lady Macbeth and macbeth sit apart, which is another indication that their relationship is growing increasingly strained.
We see Macbeth's emotional anguish at the banquet. He sees Banquo's ghost, his loyal friend who Macbeth had ordered to be killed. Lady Macbeth can not see this "ghost" and tries to excuse her husband's behaviour to all the guests present at the banquet. She taunts him, like she did when she was encouraging Macbeth to kill Duncan, in an attempt to restore order and make him act normal again. I don't think that Lady Macbeth is particularly worried about her husbands' mental state, but more worried about Macbeth exposing the secret about Duncan's death.
After Macbeth has seen the ghost, Lady Macbeth shows feelings of embarrassment about her husband's behaviour, and thinks that his actions showed that he was weak and not worthy of becoming King.
"You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
With most admired disorder."
Lady Macbeth says this to Macbeth to humiliate him and make him feel ashamed of his lack of self.
By the end of the scene, Macbeth is determined to go back to the witches, and all his wife can do is try to make him normal again. After the banquet scene however, there is a long period when all Lady Macbeth can do is watch as her husband continues killing.
When we next see Lady Macbeth after the banquet, she has become overpowered by her imagination. All the secrets of her conscious and unconscious mind have merged, and Macbeth does not seem to exist in her mind anymore; she becomes obsessive and re-runs her part in the murder of Duncan over and over again. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and speaking to herself.
"Out, damned spot! Out i say!"
Lady Macbeth can see Duncan's blood on her hands and tries to wash it off, but nothing will make it go away.
Macbeth's moods are constantly fluctuating from one to another, and he doesn't see Lady Macbeth's suffering.
Lady Macbeth eventually kills herself because she cannot cope with the guilt of killing King Duncan. When Macbeth is informed that his wife is dead, he feels that life has become meaningless. After all that they had been through, what had they actually achieved? His power and motivation seems to vanish. Everything that had seemed so important to him before - ambition, desires, fears - is reduced to nothing.
When Macbeth's castle is beseiged, he realises that this is the end. However, he refuses to surrender, even though he knows he will lose, and is killed by Macduff.
"Life is but a walking shadow..."
By Suzanne Bowden - 10F