How does Lady Macbeth Change During The Course Of The Play 'Macbeth'.

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How does Lady Macbeth Change During The Course Of The Play ‘Macbeth’

Lady Macbeth’s character changes a lot during the course of the play. The character at the beginning is so different to the one presented in her final scene would not even be recognised as the same person. The play accurately depicts the progression of Lady Macbeth from a dominating, confident, ruthless killer, to a weak, mentally unstable, dying woman.

The first scene she appears in shows Lady Macbeth reading a letter from Macbeth regarding his encounter with the witches after they predicted he would become King. This scene illustrates the immensely strong bond between her and her husband, in the way that she doesn’t doubt him for a moment. As soon as she finishes reading the letter, she immediately starts formulating and doesn’t question how or why or when he is to become king:

“Glamis thou art and Cawdor and shall be

What thou art promised”

        This scene can also be said to display impatience in her character. She accuses Macbeth of being:

“Too full o’th’milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way”

…instantly deciding that murder is the quickest (and therefore preferable) method to ensuring this prediction is made flesh. Rather than accepting that Macbeth would not be willing to go to these lengths whatever the reward, she continues toying with this idea, planning how it could be done despite this.

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Just to prove how much this would mean to Lady Macbeth, she states that since Macbeth suggested it in the first place, she would rather:

“while [our child] was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”

 

than allow Macbeth to back out now. This once again shows her shrewdness, as she’s obviously deliberately using very violent imagery as a shock tactic to guilt Macbeth in to submission. She knows that if they are going to murder Duncan they have to do it tonight, so she’s using every method she can think of to persuade him before it’s too late and the prospect of power becomes seemingly unreachable.

The audience since her first soliloquy has established that she has more ambition, and craves more domination than a woman (particularly at that time) is thought rightly to have. The notions that she has conjured up do not seem to be likely of a particularly feminine personality. She shows very little compassion or worry.

Lady Macbeth has powerfully changed Macbeth, using his moral weaknesses exposed by his ambition, to change his mind. Macbeth has let his wife’s iron will destroy his conscience and his somewhat ‘sophisticated’ moral sense. The audience are nevertheless left with sub-conscience doubts about Lady Macbeth’s appearance of unshakeable strength.

There is an obvious change once the actual murder takes place, however. Once she returns from drugging the guards with alcohol she says:

‘That which hat made them drunk, hath made me bold

 What hath quench’d them, hath given me fire…’

…which shows a lapse in her confidence. Although this may seem like a obscure reference, I believe that up until her last scenes Lady Macbeth puts on a convincing front to cover up any weaknesses. She seemed enormously self-assured when trying to persuade Macbeth, but now considers alcohol as a way to gain the ‘boldness’ she feigned earlier.

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 Despite how much she obviously wants Macbeth to be king and the lengths she went to convince him he wanted it too, she refuses to kill Duncan herself. Previously, Lady Macbeth had said:

“Leave all the rest to me”

…so she had maybe intended to do the deed herself, but once faced with the actual opportunity to do so, she looses her nerve and says that:

“Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done’t”

This shows a very different attitude to the one she was hoping to adopt earlier on in ...

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