Lady Macbeth is highly responsible for her husband’s evil actions. After calling upon the forces of evil to give her the strength: “unsex me here...of direst cruelty” (1,5,40-42), Lady Macbeth tries to transform her husband from good to evil. She tells him not to be a coward: “Your face my thane is as a book where men may read strange matters” (1,5,61-62). In another words, he should be more hypocritical: “your hand your tongue, look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” (1,5,64-65). Furthermore, she plunges Macbeth into a murderous plot when she merely entices him. Lady Macbeth would do everything to make her husband complete the deed of killing Duncan. She wants the title of queen more than anything else. Finally, she comes up with the whole plan for Macbeth to murder King Duncan. First of all, Lady Macbeth gets the two guards so drunk that they will be unconscious. Then, Macbeth can kill unguarded Duncan in his sleep without difficulties; and whatever they do they can lay all the blame on the two guards. Lady Macbeth is the main cause of Macbeth’s downfall. Even though Macbeth did the crimes, and the witches give have the first idea of being king, Lady Macbeth seems to push him the most. Macbeth knows that killing Duncan is an unnatural act for he is a noble man. Then, Lady Macbeth starts it all by convincing him to kill the king. Later, he makes a stand against his wife, saying that “we will proceed no further in this business” (1,7,31). He justifies his decision by explaining Duncan is a good king; he is Duncan’s host and also his kinsman. Lady Macbeth is certainly not swayed with that decision. She starts to question his bravery first by calling him “green and pale”. After, Lady Macbeth questions his manhood by making him look like a timid, unmasculine man: “what beast was’t then that made you break this enterprise to be? When you durst do it, then you were a man” (1,7,47-49). She groans in pain and accuses Macbeth of breaking their promise “how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me...and dash’d the brains out” (1,7,55-58). To her it would be more wrong breaking one’s promise then to commit a murder. Although Macbeth still has doubts: “if we should fail” (1,7,59), Lady Macbeth confidently keeps him overcome that: “But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we’ll not fail” (1,7,60-61). After killing Duncan, Macbeth feels guilty: “this is a sorry sight” (2,2,23). Lady Macbeth opposes it and tries to keep the evil strength inside him: “a foolish thing to say a sorry sight” (2,2,24). Lady Macbeth is an external force that mostly influences on Macbeth’s evil acts.
Finally, Macbeth’s own evil character motivates him to commit unnatural acts. The audience is aware of Macbeth’s deep desire of being king: “stars, hide your fires!, let not light see my dark and deep desires” (1,5,50-51). When King Duncan names Malcolm as heir it puts a big obstacle in the way of Macbeth: “the Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap, for in my way it lies” (1,5,48-50). Soon after, he realizes that he has to kill Duncan to sit on the throne of Scotland. Macbeth now has everything that he wants, but he loses his morals altogether. He murders his best friend, Banquo. He thinks that Banquo is conspiring against him: “Our fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature” (3,1,50-51); besides, Macbeth is willing to kill Fleance who will be king due to the prophecy: “then prophet-like, they hail’d him father to a line of kings” (3,1,60-61). Macbeth’s sanity seems to be covered by his ambition. He starts murdering innocent family, Macduff’s family: “he has kill’d me mother...I pray you” (4,3,82-83). Macbeth embraces the dark side of evil that has been corrupting his mind.
Macbeth’s commitment to evil is his downfall. Be embracing evil, Macbeth gradually loses his insanity and morality. The witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s motivation and his own ambition are the three forces that lead Macbeth to evil. Ultimately, Lady Macbeth plays a significant role in his destruction because of her influence Macbeth ends up being a sinful character in the play.
