The doctor believes that she is cursed by the devil and needs a priest. He tells the gentlewoman to keep an eye on her and keep her away from anything dangerous. He is very suspicious yet does not want to say anything.
In the previous scene, Macduff is told about the murder of his wife and children. In act 5 scene 1, Lady Macbeth talks about the Thane of Fife, whose wife had just been murdered. The link with this shows that Lady Macbeth is getting suspicious of Macbeth and she is wondering if he has anything to do with some of these murders.
The last time we saw Lady Macbeth was when Macbeth saw the dead ghost of Banquo in front of the Lords. Her change of character has transformed completely since then as she used to be a strong, quick-witted person and now has turned into a weak and unstable individual. In the last scene we saw her, she was covering up for Macbeth as he saw the ghost. She used her acting skills to fool the Lords into believing that it was a minor illness and it was nothing to worry about. She is now nervous, shaking and I think that she is probably scared as to what is going to happen now. She has her suspicions that her husband, Macbeth killed Banquo as before anybody knew that he was dead, he saw the ghost. This links up to the fact that Macbeth is drifting away from Lady Macbeth.
After reading this scene, I have learnt a lot more about Lady Macbeth’s character. It shows that she is definitely not the same woman as she was at the beginning of the play. I think that this scene proves that Lady Macbeth is not as evil as she made out to be. She has realised what she has done and now she is consumed with guilt, along with taking self-pity on herself. My opinion of her has changed since Lady Macbeth was first introduced, as I think that she is not as evil as I thought before. In act 1 scene 5, she appeals to the spirits to help her. This shows that she did not need evil before, and she may not be evil now. Now I believe that she is more like an average person with average emotions. I think everyone would panic in a situation like that. We’ve all done something and then worried about it afterwards, just like Lady Macbeth has. Lady Macbeth’s character gets more depth as the play progresses, we learn more about her and of the many layers her character has.
After seeing her in act 5 scene 1, I have realised that she is a very weak person. I started to recognise this previously in the play when she persuaded Macbeth to kill the king. The king looked too much like her father, so she couldn’t kill him herself. Even though this was not relevant at the time, we see now that this contributes to the suggestion that she is not such an evil person, she is weak. At the very beginning of the play, she was very strong, had the complete trust and confidence of her husband and doesn’t let anything get in the way of her dreams. Now that her dream has come alive, she regrets making it come true.
We learn that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s marriage is crumbling. We know this by the way she talks about Banquo and Macduff, and by the fact that Macbeth never confides in her.
“The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?” This line of speech shows that she does not trust Macbeth anymore. In her heart, she knows that Macbeth killed Macduff’s family.
“Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave.” This line shows that Banquo is haunting her. He used to be Macbeth’s best friend, and Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth has no heart now and will not hesitate in killing even his best friend. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony here.
At the beginning of the play, they shared all their secrets. Macbeth even told Lady Macbeth about the witches, and what they said to him. They shared their feelings about killing the king but now, Macbeth went secretly behind her back and killed Banquo, Macduff’s family and was planning to kill Banquo’s son. She knows Macbeth’s character too well. Lady Macbeth knows now that there is no chance of loving Macbeth the same way that she used to. I think that part of the reason why she has changed her character in the way that she has is because she realises that she is not loved anymore.
She is unable to cope with all the guilt. She was the one who put the idea into Macbeth’s head in the first place. She was the one who told Macbeth to kill the king. She was the one who told Macbeth to kill the servants. She was the one who planned everything. In a way, she was the one who killed the King. She spilt royal blood, the worst sin of them all. She killed the ruler of Scotland but worst of all she disobeyed God. This is her punishment.
In Lady Macbeth’s speeches, she repeats symbolic words such as bed. This has the significance of sleep. To be healthy you need sleep. Sleep is the natural way to a healthy life. Lady Macbeth has disturbed sleep and in Shakespeare’s day, this would mean that she is not natural and that she had committed a totally unnatural act. At that time, people believed that you had the free choice to be good or evil. Scotland was a place full of murder and evil. Evil powers were waiting to take over. If you didn’t sleep well, then you were considered evil. Throughout the play, the theme of sleep is mentioned a lot. After Macbeth has seen the ghost of Banquo (in act 3 scene 4), Lady Macbeth accuses him of going mad when she says “You lack the season of all natures, sleep.” This is also when their relationship starts to fall apart.
Another word she repeats is “come”. In act 1 scene 5, she says “come thick night.” This ties up with the symbolism of light and dark. This falls in place with the fact that she always has a light beside her. The audience would be wondering whether she is really evil.
She must be stricken with guilt. Everything was her fault. She would be thinking “If I told him not to kill the King, would he of killed the others?” Her plan was just to become Queen. To become queen, she would of helped murder one person, not have hundreds slaughtered!
I start to understand the state that Lady Macbeth is in when she started to speak. She speaks with short sentences, she rambles and she is incoherent. She lacks in confidence now and she does not speak logically. This is a dramatic change, she is now not in control.
All her fears are told in what she says. It shows that she may have an obsessive disorder when she talks about the spot of the king’s blood on her hand. Her speech shows that she is actually afraid of evil, and hell is where she will be going. She is scared that because Macbeth is a soldier, he is used to killing and will not hesitate to slay a few more people. She is terrified that he will kill even more people and says “there will be no more o’that my lord, no more o’that.” She was not worried about the event before but now she is petrified.
Her lines don’t flow together and her state of mind is in a very confused state. Part of the story seems to be still in her head. The memory of the king’s murder must still be alive in her brain. Shakespeare used this technique so that Lady Macbeth doesn’t thoroughly give her full story out to the doctor and gentlewoman. Shakespeare uses prose and not verse on Lady Macbeth to give more of an effect on the scene. If everything blended in well together, it would not have the same impression that Shakespeare wanted it to be.
Lady Macbeth is also afraid that the blood on her hand will never go. “Perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,” she says. From saying this I think that she takes pity on herself. She shows that she thinks that her hands are innocent by saying the word “little”. She must be very confused. Her mouth must be guilty but her hands are innocent. She feels guilty not because she actually killed the king but she helped along and planned the whole thing.
In act 2 scene 2, she declares “a little water clears us of this deed.” We know now that she was very wrong indeed. Shakespeare used dramatic irony well, to link everything up in the play. I have realised that certain symbolic words are used to structure the play and prepare the audience, without giving the game away of what is going to happen.
The way I think she would dress has a big effect on the scene. I imagine her to be in her night-clothes and her hair would be in a state. When you are in your night-clothes, you are exposed and vulnerable, whereas when you are wearing clothes, they cover you up and you don’t feel so out in the open. She has been stripped of all the clothing of high office. I picture her to be shivering, as she would be cold and not properly dressed.
I think that the doctor and the gentlewoman were added to this scene so that they can prepare us for what is going to happen next. At the beginning of the scene, the audience start to become conscious of what state Lady Macbeth is in before we even see her. We know this when the gentlewoman explains what she does. But this does not interfere with the shock we get when she enters into the scene. The doctor knows that she is not healthy. If the doctor and the gentlewoman don’t prepare the audience, nobody would know that Lady Macbeth was actually sleepwalking, as she has her eyes open.
It hightens the dramatic effect when the doctor and gentlewoman realise the enormity of what has been done. As soon as Lady Macbeth has said just enough to keep them suspicious yet not enough for them to know the truth, the scene ends.
I think that the whole play comes down to one theme, the power of good and evil. It all ties up with symbolism. Darkness means evil and hell, light means goodness and purity. This scene was deliberately set in the night to get this point across to the audience. Lady Macbeth is scared of the dark, which shows that she may not be as evil as we think she is. It also shows that she is scared of evil, which means that inside she is actually a good person. She asks to have a light beside her all the time, which shows that she always has goodness by her side.
Shakespeare thought that whenever it was bad weather, something evil was going to happen. He purposely made the scene of the witches on the heath, because this is where the bad weather was.
Shakespeare never made it clear on how Lady Macbeth died. People assumed that she killed herself. She was driven insane by her actions when she allowed ambition to over-rule her. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth could have changed the future by their actions but instead it ended up with both of them dead. I believe that this is a very important scene in Macbeth. It has a moral and the audience should find this scene helpful. Shakespeare tells the audience that if you plot against the king, god will certainly punish you!
