When Macbeth arrives she encourages him to take chances, to further his ambitions at any cost, to do things no other man would dare. She attempts to live her aspirations through him ‘look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t’ we see her here in complete control boosting his confidence in order to get what she wants. The language of this phrase has biblical overtones of Adam and Eve, suggesting they are a good team.
When Duncan arrives her ambitions are already clear, she shows how appearances can be deceiving in the way in which she treats him. The air may be delightful but we know in reality it is to be the site of a foul murder.
The next time we see Lady Macbeth is while dinner with Duncan is taking place and lady Macbeth and Macbeth are not at the table and lady Macbeth starts to use her womanhood to attack Macbeth. She starts by asking Macbeth questions and says, ‘was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?’, ‘wakes it now to look green and pale at what it did so freely?’ and ‘art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art in desire?’, these are all challenging Macbeth’s manhood, which is something she can only do as a woman. She does this to attempt to get Macbeth to go ahead with the plan of killing Duncan because she does not have the courage herself. She continues in this manner and starts dictating to Macbeth on how to be a man, ‘you would be so much more the man’, and then she declares that he had made a promise to kill Duncan, and if she was a man she would live up to her word. In this passage Lady Macbeth eventually convinces Macbeth that killing Duncan would be the best thing, she manages to do this by undermining his manhood, accusing him of cowardice and claiming that the only thing holding her back from doing it herself is because she is a woman. She attacks him exactly where she knows it will hurt; his courage and manhood are at stake. At the end of the scene Macbeth says, ‘False face must hide what false face doth know’, this echoes a message that Lady Macbeth said to Macbeth earlier in the play in which she told him to act like an innocent flower but be the serpent under it. He has now absorbed her power I think this shows that she is a loving wife but the power she wants for herself, so maybe she is also an ambitious monster.
After the murder of Duncan we again see Lady Macbeth in control, despite some nervous apprehension early on she is again in control of her and her husband. She planned the execution, and now it is her readiness of mind and strength of purpose that compensate for Macbeth failure to act decisively once the murder is committed. However ambitious Lady Macbeth acts in this scene even when she tells Macbeth not to think about what he ahs done. I think for the first time in the play we see that she is not actually completely evil, ‘ Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t.’ we can see that she would not go to any length to become queen yet she can still handle someone else doing it. This is where we realise that her denial of reality will in the end be her downfall. I think that as she is not totally evil, however she is awesome in her commitment, her pathetic belief in herself and the powers of darkness will in the end cause the demise of her plan. ‘And wash this filthy witness from your hand.’ Is naïve enough to think that washing the blood from ones hands will rid of the guilt that follows, as the visible impact is gone.
Almost inevitable the two of them become so caught up in evil they cannot escape; their relationship begins to break up. No longer does Macbeth always rely on his wife to be by his side, and from the seen where Duncan has just been killed we see she is no longer in control. He is now in control, making his own decisions without consulting her. During this scene however Macbeth appears to be giving too much away and so lady Macbeth faints, her soon, at this point conveniently distracts attention away from her husband. Although she may not be in control of what he has done she takes control of the situation, I think as a loving wife and rescues him from saying too much and giving away what they have done. She might also have done this to protect herself as well as him so she could life out her aspirations. I think this is the point at which Lady Macbeth starts to regret what she has done and she realises there is no turning back once she has lost control of Macbeth. We do not know if the faint is real or not but if not it shows her talented skills of deception. Here she proves she can act like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it. This is because she uses her skills to deceive everyone from the truth yet she still appears ‘o gentle lady’ as Macduff says.
We see Macbeth becoming stronger and stronger. As Macbeth continues to commit more crimes Lady Macbeth loses more and more of her power and control of over Macbeth. As she begins to lose charge he grows stronger. She will take control one more time at the banquet before she becomes overwhelmed with remorse for what she has done and eventually goes mad. Macbeth keeps to himself more, she is no longer dominant and he broods alone on the crimes he ahs committed he no longer shares his thought with her and she becomes isolated.
In the supper after Macbeth has had Banquo killed and when Banquo’s ghost appears in Macbeth’s seat. Macbeth starts to act as if he is mad when he sees the ghost and Lady Macbeth is required to cover up and protect him once again by taking him away. Crucially the first thing she asks him is ‘are you a man?’ to which Lady Macbeth is worried about because she feel that if he continues, he is going to give away the fact that he killed Duncan and Banquo. Lady Macbeth continues to criticise Macbeth, ‘this is the very painting of your fear’ and calls his visions ‘a woman’s story at a winters fire’, in this instance lady Macbeth ahs her resumed her role in which she is in control. He acts as an animal as a natural consequence of his choices, the bestial imagery creates this effect. This scene highlights her as a loving wife because she knows that the worst is to come and that she is falling but she still attempts to rescue him from ruining his chances even if they have distanced and she now realises what they did was wrong.
In the final scene in which we see Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare illustrates the complete collapse of Lady Macbeth’s desired persona, as she shows her real self in her sleep, and she turns from an evil person to a weak, sleep walking woman, who is confessing to everything she has done and losing her power and telling all her secrets as she can no longer cover them up with her consciousness.
Through the play we see her great ambition to help her husband become king by any means and she is prepared to have her womanhood taken away from her to be able to succeed in doing this. However we can see that she uses her womanhood to undermine Macbeth’s manhood and get what she requires. Overall she may be the more powerful and brave in her relationship with Macbeth through her exploration of his honour, which gradually disappears, but in the end Shakespeare shows her ultimate futility in the sleepwalking scene where she has no power. Their fates are joined but her role and character support Macbeth’s destiny but Macbeth, in the final analysis, is too preoccupied with his own role to give her support.
