Lady Macbeth is presented throughout the play as a character of domineering presence, troubled by the struggles she faces to fulfil her ambitions and those of her husband's. Her first appearance on stage occurs in the aftermath of the audience witnessing the Witches’ Prophecies, as well as seeing battles being won by Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is portrayed throughout the first Act as a woman with authority over her husband. Yet, as she becomes neglected by Macbeth, Shakespeare uses various techniques to portray this withering of her prowess.
Upon reading her husband's letter, Lady Macbeth's reaction is notable. She is adamant to make Macbeth king. Within the letter, Macbeth described Lady Macbeth as "My dearest partner of greatness", which is an endearment to make the audience acknowledge that Lady Macbeth thinks highly of Macbeth. In the context of those days, such an endearment would have been significant, because women lacked rights.
This shows how highly Macbeth thinks of his partner.Then, she states "Hail, king that shalt be!". "Shalt" is a word that makes clear that Macbeth will be made King.However, she is not without her doubts over to King-to-be. In fact, Lady Macbeth questions the manhood of Macbeth, claiming his nature is full "o' the milk of human kindness".
This implies that she sees Macbeth still to be too weak to become King by the quickest route. Although we know Macbeth is not a man who is afraid, what matters is that he is being inferred as too feeble to be crowned King.Towards the end of her opening soliloquy, she then says “chastise with the valour of my tongue, All that impedes thee from the golden round, Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem, To have crown’d withal. That could show Lady Macbeth has a strong belief into the ideal of the supernatural.
The news that Duncan would be coming on that night alerts her to acknowledging that murdering Duncan is the only way of quickly achieving her goal. Lady Macbeth seems pleasantly surprised, especially when questioning "Thou'rt mad to say it". Her intentions are clearly to seize such an opportunity to kill the King and gain the King and Queen-hood for herself and Macbeth.Possible buoyed on by the prospect of Duncan arriving soon, Lady Macbeth delivers a speech, summoning the evil spirits to help her murder King Duncan through removing any notion of remorse. On three occasions, she asks them to “come” - each for something different, but mainly to take away her womanly qualities. Firstly she asks the spirits to “unsex me here”.
Her purpose for saying this is because she assumes that being a woman means she is at risk of feeling guilty, and so wants to rid her womanhood. Then she asks to be protected through heaven. Secondly, giving life is a significant womanly aspect. The word “milk” could also have a connotation of giving life.
In asking the spirits to “take my milk for gall”, she effectively asks for the balance to create an imbalance of yellow bile to turn her ruthless and insolent. Furthermore, she beckons the night to “Pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark”. Not only does this show she believes the “tangible” night can help obscure her actions from the view of Heaven, she also feels she must fight her own nature to achieve her ambition.As Macbeth enters to signify his and Lady Macbeth’s first appearance on stage together, he immediately makes his affection clear for her, labelling her “Mr dearest love”.
This provides further proof of highly he regards his partner.As the pair talk over the coming of Duncan “tonight”, Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth to “look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. These lines could be intrinsically linked to lines from both Virgil’s Eclogue and the Garden of Eden. Both refer to the idea that Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to appear to King Duncan as innocent and trusting, but then be a conniving, venomous man, ready to kill Duncan at any time.
During Act 1 Scene 7, the couple progress to contemplate how to put their ideas into practice. They delve into the context of how they will commit the act. Following Macbeth's soliloquy and his partner's abrupt re-entrance, Macbeth begins to feel apprehensive about the entire plan. He completely changes his mind, as he claims "We will proceed no further in this business, He (Duncan) hath honored me of late, and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss.
Not cast aside so soon". This implies that he wants to relish the opportunity to enjoy being respected by the King, and therefore would like to cherish the moment rather than killing Duncan.But Lady Macbeth uses different methods to persuade Macbeth to change his mind. She claims it was his idea first, lambasting him "Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dressed yourself, Hath it slept since?".
What she is questioning is whether Macbeth can put his own ambitions into practice. Notice that the word “hope” signifies a clash of two metaphors - on one hand being a person and on the other referring to “clothing” that Macbeth wants to be in its “newest gloss”.Then she attacks Macbeth's manhood by calling him a coward, performing a tirade of rhetorical questions such as “Art thou afeard, To be the same in thine own act and valor, As thou art in desire?". This takes note of how she thinks Macbeth's bravery is not enough to fulfil his ambitions.Furthermore, she uses emotive language to the extent that she blackmails Macbeth. By threatening Macbeth with their relationship, Lady Macbeth told him "Such I account thy love".
As the audience, we have already seen how close there are. This is particularly significant in terms of how Macbeth would be forced to mull over his decision not to kill the King, and even though their relationship is intense enough, perhaps it also shows how desperately Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to gain the Kingship.Then Lady Macbeth continues with a horrific example to portray how bad breaking a promise is. This is when she contemptibly utters about a baby "I would, whilst it was smiling in my face, Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you, Have done to this".Not only is this a graphic image of how callous the woman is, by revealing for far she'd go than to break a promise; we also get the notion that she has experienced having a baby. This may prompt the audience to think of its influence on her erratic behaviour, even towards Macbeth.
To even think of giving a baby such torture is barbaric, and so it shows just how ambitious she is in another sense.Lady Macbeth will consider of the prospect of failure. Despite the suggestion of "If we should fail?", from her partner, nothing will deter her from thinking solely of killing the King. She urges Macbeth to "Screw your courage to the sticking place".
It shows that Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to be firm and resolute. This eventually leads to Macbeth agreeing to kill the King, which shows just how influential Lady Macbeth is to him.In Act 2 Scene 2, the audience witnesses the most defining moment in the ambitions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It is evident that the flow of speech has moved away from Shakespeare's classic pentameter.
Instead, she has changed it to short, fragmented passages of speech. For example, Lady Macbeth hastily screeches "Hark! Peace", having somewhat hoarsely led the passage toward' Duncan's bedroom door. This shows the uneasiness of the situation.When Macbeth begins to speak, Lady Macbeth's approach to the killing starts to falter.
There is dramatic irony over her sudden contrast in thoughts where she says "Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And 'tis not done". As the audience, we are startled to hear of this, because now, she is in fear of discovery. She therefore is less assured and confident.Macbeth persists with the deed, but it is followed by some very nervewracking, tense fragments of speech.
Because all of a sudden, their speech turns into quivering, monosyllabic passages. Macbeth falls into a state of remorse by saying "This is a sorry sight".Even though Macbeth claims "Will all Neptune's ocean wash this blood, Clean from my hand?", implying how perplexed he is of getting rid of guilty; the scene slowly phases out. We can still witness fear, but it is gradually. subsiding as Lady Macbeth reassures " A little water clears us of this deed". Little may she have known how this claim foreshadows her state of mind towards the end of the play, where she became traumatised over the idea of blood on her own hands.
Following the risky endeavours of the earlier scene, Macbeth seems to have been influenced greatly, and has has an instinct to kill anyone who may threaten his crown. Such is the case that he has Banquo killed, but is evidently annoyed that Fleance was able to escape.Macbeth threw a banquet to celebrate his inauguration as King. Many Lords and other highly-acclaimed guests were in attendance to join in with the festivity. During the banquet, there were several aspects of language that shows Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's relationship is not the same as before.
Firstly, Lady Macbeth's persuasion no longer works on him. As a reminder of earlier statements about manhood, she asks Macbeth "Are you a man", as Macbeth begins to see the ghost of Banquo. However, Lady Macbeth doesn't know about such an apparition, so even though she scolds him in the same manner as before, it has no influence on Macbeth as he has seen the ghost.Also, Lady Macbeth worries about how she and Macbeth appear as a couple. Even as she despairs "Nought's had, All's spent Where our joy is got without content", she remains desperate to help Macbeth appear jovial, in an attempt to preserve their status. Her husband is the one who empowers her - and without him, she would have no power.
This is made especially clear when she orders the Lords to leave, so that guests still see them as partners and thus King and Queen, even amidst Macbeth's lack of self-coordination.Quite dramatically, the previous scene was Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's final scene together. Since then, it appears that Macbeth has somewhat neglected Lady Macbeth, and their once inextricable relationship has collapsed. This is epitomized through the structure of her speeches. She had abruptly made the move from confident verses to agitated, fragmented pieces of speech in prose.Lady Macbeth begins the scene in a very eerie, melancholy atmosphere to show her loneliness.
She begins to walk and tal kin her sleep because she needs to be given a mental cleansing. Beforehand, Lady Macbeth never perceived that murder would take its toll on her, and she shouts "Out, damned spot". In Act 1 Scene 5, she denied any notion of being punished for wrongdoing. What's more is that she even rejected Macbeth's claims of Neptune's Ocean not being able to wash Duncan's blood off his hand during Act 2 Scene 2. She pleads to no avail "will all the perfumes of Arabia not sweeten this little hand". We can see how weak she now is.
Agonizingly, Lady Macbeth re-runs the contribution she made to murdering Duncan. But more importantly, she feels she is wholesomely to blame for murder. Some of the ideals she belived in before come back to haunt her, most notably the ideal of the supernatural. In this instance, she Doctor treating her claims "This disease is beyond my practice". This links back to when she indulged in the evil spirits - but now, it shows her feebleness without the support of Macbeth.
She is by now unfixable, but still horrified by the continued killings that Macbeth commits. By acknowledging she slaughter of Lady Macduff and her children, as well as the killing of Banquo, she compounds her own misery, saying "Banquo's buried, he cannot come out on's grave. If you compare this to her ruthless mentality to kill anyone standing in her and Macbeth's way during Act 1 Scene 5, it is again evident she is withering without Macbeth's influence.Her very last line exemplifies the range of interpretations of the idea of sleep. She says "To bed, to bed, to bed". We know how distraught she is and using the idea of sleep in this context invites the audience to think of how ironic the idea of sleep was when used in the context of Macbeth killing Banquo during Act 2 Scene 2.
There are many conclusions that can be drawn from Lady Macbeth's role throughout the play of Macbeth. Solely on her own, Lady Macbeth was never domineering enough to take control of everything. For example, the sleepwalking scene intimately showed ow fearful Lady Macbeth was, and as Macbeth's conscience came to light during a public banquet, Lady Macbeth's fear also appeared in a private setting. We could link this to the contemporary society, wherein the role of men is considered a stark contrast from that of women in a similar sense.
Lady Macbeth always foresaw an end to the process, because when Duncan was killed, she and Macbeth would reign. This is significant because mentally, she also considered that herself and Macbeth would be King and Queen.The feeling of neglect eventually drove her to the extent that she became mad. What was a relationship of King and Queen somehow no longer existed for her. It shows that once Macbeth gradually become less interdependent, he had less of a reliance on Lady Macbeth - leaving Lady Macbeth isolated on her own.Although some may say that Lady Macbeth was the architect of her own downfall, we could also suggest that Lady Macbeth wasn't evil.
Macbeth eventually appeared to be the one with the most belief in Lady Macbeth's supernatural powers. In fact, it was the case that these supernatural powers actually turned back on her and came to haunt her as she becomes obsessed. Once the evil powers had drawn her in, her demise lead her to being incapable of producing any love or genuine emotion at all that extends beyond the desperation of her predicament.
