Lady Macbeth: An In-Depth Character Analysis

LADY MACBETH: AN IN-
DEPTH CHARACTER
ANALYSIS
Lady Macbeth in relation to themes of Ambition, Gender, Supernatural, etc.
CIE IGCSE LITERATURE

LADY MACBETH: AN IN-DEPTH CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Contents
Introduction.......................................................................................................................................2
Lady Macbeth as a woman of the Jacobean Era, and how an audience of said era would react to
her subversion of femininity..............................................................................................................2
Lady Macbeth in relation to her husband..........................................................................................3
Lady Macbeth as an Archetype: Femme Fatale.................................................................................4
Lady Macbeth as an Archetype: Eve and the Fall of Man..................................................................4
Lady Macbeth and the Theme of Gender..........................................................................................4
Lady Macbeth’s Manipulation of Macbeth and the Theme of Gender..........................................4
Soliloquy: Act 1, Scene 5................................................................................................................5
Analysis of Soliloquy......................................................................................................................6
Significance of Soliloquy:...............................................................................................................6
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................6
Lady Macbeth and the Theme of Appearances vs Reality.................................................................7
Lady Macbeth and the Theme of Guilt, Innocence and Paranoia......................................................7
Context..........................................................................................................................................8
In relation to Lady Macbeth...........................................................................................................8
In relation to her rejection of femininity.......................................................................................8
Guilt and its costs..........................................................................................................................8
Blood and hallucinations...............................................................................................................9
Sleep and Insomnia......................................................................................................................10
Light vs Dark................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................11
Lady Macbeth and Ambition............................................................................................................11
Lady Macbeth and the Supernatural...............................................................................................11
Student exemplar: Lady Macbeth as Powerful (A)...........................................................................12
Student Exemplar: Lady Macbeth as Powerful (B)...........................................................................13
Arguments for Lady Macbeth being weak...................................................................................15
Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: Beginning (1.1 – 2.1).....................................................15
Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: Middle (2.2 – 3.4).........................................................15
Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: End (3.5 – 5.9)..............................................................16
Does Lady Macbeth manipulate her husband?...............................................................................17
Conventional view.......................................................................................................................17
Alternative Interpretation...........................................................................................................17
Irony in Lady Macbeth’s final scene.................................................................................................18
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Further Commentary.......................................................................................................................19
In reference to her insomnia and insanity:..................................................................................19
On Irony:......................................................................................................................................20
Summarised, with significant quotes...........................................................................................21
In regards to the ending of Lady Macbeth’s life..........................................................................27
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth........................................................................................................28
On fainting...................................................................................................................................30
Significant Quotes and Analyses......................................................................................................31
How much of Lady Macbeth’s actions are down to her own person?.............................................36
Introduction
Lady Macbeth can be viewed as an antagonist (due to how she drives and manipulates her
husband towards murder and bloodshed despite his reluctance and protests) or a tragic
heroine (she started off in a position of success and glory, but falls from grace due to an
error in judgement of her own making).
She is a wife of a Thane (who owns land given to him by the king), and lives in luxury, having
a good reputation. However, she lacks power, as all women did during Jacobean times. As a
women, her prospects are limited, and she cannot move upwards in society unless her
husband does (but note that the assertion that Lady Macbeth sought a crown for herself is
absolutely unjustified by anything in the play).
Adjectives to describe Lady Macbeth: determined, ruthless, strong-willed, self-assured.
Literary Comparisons/ Mythological Connotations/Allusions: Eve during the Fall of Man,
Pandora in Greek Mythology, Morgan le Fay (lover of story’s main hero but also a catalyst
for his downfall).
Lady Macbeth as a woman of the Jacobean Era, and how an audience of said era would react
to her subversion of femininity.
Women in the Jacobean Era had no legal rights in society; when they were married, they
essentially became the property of their husbands. Their main role was to bear children and
run the household. Domestic abuse/murder and maternal mortality were extremely
common. Any education a woman was offered was geared towards either domestic abilities
such as cooking and cleaning, or creative pursuits for the upper classes, in the hopes that
they would attract a man.
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In the play, Shakespeare allows us to see how Lady Macbeth copes with these aspects of life
as someone who has an inferior position in society. Within her marriage, she is a dominant
figure with her own clear identity, ambitions, and purpose. She is unconventially
powerful; when she describes the Macbeths’ home as being her own battlements, using a
possessive determiner ‘my’, she shows how she defies the conventions of an actively
patriarchal society. Rather than appearing weak or idiotic, she is portrayed as someone who
is smart, cunning, bloodthirsty and willing to embrace villainy or the occult in order to
achieve her aims. Furthermore, she is the main conspirator out of the Macbeths, and plants
the idea of murder in her husband’s mind by using skilful rhetoric. She is juxtaposed with
her husband, who has more feminine traits than her. Macbeth is uncertain, hesitant and
weak-willed, succumbing easily to the manipulations of his wife. Lady Macbeth, on the other
hand, demonstrates masculine traits such as a hunger for power, ruthlessness, ambition
and determinations. Macbeth recognises this, and tells her that she should not bear female
children because of her masculine spirit in Act 1, Scene 7: ‘bring forth men-children only, for
thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males’. She therefore upsets the Great
Chain of Being in the sense that she doesn’t fulfil her proper role as a traditional Jacobean
woman.
This subversion of traditional femininity was, to a Jacobean audience, more than enough
evidence that she was linked to the supernatural. Shakespeare implies that her unnatural
power and determination as a woman is due to aforementioned supernatural links. The
methods that she uses to manipulate him holds explicit links to the supernatural. She
wanted to ‘pour (her) spirits in (his) ear’, an allusion to demonic possession. This quote also
has connotations to the story of the Garden of Eden; the serpent tempted Eve to sin, and
Eve then whispered in Adam’s ear so that he might join her. Alternatively, Lady Macbeth
could also be viewed as an imitation of Pandora from Roman mythology; she opened the
box that brought all evil and sin into the world. In such a Christocentric society, a
comparison to Eve would be considered villainous.
Furthermore, Lady Macbeth tried to banish all her reproductive organs from her body, by
asking supernatural forces to ‘unsex’ her, thus rejecting the role of motherhood altogether.
She demonstrates her complicated relationship with motherhood by telling Macbeth that
she would have ‘dashed the brains’ out of her own baby, had she ‘so sworn as you / Have
done to this’. This unnatural rejection of the role of motherhood and being nurturing
would be appalling to a Jacobean audience who were used to the idea of being in a
patriarchy, in which women were only useful for childbearing.
Lady Macbeth in relation to her husband
From this murky background stand out the two great terrible figures, who dwarf all the
remaining characters of the drama. Both are sublime, and both inspire, far more than the
other tragic heroes, the feeling of awe. They are never detached in imagination from the
atmosphere which surrounds them and adds to their grandeur and terror. It is, as it were,
continued into their souls. For within them is all that we felt without—the darkness of night,
lit with the flame of tempest and the hues of blood, and haunted by wild and direful shapes,
'murdering ministers,' spirits of remorse, and maddening visions of peace lost and judgment
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to come. The way to be untrue to Shakespeare here, as always, is to relax the tension of
imagination, to conventionalise, to conceive Macbeth, for example, as a half-hearted
cowardly criminal, and Lady Macbeth as a whole-hearted fiend.
These two characters are fired by one and the same passion of ambition; and to a
considerable extent they are alike. The disposition of each is high, proud, and commanding.
They are born to rule, if not to reign. They are peremptory or contemptuous to their
inferiors. They are not children of light, like Brutus and Hamlet; they are of the world. We
observe in them no love of country, and no interest in the welfare of anyone outside their
family. Their habitual thoughts and aims are, and, we imagine, long have been, all of station
and power. And though in both there is something, and in one much, of what is higher—
honour, conscience, humanity—they do not live consciously in the light of these things or
speak their language. They support and love one another. They suffer together. And if, as
time goes on, they drift a little apart, they are not vulgar souls, to be alienated and
recriminate when they experience the fruitlessness of their ambition. They remain to the
end tragic, even grand.
So far there is much likeness between them. Otherwise they are contrasted, and the action
is built upon this contrast. Their attitudes towards the projected murder of Duncan are quite
different; and it produces in them equally different effects. In consequence, they appear in
the earlier part of the play as of equal importance, if indeed Lady Macbeth does not
overshadow her husband; but afterwards she retires more and more into the background,
and he becomes unmistakably the leading figure. His is indeed far the more complex
character: and I will speak of it first.
Lady Macbeth as an Archetype: Femme Fatale

The term refers to a woman who is mysterious and seductive, using her charm to ensnare
men and lead them into dangerous or deadly situations. Femme Fatales are usually
villains, or are morally ambiguous, and serve to create a sense of unease for other
characters or the audience. The key aspect of a femme fatale is her use of feminine wiles to
exploit men and accomplish her own goals.
Common traits include heightened sexuality and the rejection of traditional femininity;
most significantly, motherhood. This was seen as particularly threatening because by
rejecting motherhood, a femme fatale is essentially denying a man his immortality; his
ability to leave behind a legacy, ultimately leading to the destruction of himself.
Shakespeare uses the aforementioned aspects of the femme fatale archetype in the
character of Lady Macbeth. She threatens to emasculate Macbeth, and uses her power
over him as his wife to get her own way. She has an ulterior motive behind many, if not all,
of her actions, and clearly acts as a catalyst to Macbeth’s downfall. Shakespeare uses this
archetype to warn the audience about the dangers of unrestrained female sexuality, and
more significantly, the dangers of unrestrained female ambition and power.
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Lady Macbeth as an Archetype: Eve and the Fall of Man

The Fall is an archetype where a character descends from a higher to a lower state, often
because something occurs that makes them lose their innocence and happiness. Typically,
the character is kicked out of their 'paradise’ as a punishment for their actions. Commonly,
a woman is responsible for the fall of a previously ‘honourable’ man.
There are many parallels between Lady Macbeth’s story, the archetype of ‘The Fall’ and the
Biblical tale of the Garden of Eden, making reference to the concept of Original Sin: Eve’s
temptation of Adam as an explanation of the moral relationship between the sexes. Eve was
historically viewed as the cause of mankind’s fall, and Lady Macbeth has been interpreted as
being the root of Macbeth’s evil. Both are viewed as malevolent, greedy temptresses who
lack appreciation of their privilege.
Lady Macbeth and the Theme of Gender
Lady Macbeth’s lust for power is what drives the plot of the play forward. It is important to
note that her power is purely mental; while she orchestrates their plan she doesn’t commit
any acts of violence herself. Lady Macbeth also plays a pivotal role in Macbeth’s
perception of his own gender. Her highly critical attacks on his manhood and her
perception of masculinity as violent is arguably what drove Macbeth to murder and
tyranny.
Lady Macbeth hopes for her husband to return quickly so she may ‘pour her spirits in his
ear’, showing how she wants to persuade him to do their bidding. The reference to ‘spirits’
connotes the occult, as if she wants to possess Macbeth. Shakespeare links witchcraft with
a woman’s dominance over her husband, implying that it is unnatural for women to have
greater power over men than vice versa.
Alternatively, Shakespeare may be criticising how society denies women their own
freedom and autonomy. Lady Macbeth has to resort to manipulating and ‘possessing’
Macbeth because her power and status are tied directly to his. ‘Pouring’ her ‘spirits’ into
his ear may be a metaphor for how her desires can only be fulfilled by a male form;
Macbeth is her puppet because she has to rely on her husband for everything. Shakespeare
could be attempting to portray how men bring their downfalls on themselves by denying
women’s power.
Lady Macbeth’s Manipulation of Macbeth and the Theme of Gender
The play centralises around Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of her husband. She frequently
questions his masculinity and uses this as leverage to get him to do what she wants. When
she sees him afraid, she asks ‘Are you a man?’ and ‘What, quite unmanned in folly?’ which
perpetuates the idea that a man must always put on a brave face and not be emotionally
sensitive. Although it is Lady Macbeth who convinces him, it is only possible for her to do so
because Macbeth’s masculinity is so fragile.
Lady Macbeth also manipulates Macbeth through their marriage. When she learns that he
has gone against his promise she implies that they are breaking their wedding vows. She
asks ‘What beast was’t then / that made you break this enterprise to me? / when you durst
do it, then you were a man / and to be more than what you were, you would / be so much
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more the man’. By accusing him of ‘breaking’ this enterprise, she accuses him of being a
bad husband and breaking the Code of Chivalry. Alternatively, her reluctance to address
the murder without resorting to euphemisms may imply that she is subconsciously repelled
by the thought of regicide. She implies that she will only deem him a man if he kills Duncan,
linking the validation of his manhood with the fulfilment of her own desires. In contrast,
she calls him a beast for betraying her, dehumanising him and calling him a villain for
denying her what she wants.
Soliloquy: Act 1, Scene 5
The raven himself is hoarse - raven – bad omen - evil
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan – Duncan will die at her residence
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits – she preparing for the murder
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, - she needs to be as strong as a man to
complete the murder
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full - make her feel like a man
Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood, - in Jacobean times, witches were believed to have
thick blood; most witches were old women, meaning that they were menopausal and could
no longer produce milk. Lady Macbeth therefore is not only calling upon spirits to help her;
she wants her body to become like that of a witches, thus linking her to the supernatural
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse, - feel no guilt
That no compunctious visitings of nature – no natural feelings of pity
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
Th’ effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts, - The language suggests that her
womanhood, represented by breasts and milk, usually symbols of nurture, impedes her from
performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates with manliness
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,- turn her kindness into bitterness - The
language suggests that her womanhood, represented by breasts and milk which are usually
symbols of nurture, despite her performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she associates
with manliness
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
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And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, - her becoming evil
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, - sharp knife
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry ‘Hold, hold!’ – The night wrap itself in darkness as black as hell, so no one knows
about the murder
Analysis of Soliloquy
It is important to note that Lady Macbeth rejects her femininity within the play, and it is
implied that this act is what enables her to pursue her ambition.
The first set of demands (red box) deal with the emotional and hormonal aspects of
womanhood. Early medicine believed that people’s emotional states were determined by
different fluids in their bodies: the humours. Thick blood meant someone had a cold heart.
Thick blood would also stop a woman from menstruating, a sign of her femininity and
therefore weakness that prevents her from killing the king.
The second set of demands addresses the physical and visible proof of her femininity more
directly than before. She wants all proof of it gone, as all signs are obstacles to her plan. Her
‘breasts’ and ‘milk’ are significant for motherhood, so Lady Macbeth is rejecting her duty to
be a mother. (See Femme Fatale to understand why this is interpreted as threatening to a
Jacobean audience).
Significance of Soliloquy:
The fact the Lady Macbeth is summoning evil ‘spirits’ aligns her with witchcraft, which in
Shakespeare’s time was associated with women who challenged the status quo or the
superiority of men. It was a serious crime that went against God, and here, Lady Macbeth is
shamelessly, explicitly calling upon unnatural beings to help her. This suggests most, if not
all, of her actions in the play are evil, and implicitly suggests that powerful women are in
league with the Devil.
Furthermore, she relies on being ‘unsexed’ to be able to do all the cruel and violent things
she has planned. Therefore, while as a female character she serves to present femininity as
powerful and violent, her language suggests the opposite. If she is successful in unsexing
herself, then her murderous behaviour is the opposite of femininity. Shakespeare either
associates it with being genderless or masculine. By linking ‘unsexed’ with spirits,
Shakespeare suggests you lose your humanity if you defy your gender roles.
Assuming that her prayers to the spirits were successful, Shakespeare intended to show the
perils of androgyny through Lady Macbeth. Her villainy and disturbing personality will
suggest that gender nonconformity is dangerous, and by losing her feminine identity, she
loses her humanity.
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Alternatively, if we still view her as a female, her acts of manipulation and seduction portray
women as deceitful, wicked beings. Lady Macbeth is a very unconventional female character
by traditional and Jacobean standards. She is given multiple soliloquies – something that
usually only male characters were allowed to have.
Conclusion
The perception of gender varies greatly throughout the play; different characters have their
own opinions of what it means to be a man or a woman. What is obvious is that gender
can’t be avoided; it comes up time and time again as characters attempt to define
themselves, others or understand what is happening to them. Gender was viewed as a sign
of order and logic; this explains why the subversion and distortion of gender norms
throughout the play was appalling and disturbing to the Jacobean audience.
Macbeth is arguably Shakespeare’s most misogynistic play. All the women, with the
exception of the witches, were dead by the end of the play. The women are either
manipulative conspirers who call upon spirits to unsex them, hags who directly consort with
these spirits, or helpless mothers who are pointlessly slaughtered. The deaths of these
characters suggest that that women suffer from the sinful deeds of men. Lady Macbeth is
driven to madness partly because of Macbeth’s murder spree. Her death/suicide signifies
her feminine kindness winning over her masculine/genderless wickedness. Similarly,
Macduff’s sensitivity encourages the same compassion in Malcolm, and so these feminine
qualities take the throne. Moreover, the main female characters all contribute to Macbeth’s
downfall, tempting him with power or persuading him to commit murder. (Macbeth is
Adam, Lady Macbeth is Eve, and Witches are the serpent).
Lady Macbeth and the Theme of Appearances vs Reality
Lady Macbeth is one of the most significant examples of the differences between
appearances and reality, and the conflict between the two. Her ambition fuels her
deception of others and she ensures she disguises her true intentions in order to gain
power.
Initially, it is likely that her outward appearance as a woman would mean the audience
would assume her to be weak and therefore superfluous to the storyline. As the play
progresses, we begin to see the inner workings of her mind and realise she is stereotypically
masculine. As she becomes more powerful, she is ultimately destroyed by her weak mind.
The audience can see that Lady Macbeth is aware of the importance of outward appearance
and how it can be manipulated to create a façade when she teaches Macbeth how he
should act. ‘To beguile the time, / look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, / your hand,
your tongue’. Her use of physical features such as ‘eye’ and ‘hand’ emphasise the
importance of outward appearance. The verb ‘look’ implies how he doesn’t have to be ‘like
the time’, only imitate it.
A similar idea is expressed later when she instructs him to ‘sleek o’er yout tugged looks, be
bright and jovial / among your guests tonight,’. She finishes: ‘look th’ innocent flower / but
be the serpent under’t’. Yet again she is stressing the difference between looking like
something but in actuality being something else. The juxtaposition of ‘flower’, which
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connotes femininity, with ‘serpent’, which connotes trickery and masculinity, shows how
there can be a dangerous divide between a person’s outward appearance and inward
nature. ‘Serpent’ is an allusion to the Biblical story of Adam and Eve, in which it is a symbol
of the devil.
Shakespeare emphasises how appearance cannot be trusted because they are mouldable
and fickle; they offer no insight into the reality of a person. He shows how appearances can
be used for acts of self-denial as well as deception, keeping the conscience clear even
though a crime has been committed. After asking the spirits to take away her inner
femininity, Lady Macbeth says ‘Come, thick night, /and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of
hell, / that my keen knife see not the wound it makes / not heaven peep through the
blanket of the dark’. This demonstrates to the audience how she wishes to use appearance
to her advantage by creating a façade that blinds others to her actions. The personification
in ‘my keen knife see not the wound it makes’ implies there is a level of self-deception to
her plan, where her knife appears to be a symbol for herself. The semantic field of darkness,
furthermore, implies our reliance on what we can see makes us ignorant and gullible.
Ultimately, however, Lady Macbeth’s deceit is met with fitting consequences; she is caught
between reality and imagination. Her hallucinations are symbolic of her losing control of
herself (which is ironic as she tried so hard within the play to control everyone else). By the
end she cannot control her mind and is ultimately destroyed by it. Shakespeare could be
criticising Jacobean society’s focus on black and white truths.
Lady Macbeth and the Theme of Guilt, Innocence and Paranoia
Though it is the Macbeths’ unchecked, amoral ambition that causes their fall from grace, it
is their guilt and paranoia that breaks them. Without guilt, they would not have been driven
insane by their deeds. Without paranoia, their murder spree might have ended with
Duncan’s death.
Context
Regicide was a provocative subject when the play was first being written. The political
tension that arose due to questioning whether James VI was the rightful monarch amounted
to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, where a group tried to assassinate James and members of
Parliament.
The King was also a patron of Shakespeare’s theatre group, so Shakespeare felt the pressure
of having to please him. By illustrating how violently and deeply guilt destroyed the
Macbeths, Shakespeare is clearly condemning regicide.
Jacobean Britain was a deeply religious Christian country. People believed God to be
omniscient, so He would see every sin and crime committed. None were exempt from His
judgement. Shakespeare supports this idea by showing how the Macbeths are tormented
through a sort of living hell, despite their crime not being known by anyone else. The
Renaissance was also a period when people believed in the innate goodness of humanity.
The Macbeths are destroyed by their own guilt, suggesting that their innate goodness
rebelled against their deliberate immorality.
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Innocence, in contrast, is a virtue that Shakespeare celebrates.

The Macbeths pursue a façade of innocence while putting their murders, and as they
descend further into their web of violence and deceit, they long to regain their lost
innocence. Malcolm, a poster boy of youthful innocence and virtue, is the rightful King of
Scotland, showing how goodness is the correct way to be given power.
In relation to Lady Macbeth
Unlike her husband, Lady Macbeth is initially free from any feelings of guilt. As the play
progresses, her power and strength diminish to give way to weakness and insanity. Whereas
Macbeth’s increases his bloodlust and violence, Lady Macbeth’s guilt makes her retreat into
herself. She closes herself off to everyone else, cannot be in darkness, and sleepwalks as she
is trapped in her own guilty thoughts. The way her guilt takes over is gradual yet destructive,
showing how the most callous and cold people aren’t immune to God’s judgement and their
own human conscience.
In relation to her rejection of femininity
Guilt and regret are presented as obstacles to following ambition. These two feelings are
linked to femininity and thus Lady Macbeth tries to rid herself of her conscience when she
calls upon ‘spirits’ to unsex her (see the Theme of Gender). She demands that the spirits
‘stop up th’ access and passage to remorse / that no compunctious visitings of nature /
shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between / th’ effect and it’. This indicates that Lady
Macbeth is capable of feeling guilt, but wishes to repress these feelings as she views them
as weaknesses. The only way to overcome guilt is to not feel it, as Shakespeare implies that
guilt is too powerful to ignore.
Guilt and its costs
The cost of guilt is shown to be endless paranoia. She says to herself ‘nought’s had, all’s
spent / where our desire is got without content / ‘tis safer to be that which we destroy /
than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy’. This suggests that she envies the dead for their
peace of mind. ‘All’s spent’ illustrates how there is a cost for being guilty of a crime, and
may also allude to her mental exhaustion; she is ‘spent’. Lady Macbeth is becoming aware
of the infinite cycle of violence they have got themselves into to satisfy their paranoia.
Shakespeare shows that sins and crimes are never rewarded, so that the perpetrators are
only left with their remorse.
Shakespeare demonstrates how guilt and regret cannot be escaped. Lady Macbeth tells her
worried husband ‘What’s done, is done’, suggesting they can’t change their fate and will just
have to live with the consequences. Shakespeare suggests that greed and ambition cannot
predict the guilt that comes with turning fantasies into reality. The line becomes a refrain
for Lady Macbeth, as later she mutters to herself in her sleep ‘what’s done, cannot be
undone’. The repetition makes it appear as if she is trying to convince herself to let go and
muster up the courage to face reality. The change from ‘is done’ to ‘cannot be undone’ gives
the impression that her guilt and desperation have increased.
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Blood and hallucinations

Blood is a symbol of guilt and death in Macbeth. The Macbeths cannot escape it no matter
how much they try to wash it away. Hallucinations and ghosts are also symbols of guilt and
death, as they point to the existence of an Afterlife and the invisible world of the
supernatural.
Blood is used as a motif throughout the play to show how the Macbeths react to their guilt.
Their reactions differ, thus showing to the audience how differently their minds work.
Lady Macbeth believes that ‘a little water’ will clear her and husband of the deed; both the
physical blood and the mental guilt that comes along with murder. She assumes that there
will be no lasting impacts, and this suggests that she is incapable of seeing how murder has
psychological consequences. She fails to anticipate that the murder will live with ther and
her husband beyond that night. This demonstrates to the audience that she views herselfs
as cruel and ruthless, and represses any morality she has. She orders her husband to ‘Go get
some water / and wash this filthy witness from your hand’ and echoes this later when she
says ‘a little water clears us of this deed’. Here, water is a symbol of purity and life. She isn’t
focused on what the murder says about them or the mental impact it will have, only the
implications of if they get caught with blood on their hands. She worries that it will implicate
them in the murder as a ‘witness’ so tells Macbeth to ‘wash’ it away. At the same time, she
only refers to blood and the murder with euphemisms: ‘filthy witness’ and ‘deed’. This
suggests that she cannot confront the reality of her actions, nor face the macabre and
grotesque.
When confronted with her husband’s delusions, Lady Macbeth is initially dismissive of them,
telling him ‘ ‘tis the eye of childhood / that fears a painted devil’ and that his ‘flaws and
starts’ are ‘impostors to true fear’. In the final scene, however, she is tormented by her own
visions. She cries out ‘Out, damned spot!’, showing she is trying to wash her hands of an
invisible spot of blood. Its invisibility reflects how guilt does not have to be visible or known
by others for it to be real.
It cannot be an accident that the image of blood is forced upon us

continually, not merely by the events themselves, but by full descriptions,
and even by reiteration of the word in unlikely parts of the dialogue. The
Witches, after their first wild appearance, have hardly quitted the stage
when there staggers onto it a 'bloody man,' gashed with wounds. His tale
is of a hero whose 'brandished steel smoked with bloody execution,'
'carved out a passage' to his enemy, and 'unseam'd him from the nave to
the chaps.' And then he tells of a second battle so bloody that the
combatants seemed as if they 'meant to bathe in reeking wounds.' What
metaphors! What a dreadful image is that with which Lady Macbeth
greets us almost as she enters, when she prays the spirits of cruelty so to
thicken her blood that pity cannot flow along her veins! What pictures are
those of the murderer appearing at the door of the banquet-room with
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Banquo's 'blood upon his face'; of Banquo himself 'with twenty trenched
gashes on his head,' or 'blood-bolter'd' and smiling in derision at his
murderer; of Macbeth, gazing at his hand, and watching it dye the whole
green ocean red; of Lady Macbeth, gazing at hers, and stretching it away
from her face to escape the smell of blood that all the [336]perfumes of
Arabia will not subdue! The most horrible lines in the whole tragedy are
those of her shuddering cry, 'Yet who would have thought the old man to
have had so much blood in him?' And it is not only at such moments that
these images occur. Even in the quiet conversation of Malcolm and
Macduff, Macbeth is imagined as holding a bloody sceptre, and Scotland
as a country bleeding and receiving every day a new gash added to her
wounds. It is as if the poet saw the whole story through an ensanguined
mist, and as if it stained the very blackness of the night. When Macbeth,
before Banquo's murder, invokes night to scarf up the tender eye of pitiful
day, and to tear in pieces the great bond that keeps him pale, even the
invisible hand that is to tear the bond is imagined as covered with blood.
Sleep and Insomnia

Shakespeare uses sleep as a symbol of innocence and peace; it brings comfort and is an
escape from the troubles of the real world. It is used to express and reveal the subconscious
and the conscience. Thus, sleep is denied to the Macbeths after they murder Duncan.
Instead, their nights are plagued by nightmares and ‘restless ecstasy’, suggesting they relive
their crimes every time they close their eyes.
Lady Macbeth’s sleep is disturbed by sleepwalking, suggesting her mind is always racing. The
Doctor notes ‘a great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep and do
the effects of watching’, suggesting Lady Macbeth is doomed to always watch the murder
being replayed in her mind.
Light vs Dark
Shakespeare uses imagery of light and darkness toe explore guilt and innocence. Light is a
symbol of innocence, enlightenment and holiness, whereas darkness is associated with the
evil spirits that call for four murder. Often, light and darkness indicate which characters are
guilty and who can be trusted.
Darkness is used to conceal and mask the Macbeths’ crimes. It could be reflective of them
turning their backs on God and goodness and instead siding with temptation and the devil.
Lady Macbeth has a similar request to her husband’s aside when she says ‘come, thick
night / and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell / that my keen knife sees not the wound it
makes / nor heaven peep through the blanket pf the dark’. She asks directly for ‘thick night’
and the ‘dunnest smoke of hell’, meaning she is calling upon forces of darkness to help her
be wicked. This contrasts with Macbeth’s wish to avoid light to preserve his pure soul. Lady
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Macbeth does reveal that she is concerned about discovery, wanting to stop ‘heaven’
peeping ‘through the blanket of the dark’.
Darkness, we may even say blackness, broods over this tragedy. It is

remarkable that almost all the scenes which at once recur to memory take
place either at night or in some dark spot. The vision of the dagger, the
murder of Duncan, the murder of Banquo, the sleep-walking of Lady
Macbeth, all come in night-scenes. The Witches dance in the thick air of a
storm, or, 'black and midnight hags,' receive Macbeth in a cavern. The
blackness of night is to the hero a thing of fear, even of horror; and that
which he feels becomes the spirit of the play. The faint glimmerings of the
western sky at twilight are here menacing: it is the hour when the traveller
hastens to reach safety in his inn, and when Banquo rides homeward to
meet his assassins; the hour when 'light thickens,' when 'night's black
agents to their prey do rouse,' when the wolf begins to howl, and the owl
to scream, and withered murder steals forth to his work. Macbeth bids the
stars hide their fires that his 'black' desires may be concealed; Lady
Macbeth calls on thick night to come, palled in the dunnest smoke of hell.
The moon is down and no stars shine when Banquo, dreading the dreams
of the coming night, goes unwillingly to bed, and leaves Macbeth to wait
for the summons of the little bell. When the next day should dawn, its light
is 'strangled,' and 'darkness does the face of earth entomb.' In the whole
drama the sun seems to shine only twice: first, in the beautiful but ironical
passage where Duncan sees the swallows flitting round the castle of
death; and, afterwards, when at the close the avenging army gathers to
rid the earth of its shame. Of the many slighter touches which deepen this
effect I notice only one. The failure of nature in Lady Macbeth is marked by
her fear of darkness; 'she has light by her continually.' And in the one
phrase of fear that escapes her lips even in sleep, it is of the darkness of
the place of torment that she speaks.
Conclusion
Lady Macbeth’s guilt and paranoia only manifest fully in her final scenes. At the start, she
orchestrates the murder and silences all of Macbeth’s fears and regrets. There are subtle,
implicit indications that she isn’t as confident and cold as she wants to seem, but her speech
is controlled and cutting. Eventually, she is completely unaware of Macbeth’s actions. This
division that forms physically and mentally between the couple portrays guilt as isolating.
Moreover, as the plot develops, Lady Macbeth’s own sense of self deteriorates. Her
suffering, torment, and hallucinations could all be side effects of her fragmented self. She
has manipulated her identity so much that she is no one at all.
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Guilt and remorse are the undoing of Lady Macbeth, leading her to her death. The insanity
and torment she experiences is punishment for her villainy. Shakespeare argues that guilt is
the direct opposite of ambition. One focuses on the future, the other on the past. Ambition
longs for power regardless of consequence, whereas guilt forces us to face the reality of our
deeds.
Lady Macbeth and Ambition
Lady Macbeth’s ambition is much more intense and violent than Macbeth’s. She doesn’t
hesitate or deliberate: immediately she decides to pursue the promise of Macbeth’s
kingship. She craves power and, later, protection. She has been a ‘weak’ woman all her life,
and now is her chance to answer her desires and reach her full potential. Her ambition is
infectious.
How authentic or committed Lady Macbeth’s ambition is appears unclear. She speaks in a
very violent, brutal fashion, but never acts on these impulses. Her words aren’t supported
by her actions. Furthermore, she admits that she can’t bear looking at Duncan’s corpse
because he resembles her father.
Lady Macbeth and the Supernatural
There’s a lot of evidence for Lady Macbeth being the fourth Witch(excluding Hecate), but
unlike the three Macbeth meets on the heath, Lady Macbeth is instrumental in planting the
idea of murder in his head. She speaks in rhyming couplets while persuading Macbeth to
agree to her plan, and her command of rhetoric and manipulation imitates the Witches’
spells and trickery. Equally, her plan rests on her ability to use facade to manipulate reality,
meaning her relationship with appearance vs. reality is similar to the Witches’.
Shakespeare most wants to convey that Lady Macbeth’s character is her ability to
manipulate,tempt, and seduce. She is the root of Macbeth’s evil, and this comes hand in
hand with her supernatural contacts. It isn’t just significant that she has soliloquies in her
first scenes: the allusions to witchcraft and the diabolical portray her as a villain, and it’s as if
she’s casting her own spells. She wants the power of the occult to achieve her aim,
suggesting she is willing to sacrifice everything to be queen.
Lady Macbeth demonstrates a disregard for the Natural Order, or the Great Chain of Being.
In Act I, Scene 5, the theme of Nature vs. Political Order is apparent in Lady Macbeth's
observation that the raven who "croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan" becomes hoarse and
cannot be heard. For, Lady Macbeth's unnatural political world, invoked with her calling
upon the spirits to unsex her and fill her with "direst cruelty" that has no "compunctious
visiting of nature," no natural feelings of pity, overtakes the natural world. Much like her
husband who has called upon the predictions of the three witches, invoking the
preternatural world to direct his destiny in his "vaulting ambition," Lady Macbeth assumes
an unnatural state, as well, as she de-feminizes herself and embraces violence to further her
political ends.
This soliloquy furthers the intentions to subvert nature to the design of the Macbeths. Lady
Macbeth tries to use nature to hide her evil intentions as she calls upon the "thick night"
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and "blanket of the dark" so that her "keen knife see not the wound it makes." Their
ambition for power thus leads the Macbeths to the phantasmagoric realm; that is, a shifting
complex of things imagined and unnatural. This concept of unnaturalness in the Macbeths
becomes their nemesis as in Elizabethan times, a common belief was that the health of the
country was directly connected to the natural state, the goodness and "moral legitimacy" of
the king.
Student exemplar: Lady Macbeth as Powerful (A)

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth primarily as a strong and powerful woman, but
contrasts that with subtle juxtapositions that undermine her supposed power, perhaps
hinting/foreboding at her later demise. This is a good introduction: there is some evidence
that she is powerful but that is undermined as well by other evidence. Do two-part
arguments: say half on power, say half on how that power is undermined.
One way Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth to be powerful is through the form of her
dialogue. She speaks in iambic pentameter, a sophisticated metric that is representative of
the higher classes of Macbeth, with the lowly constructs such as the Porter using prose and
the educated nobility using the iambic pentameter form. This immediately shows Lady
Macbeth to be powerful as she is given the more developed and intelligent form to show
her power in society as the wife of a Thane. Alternatively, at times her language devolves
into almost chanting, alluding to the spellcasting of the Witches and therefore also
suggesting that she has a form of mystical power. The audience would likely be unnerved by
this as it would remind them of the earlier appearance of the Witches; any character with
the ability to unnerve the audience immediately appears powerful. There are very strong
points going on here. The weakness: it requires quotations. Demonstrate the iambic
pentameter and chanting. However, this paragraph links very well to the question.
Shakespeare further develops this by giving her the soliloquy as it consolidates her as a
powerful woman. In Shakespearean times there was a great inequality between men and
women and therefore it would have likely been unusual for women to be allotted an inner
voice so that their perspective could be heard. The fact that Lady Macbeth has numerous
soliloquys throughout the play implies that she is a powerful woman.
We also see how powerful Lady Macbeth is from the violent and shocking imagery and
language used throughout the ‘unsex me’ extract. The topic that she is talking about,
regicide, would be unthinkable for a Jacobean audience, and this coupled with words such
as ‘cruelty’, ‘blood’, and ‘murd’ring’ would shock an audience of the time and subvert their
usual, likely prejudiced, views of women, portraying Lady Macbeth to be brave, aggressive
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and, due to the fact that she is discussing regicide with no apparent fear of reprisal,
powerful.
Another way Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth to be powerful is by implying that she can
command the ‘thick night’ and resultantly block out ‘heaven’, turning her back on God. The
fact that Lady Macbeth can seemingly control the night that connotes evil reminds the
audience once more of the witchcraft in the play. Furthermore, she blatantly states that she
would command the ‘thick night’ so that ‘heaven’ could not ‘peep through the blanket of
the dark’. This would be considered as shocking blasphemy to many in the audience and
would most certainly cement Lady Macbeth as a strong, confident and powerful woman as
she is powerful enough to ignore God and even shut out heaven altogether. Bring in some
context about attitudes towards witchcraft. Lady Macbeth is brave to not be worried about
being accused of witchcraft, a crime punishable by death.
We see throughout the play that Lady Macbeth is a powerful woman from the tone of her
dialogue and the way she treats her socially superior. Despite his higher social status, she
belittles and mocks him: ‘when you durst do it then you were a man’. This suggests a great
level of power as she is mocking the ‘brave Macbeth’ and ‘worthy Cawdor’ who at the start
of the play was a violent warrior who even resembled Bellona’s bridegroom.
However, Shakespeare also undermines that idea that Lady Macbeth is powerful by
juxtaposing with this the idea that Lady Macbeth is not a powerful woman as she feels that
to be powerful she must first become a man: ‘unsex me here’. We can infer from this that
Lady Macbeth in fact does not believe herself to be powerful and instead thinks that she
must become a man and have her ‘milk’ exchanged for ‘gall’, a vile liquid, as well as having
the ‘access’ to remorse blocked. This suggests that in fact Lady Macbeth is not yet powerful
in her current form. Good point: if she was truly powerful, why does she turn to the
supernatural? Why does she have to subvert her femininity?
Furthermore, although she uses iambic pentameter and is afforded her own soliloquys, she
is only truly powerful due to the status of her husband. This is demonstrated clearly later in
the play when Macbeth is king. Despite her position as queen, she has no power to stop him
and she does not even realise he is committing murders and atrocities. This suggests that
she is in fact weak and hints to her later demise as she eventually begins to corrupt with
insanity. A weaker paragraph.
Finally, Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as somewhat of a weak hypocrite rather than a
powerful and determined woman as despite pressuring Macbeth into murdering Duncan,
she later states herself that she could do not do it as ‘he resembled my father as he slept’.
This shows her weakness and hypocrisy as she had insisted that Macbeth was not a real man
and was betraying her: ‘what beast…made you break this enterprise to me?’ This shows that
Lady Macbeth is not powerful as despite claiming a lot during her monologues, she could
not in fact bring herself to commit regicide when it came down to it. These paragraphs don’t
analyse structure or language. You could have mentioned how Lady Macbeth’s early demise
demonstrates her powerlessness, and she dies offstage.
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In conclusion, Shakespeare does portray Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman, but

occasionally undermines this assertation, preparing the audience for her eventual descent
into madness.
Student Exemplar: Lady Macbeth as Powerful (B)
To a certain extent, lady Macbeth is presented as powerful in the extract and the play as a
whole. However, this power is undermined by her desperation for power and the male
characters in the play.
Shakespeare constructed to represent the majority of woman in the Jacobean era and also
shows that she is a victim of a patriarchal society. Lady Macbeth is presented as powerful in
this extract when she demands the spirits to ‘unsex’ her. The imperative verb of ‘unsex’
suggests her power and strength: she is demanding evil spirits to take away her femininity
despite knowing that she will go to hell.
For a contemporary audience this would be deeply unsettling since many would be fearful
of the supernatural and of being eternally damned. Lady Macbeth is willing to deal with the
supernatural and so is seen as brave and powerful; characteristics shared by men and, in
particular, soldiers like Macbeth. She can then be seen as a character who is going against
the patriarchy, which will not occur in many places at the time.
she's further presented as powerful when she tells my best to look like the innocent flower.
But be the serpent under it. The simile of the innocent flower can be interpreted as her
mocking Macbeth’s feminine qualities; qualities which she appears to no longer have. This
would be extremely dangerous for her as it could be considered dangerous to mock a
fearsome warrior such as Macbeth.
However, she comments on his masculine qualities of being the serpent. She is hence very
manipulative and a powerful woman. The metaphor of the serpent is an allusion to the
biblical story of the garden of Eden, were Adam and Eve get tempted by a serpent. A
Jacobean audience would immediately understand the weight of such an illusion It is clear
that she will be inevitably punished.
Her fearless nature combined with manipulative skills presents her as a powerful figure.
Shakespeare structures that text to resent her as powerful. This extract is very early on in
the play and a female character to be given a soliloquy so early would be very strange. By
giving her this soliloquy, she is presented as powerful; She will be listened to by the
audience an would be center stage. Many woman would be subservient to men and not
have this much influence.
In addition, my best censor his letter despite knowing he will meet her soon. His
dependency on this wife presents her as powerful.
This power is suddenly undermined in this extract and throughout the play. in the extract
she keeps Duncan under her battlements. The preposition could be seen as her way of
showing dominance.
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Alternatively, we can view this as her desperation for power that she cannot obtain by just
means. This is echoed when at the end of the play the audience hears a choir woman within.
This stage direction is what signifies her death. Lady Macbeth is killed off stage, which
presents how powerless she really is and how, despite assisting in regicide, she still obtains
no true power because of one reason: she's a woman.
Her weaknesses further presented when Shakespeare writes Macbeth to completely
undermine her power. she's told by Macbeth to be innocent of the knowledge dearest
Chuck when she asks For more information. The word dearest could be my best showing in
German to his wife, but most likely it represents his lack of respect for her. The adjective of
dear is used several times by Macbeth when he addresses her and so presents how he sees
her as inferior.
The development of lady Macbeth is a salient feature of the play as it presents the
overwhelming power of the patriarchy. We are made to sympathize with her as she says
had he not resembled my father as he slept I had done it , which shows her humanity . My
best could also be interpreted as a feminist text as she is a woman who is restricted from
opportunities due to the society she lives in and so Shakespeare attempts to make the
audience sympathize with her in order to promote change.
Arguments for Lady Macbeth being weak
Lady Macbeth doesn’t feel confident enough in her own abilities to commit the deed on her
own, instead having to seek external help from supernatural spirits.
She fears that ‘heaven’, or her conscience, will try to spoil her wicked plan. ‘Hold, hold’
implies desperation, hysteria, anxiety.
In Act II, she confesses that Duncan’s resemblance to her own father meant that she could
not deliver the fatal blow herself.
Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: Beginning (1.1 – 2.1)

Lady Macbeth’s most striking and significant performances happen at the beginning of the
play. From them, we get a clear idea of who she is - or, arguably, who she wants to be. Her
first lines are a soliloquy, demonstrating her importance and strength of will. Though she
doesn’t appear on stage until the 5th scene, she has a large impact on the direction the plot
takes, and it is her plots and wishes that get fulfilled in the first two acts.
Lady Macbeth’s speech at the beginning of the play is littered with deceit, treachery, and
omens of death. The prospect of being queen and controlling the fate of another empowers
her, and she doesn’t want anything to come between her and the crown. Violence and
cruelty are a means to an end for her because they bring her closer to getting what she
wants and allow her to prove herself. Alternatively, you could argue that there are signs
Lady Macbeth enjoys gratuitous violence -violence for the sake of violence. She knows that
Macbeth will become king regardless of her own actions, but opts for the murderous route
to the throne. She vows to smash a baby’s head open for Macbeth as a sign of loyalty,
despite him never asking for her to do such a thing. Both interpretations explain why Lady
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Macbeth doesn’t care about moral consequence: her bloodlust and her selfish persistence
leave no room for others and their feelings.
Shakespeare most wants to convey that Lady Macbeth’s character is her ability to
manipulate,tempt, and seduce. She is the root of Macbeth’s evil, and this comes hand in
hand with her supernatural contacts. It isn’t just significant that she has soliloquies in her
first scenes: the allusions to witchcraft and the diabolical portray her as a villain, and it’s as if
she’s casting her own spells. She wants the power of the occult to achieve her aim,
suggesting she is willing to sacrifice everything to be queen.
She bullies Macbeth with cruel and cutting insults, but also entices him with promises of
power and success. The way she greets him, calling him a soon-to-be king, mimics the
Witches’ own. After Macbeth’s soliloquy where he concludes that he has “no spur to prick
the sides of [his]intent, but only / Vaulting ambition”, Lady Macbeth appears on stage,
suggesting that she is that very “spur”, “vaulting ambition” personified. This all means she
knows his weaknesses and temptations, and exploits them for her own gain. He has no hope
of beating her. She is the Serpent and Eve combined, the call of the Sirens luring sailors to
their graves.
Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: Middle (2.2 – 3.4)

In the climax of the murder in Act 2 Scene 2, we see how Lady Macbeth takes charge and
remains calm while Macbeth has a personal crisis. This elaborates on what we saw in the
first act: Lady Macbeth is in control and is the dominant planner out of the two Macbeths.
Except for one moment of honesty when she admits she couldn’t kill Duncan because he
looks like her father, she is cold and unruffled, completely remorseless and ruthless.
She is frustrated with Macbeth because of his guilt, hysteria, and fear - something that
happens continually for the rest of the middle section - portraying her as unempathetic and
closed-off. It’s as if her spells were successful and she is an invincible, amoral villain,
presenting her as a Witch. To her, guilt goes as far as the blood on her hands, and can be
disposed of just as easily. The contrast between her and Macbeth’s reactions – her coldness
against his panic - makes her appear far-removed from humanity and its worries. On the
other hand, her one display of emotional vulnerability could foreshadow her guilt and
torment later.
In Act 2 Scene 3, Lady Macbeth gets a chance to demonstrate her acting skills. So far, her
plan is chillingly successful. The way she feigns grief and manages to fool everyone in the
vicinity with her performance suggests she has an uncanny ability to imitate and replicate
human emotion. As an audience, we learn that she is an unreliable character: we don’t
know how much of what she says and does is genuine.
As we enter Act 3, we see cracks starting to appear in Lady Macbeth’s calm. She’s still
unaffected by guilt, but she’s paranoid. Moreover, she’s anxious about how Macbeth is
faring. His own paranoia and guilt are causes of great concern for her, and she doesn’t want
his incompetence to ruin her plan. This tension and frustration comes to a head when
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Banquo’s ghost appears. She can’t understand why Macbeth is behaving the way he is, and
is angry that he would be so terrified by something so foolish, putting her in danger by doing
so. She mocks and chastises him (tells him off) for displaying weakness, implying she’s very
passionate about keeping in control.
Despite her best efforts, we see Macbeth spinning out of control and away from Lady
Macbeth’s grasp. She can’t stop him from seeing ghosts. She knows they need to be wary of
Banquo, but Macbeth won’t tell her what he has planned. By the end of the banquet scene,
we know that the two are on separate paths, each isolated in their paranoia despite having
the same fears. The Lady Macbeth we saw in Act 1, the wife who had an unbreakable hold
over her husband, is nowhere to be seen.
Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: End (3.5 – 5.9)
We next see Lady Macbeth on stage in Act 5 Scene 1. This is also the last time she ever
appears before her death. The person we see is even further away from the person who
plotted the death of a king in Act 1: she is entirely absorbed in her fear, talking to herself
while oblivious to her surroundings. Her last line in the banquet scene was “you lack the
season of all natures, sleep”, so it’s fitting that now she paces at night, sleepwalking but
unable to rest. Finally, her sins have caught up to her.
Shakespeare uses the characters of the doctor and Lady Macbeth’s Lady in Waiting to
emphasise how insane and alien Lady Macbeth has become. She never speaks to anyone,
and it’s only through the exchange between these two minor characters that we know
what’s going on. Along with the doctor, the audience observes, studies, and diagnoses her,
like she’s a specimen for a scientist. Any strength or influence she had is gone. Furthermore,
she’s speaking in prose rather than blank verse, so that her speech lacks sophistication and
control. Shakespeare used prose for characters who were lower class or insane. Hence, Lady
Macbeth isn’t as impressive or intimidating as she once was.
Lady Macbeth’s speech is incoherent, frantic, and continuous, as her internal monologue is
said aloud. She alternates between worrying about her growing guilt and telling an imagined
Macbeth off for jeopardising their plot. For example, in one long string of monologue, she
says, “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands ne’er be
clean? No more o’that, my lord, no more o’that. You mar all with this starting,” going from
panicking about their growing body-count to scolding Macbeth for being jumpy in an
instant. The random, disjointed structure of her speech reflects how she’s torn between her
ambition and her guilt. Part of her is holding onto the woman she was before, someone who
was fearless and unsympathetic of Macbeth’s fear, while the rest of her is descending into
remorse and grief. Therefore, there is a level of hypocrisy in her character. A case of
situational irony is the ways he worries about being unable to wash the blood from her
hands: earlier, she thought a “little water” would clear her of guilt, but now she learns this
isn’t true.
Lady Macbeth is hardly mentioned by the other characters for the rest of the play. Only
upon her death does Macbeth think of her, highlighting how separate the two of them have
become. She drifted away from the outside world, caged inside the castle. Before the
murder, Lady Macbeth could never have imagined fading into such insignificance.
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Lady Macbeth is forgotten until the last scene of the play, where she is referred to not by
name, but by the epithet “fiend-like queen”. On the one hand, this summarises who Lady
Macbeth wanted to be at the start, suggesting she will be remembered for her villainy and
cruelty. On the other, the use of “queen” presents her as Macbeth’s sidekick and wife,
reducing her to the backbench as all women were in Jacobean society. She has no individual
identity, and is known only by her relation to Macbeth. Little do they know that she was the
one who put the whole plan into motion.
We see an inversion in the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth: Macbeth hardens over
the course of the play while Lady Macbeth becomes consumed by guilt.
Does Lady Macbeth manipulate her husband?

Conventional view:
Macbeth imagines killing the king, but this ‘image doth unfix my hair’ he observes, which
coveys his horror at killing Duncan. He tells her ‘we shall proceed no further in this
business’, but she refuses to accept this, bringing up the horror of the recent death of his
child.
She suggests she would ‘dash its brains out’ if their child were still alive, and kill it rather
than go back on a promise. This appears to force Macbeth to follow through on his original
agreement to kill Duncan. She uses emotional blackmail and to appeal to the couple’s most
recent tragedy, thus engaging in a sort of psychological warfare.
She also tricks Macbeth, because she understands that he ‘is too full’o the milk of human
kindness’, and so tells him that she will kill Duncan herself, ‘put this great night’s business
into my dispatch’.
She comes up with a very unconvincing and lacklustre explanation for not killing Duncan,
that he looked like her ‘father as he slept’. The lack of plausibility suggests that she had
planned this all along.
Alternative Interpretation
Macbeth knows he has too much of a conscience to kill Duncan. He ‘has no spur to prick the
sides of (his) intent’. So, he turns to Lady Macbeth.
He knows that his wife will immediately try to persuade him to kill King Duncan. They have
an unusually close marriage for the time.
This is why, when he writes to her, he calls ‘my dearest partner in greatness’. The choice of
the word partner is extraordinary for the time, as it connotes a sense of equality between
the couple.
Note that he writes to Lady Macbeth to tell her of the witches’ prophecies, but then arrives
soon after the messenger with the letter. This reveals that there was no need to inform
through the letter – in fact, leaving early without writing it in the first place would have
allowed him to arrive before any letter.
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We realise, instead, that he has written the letter to manipulate Lady Macbeth. He needs
her to have time without him to formulate a plan. He knows his ‘partner’ will see Duncan’s
visit as an opportunity to murder him and seize the crown.
He also knows she will be his ‘spur’, and do everything in her power to persuade him to
commit regicide.
Context
The alternative interpretation is that Shakespeare still sees her as a victim of that society,
and he emphasises this by making her die off stage. He doesn’t ignore her death to convey
his social disapproval, but to reflect the injustice of his own times.
We can infer how much he valued women as equals in his own marriage, first seeking a
mature partner in the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway while he was 18.
Secondly, he never bought a home in London. Despite his wealth, he only lived in lodging,
and his profits were spirited home to Stratford and his own financial ‘partner in greatness’,
his wife.
Irony in Lady Macbeth’s final scene

Irony involves contrast. In 5.1, it’s between the expected and the actual. For example, in her
first scene (1.5), Lady Macbeth was awake, joyously expecting the future; in this, her last,
she is asleep, in guilty horror of the pasts.
Expected Actual
‘A little water clears us of this deed’ (2.2) ‘What’s done cannot be undone’ (5.1)
Lady Macbeth believed the guilt to only be Continually washing her hands and dwells
skin-deep. on her bloody hands in all but the last of
OR her six speeches in Act 5.
‘What’s done is done’
Lady Macbeth believes that the past is the
past, there’s no point feeling anxiety over
it.
‘Come, thick night’ (1.5) ‘She has light by her continually. ‘Tis her
Prayed for darkness to conceal her actions. command’ (5.1)
‘Make thick my blood’ (1.5) ‘More needs she the divine than the physician’
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She asked the spirits to thicken her blood to The Doctor points out her problem is spiritual,
stop her conscience- she understood it not physical.
physiologically and materialistically.
‘Unsex me here’ (1.5) Shows femininity (her obsessive-compulsive,
She prayed to lose her femininity. fear or dark, desire for comfort – holding
hands).
‘I feel the future in the instant’ (1.5) Stuck in a loop of one recurring past event.
‘These deeds must not be thought / After Unable to think of anything but the murder,
these ways; so, it will make us mad’ (2.2) and it has driven her insane.
‘You lack the season of all natures, sleep’ (3.4) Assumes guilt for all Macbeth’s crime – even
Urged Macbeth to sleep to cure his guilt- Banquo’s murder (which she knew about but
stricken horror. had no part in) and Lady Macduff’s (about
which she knew nothing beforehand).
Said things could be forgotten. Prisoner of her own memory.
‘The poor cat I’th’adage’: wants to fish but ‘Yet who would have thought the old man to
fear to wet its paw. have so much blood in him?’ (5.1)
Believed that daring ensures success.
‘The valour of my tongue’ (1.5) Her ramblings confesses her deeds.
Spoke in verse initially, expecting greatness The only one of Shakespeare’s tragic characters
(‘partner in greatness’ and ‘the golden round’) to be denied the dignity of verse in a last
appearance.
Further Commentary
In reference to her insomnia and insanity:
Shakespeare, occasionally and for reasons which need not be discussed here, represents
abnormal conditions of mind; insanity, for example, somnambulism, hallucinations. And
deeds issuing from these are certainly not what we called deeds in the fullest sense, deeds
expressive of character. No; but these abnormal conditions are never introduced as the
origin of deeds of any dramatic moment. Lady Macbeth's sleep-walking has no influence
23 | P a g e
whatever on the events that follow it. Macbeth did not murder Duncan because he saw a
dagger in the air: he saw the dagger because he was about to murder Duncan.
To these are added other, and constant, allusions to sleep, man's strange half-conscious life;
to the misery of its withholding; to the terrible dreams of remorse; to the cursed thoughts
from which Banquo is free by day, but which tempt him in his sleep: and again to abnormal
disturbances of sleep; in the two men, of whom one during the murder of Duncan laughed
in his sleep, and the other raised a cry of murder; and in Lady Macbeth, who rises to re-
enact in somnambulism those scenes the memory of which is pushing her on to madness or
suicide. All this has one effect, to excite supernatural alarm and, even more, a dread of the
presence of evil not only in its recognised seat but all through and around our mysterious
nature. Perhaps there is no other work equal to Macbeth in the production of this effect.
Lady Macbeth, who thought she could dash out her own child's brains, finds herself
hounded to death by the smell of a stranger's blood. Her husband thinks that to gain a
crown he would jump the life to come, and finds that the crown has brought him all the
horrors of that life. Everywhere, in this tragic world, man's thought, translated into act, is
transformed into the opposite of itself. His act, the movement of a few ounces of matter in a
moment of time, becomes a monstrous flood which spreads over a kingdom. And
whatsoever he dreams of doing, he achieves that which he least dreamed of, his own
destruction.
On Irony:
I refer to irony on the part of the author himself, to ironical juxtapositions of persons and
events, and especially to the 'Sophoclean irony' by which a speaker is made to use words
bearing to the audience, in addition to his own meaning, a further and ominous sense,
hidden from himself and, usually, from the other persons on the stage. The very first words
uttered by Macbeth,
So foul and fair a day I have not seen,
are an example to which attention has often been drawn; for they startle the reader by
recalling the words of the Witches in the first scene,
Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
When Macbeth, emerging from his murderous reverie, turns to the nobles saying, 'Let us
toward the King,' his words are innocent, but to the reader have a double meaning.
Duncan's comment on the treachery of Cawdor,
There's no art To find the mind's construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I
built An absolute trust,
24 | P a g e
is interrupted by the entrance of the traitor Macbeth, who is greeted with effusive gratitude
and a like 'absolute trust.' I have already referred to the ironical effect of the beautiful lines
in which Duncan and Banquo describe the castle they are about to enter. To the reader Lady
Macbeth's light words,
A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then,
summon up the picture of the sleep-walking scene. The idea of the Porter's speech, in which
he imagines himself the keeper of hell-gate, shows the same irony. So does the contrast
between the obvious and the hidden meanings of the apparitions of the armed head, the
bloody child, and the child with the tree in his hand. It would be easy to add further
examples. Perhaps the most striking is the answer which Banquo, as he rides away, never to
return alive, gives to Macbeth's reminder, 'Fail not our feast.' 'My lord, I will not,' he replies,
and he keeps his promise. It cannot be by accident that Shakespeare so frequently in this
play uses a device which contributes to excite the vague fear of hidden forces operating on
minds unconscious of their influence.
Summarised, with significant quotes
And, in the opening Act at least, Lady Macbeth is the most commanding and perhaps the
most awe-inspiring figure that Shakespeare drew. Sharing, as we have seen, certain traits
with her husband, she is at once clearly distinguished from him by an inflexibility of will,
which appears to hold imagination, feeling, and conscience completely in check. To her the
prophecy of things that will be becomes instantaneously the determination that they shall
be:
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be That thou art promised.
She knows her husband's weakness, how he scruples 'to catch the nearest way' to the
object he desires; and she sets herself without a trace of doubt or conflict to counteract this
weakness. To her there [367]is no separation between will and deed; and, as the deed falls
in part to her, she is sure it will be done:
The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements.
On the moment of Macbeth's rejoining her, after braving infinite dangers and winning
infinite praise, without a syllable on these subjects or a word of affection, she goes straight
to her purpose and permits him to speak of nothing else. She takes the superior position
and assumes the direction of affairs,—appears to assume it even more than she really can,
that she may spur him on. She animates him by picturing the deed as heroic, 'this night's
great business,' or 'our great quell,' while she ignores its cruelty and faithlessness. She bears
down his faint resistance by presenting him with a prepared scheme which may remove
from him the terror and danger of deliberation. She rouses him with a taunt no man can
bear, and least of all a soldier,—the word 'coward.' She appeals even to his love for her:
from this time Such I account thy love;
25 | P a g e
—such, that is, as the protestations of a drunkard. Her reasonings are mere sophisms; they
could persuade no man. It is not by them, it is by personal appeals, through the admiration
she extorts from him, and through sheer force of will, that she impels him to the deed. Her
eyes are fixed upon the crown and the means to it; she does not attend to the
consequences. Her plan of laying the guilt upon the chamberlains is invented on the spur of
the moment, and simply to satisfy her husband. Her true mind is heard in the ringing cry
with which she answers his question, 'Will it not be received ... that they have done it?'
Who dares receive it other?
And this is repeated in the sleep-walking scene: 'What need we fear who knows it, when
none can call our power to account?' Her passionate courage sweeps him off his feet. His
decision is taken in a moment of enthusiasm:
Bring forth men-children only; For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males.
And even when passion has quite died away her will remains supreme. In presence of
overwhelming horror and danger, in the murder scene and the banquet scene, her self-
control is perfect. When the truth of what she has done dawns on her, no word of
complaint, scarcely a word of her own suffering, not a single word of her own as apart from
his, escapes her when others are by. She helps him, but never asks his help. She leans on
nothing but herself. And from the beginning to the end—though she makes once or twice a
slip in acting her part—her will never fails her. Its grasp upon her nature may destroy her,
but it is never relaxed. We are sure that she never betrayed her husband or herself by a
word or even a look, save in sleep. However appalling she may be, she is sublime.
In the earlier scenes of the play this aspect of Lady Macbeth's character is far the most
prominent. And if she seems invincible she seems also inhuman. We find no trace of pity for
the kind old king; no consciousness of the treachery and baseness of the murder; no sense
of the value of the lives of the wretched men on whom the guilt is to be laid; no shrinking
even from the condemnation or hatred of the world. Yet if the Lady Macbeth of these
scenes were really utterly inhuman, or a 'fiend-like queen,' as Malcolm calls her, the Lady
Macbeth of the sleep-walking scene would be an impossibility. The one woman could never
become the other. And in fact, if we look below the surface, there is evidence enough in the
earlier scenes of preparation for the later. I do not mean that Lady Macbeth was naturally
humane. There is nothing in the play to show this, and several passages subsequent to the
murder-scene supply proof to the contrary. One is that where she exclaims, on being
informed of Duncan's murder,
Woe, alas! What, in our house?
This mistake in acting shows that she does not even know what the natural feeling in such
circumstances would be; and Banquo's curt answer, 'Too cruel anywhere,' is almost a
reproof of her insensibility. But, admitting this, we have in the first place to remember, in
imagining the opening scenes, that she is deliberately bent on counteracting the 'human
kindness' of her husband, and also that she is evidently not merely inflexibly determined but
in a condition of abnormal excitability. That exaltation in the project which is so entirely
26 | P a g e
lacking in Macbeth is strongly marked in her. When she tries to help him by representing
their enterprise as heroic, she is deceiving herself as much as him. Their attainment of the
crown presents itself to her, perhaps has long presented itself, as something so glorious,
and she has fixed her will upon it so completely, that for the time she sees the enterprise in
no other light than that of its greatness. When she soliloquises,
Yet do I fear thy nature: It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way:
thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it;
what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily,
one sees that 'ambition' and 'great' and 'highly' and even 'illness' are to her simply terms of
praise, and 'holily' and 'human kindness' simply terms of blame. Moral distinctions do not in
this exaltation exist for her; or rather they are inverted: 'good' means to her the crown and
whatever is required to obtain it, 'evil' whatever stands in the way of its attainment. This
attitude of mind is evident even when she is alone, though it becomes still more
pronounced when she has to work upon her husband. And it persists until her end is
attained. But, without being exactly forced, it betrays a strain which could not long endure.
Besides this, in these earlier scenes the traces of feminine weakness and human feeling,
which account for her later failure, are not absent. Her will, it is clear, was exerted to
overpower not only her husband's resistance but some resistance in herself. Imagine
Goneril uttering the famous words,
Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done 't.
They are spoken, I think, without any sentiment—impatiently, as though she regretted her
weakness: but it was there. And in reality, quite apart from this recollection of her father,
she could never have done the murder if her husband had failed. She had to nerve herself
with wine to give her 'boldness' enough to go through her minor part. That appalling
invocation to the spirits of evil, to unsex her and fill her from the crown to the toe topfull of
direst cruelty, tells the same tale of determination to crush the inward protest. Goneril had
no need of such a prayer. In the utterance of the frightful lines,
I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while 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,
her voice should doubtless rise until it reaches, in 'dash'd the brains out,' an almost
hysterical scream. These lines show unmistakably that strained exaltation which, as soon as
the end is reached, vanishes, never to return.
The greatness of Lady Macbeth lies almost wholly in courage and force of will. It is an error
to regard her as remarkable on the intellectual side. In acting a part she shows immense
self-control, but not much skill. Whatever may be thought of the plan of attributing the
murder of Duncan to the chamberlains, to lay their bloody daggers on their pillows, as if
they were determined to advertise their guilt, was a mistake which can be accounted for
only by the excitement of the moment. But the limitations of her mind appear most in the
27 | P a g e
point where she is most strongly contrasted with Macbeth,—in her comparative dullness of
imagination. I say 'comparative,' for she sometimes uses highly poetic language, as indeed
does everyone in Shakespeare who has any greatness of soul. Nor is she perhaps less
imaginative than the majority of his heroines. But as compared with her husband she has
little imagination. It is not simply that she suppresses what she has. To her, things remain at
the most terrible moment precisely what they were at the calmest, plain facts which stand
in a given relation to a certain deed, not visions which tremble and flicker in the light of
other worlds. The probability that the old king will sleep soundly after his long journey to
Inverness is to her simply a fortunate circumstance; but one can fancy the shoot of horror
across Macbeth's face as she mentions it. She uses familiar and prosaic illustrations, like
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,' Like the poor cat i' the adage,
the cat who wanted fish but did not like to wet her feet); or,
We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place, And we'll not fail;
or,
Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since? And wakes it now, to
look so green and pale At what it did so freely?
The Witches are practically nothing to her. She feels no sympathy in Nature with her guilty
purpose, and would never bid the earth not hear her steps, which way they walk. The noises
before the murder, and during it, are heard by her as simple facts, and are referred to their
true sources. The knocking has no mystery for her: it comes from 'the south entry.' She
calculates on the drunkenness of the grooms, compares the different effects of wine on
herself and on them, and listens to their snoring. To her the blood upon her husband's
hands suggests only the taunt,
My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white;
and the blood to her is merely 'this filthy witness,'—words impossible to her husband, to
whom it suggested something quite other than sensuous disgust or practical danger. The
literalism of her mind appears fully in two contemptuous speeches where she dismisses his
imaginings; in the murder scene:
Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers! The sleeping and the dead Are but as pictures: 'tis
the eye of childhood That fears a painted devil;
and in the banquet scene:
O these flaws and starts, Impostors to true fear, would well become A woman's story at a
winter's fire, Authorised by her grandam. Shame itself! Why do you make such faces? When
all's done, You look but on a stool.
28 | P a g e
Even in the awful scene where her imagination breaks loose in sleep she uses no such
images as Macbeth's. It is the direct appeal of the facts to sense that has fastened on her
memory. The ghastly realism of 'Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so
much blood in him?' or 'Here's the smell of the blood still,' is wholly unlike him. Her most
poetical words, 'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,' are equally
unlike his words about great Neptune's ocean. Hers, like some of her other speeches, are
the more moving, from their greater simplicity and because they seem to tell of that self-
restraint in suffering which is so totally lacking in him; but there is in them comparatively
little of imagination. If we consider most of the passages to which I have referred, we shall
find that the quality which moves our admiration is courage or force of will.
This want of imagination, though it helps to make Lady Macbeth strong for immediate
action, is fatal to her. If she does not feel beforehand the cruelty of Duncan's murder, this is
mainly because she hardly imagines the act, or at most imagines its outward show, 'the
motion of a muscle this way or that.' Nor does she in the least foresee those inward
consequences which reveal themselves immediately in her husband, and less quickly in
herself. It is often said that she understands him well. Had she done so, she never would
have urged him on. She knows that he is given to strange fancies; but, not realising what
they spring from, she has no idea either that they may gain such power as to ruin the
scheme, or that, while they mean present weakness, they mean also perception of the
future. At one point in the murder scene the force of his imagination impresses her, and for
a moment she is startled; a light threatens to break on her:
These deeds must not be thought After these ways: so, it will make us mad,
she says, with a sudden and great seriousness. And when he goes panting on, 'Methought I
heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more,"' ... she breaks in, 'What do you mean?' half-doubting
whether this was not a real voice that he heard. Then, almost directly, she recovers herself,
convinced of the vanity of his fancy. Nor does she understand herself any better than him.
She never suspects that these deeds must be thought after these ways; that her facile
realism,
A little water clears us of this deed,
will one day be answered by herself, 'Will these hands ne'er be clean?' or that the fatal
commonplace, 'What's done is done,' will make way for her last despairing sentence,
'What's done cannot be undone.'
Hence the development of her character—perhaps it would be more strictly accurate to say,
the change in her state of mind—is both inevitable, and the opposite of the development
we traced in Macbeth. When the murder has been done, the discovery of its hideousness,
first reflected in the faces of her guests, comes to Lady Macbeth with the shock of a sudden
disclosure, and at once her nature begins to sink. The first intimation of the change is given
when, in the scene of the discovery, she faints. When next we see her, Queen of Scotland,
the glory of her dream has faded. She enters, disillusioned, and weary with want of sleep:
she has thrown away everything and gained nothing:
29 | P a g e
Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content: 'Tis safer to be that
which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
Henceforth she has no initiative: the stem of her being seems to be cut through. Her
husband, physically the stronger, maddened by pangs he had foreseen, but still flaming with
life, comes into the foreground, and she retires. Her will remains, and she does her best to
help him; but he rarely needs her help. Her chief anxiety appears to be that he should not
betray his misery. He plans the murder of Banquo without her knowledge (not in order to
spare her, I think, for he never shows love of this quality, but merely because he does not
need her now); and even when she is told vaguely of his intention she appears but little
interested. In the sudden emergency of the banquet scene she makes a prodigious and
magnificent effort; her strength, and with it her ascendancy, returns, and she saves her
husband at least from an open disclosure. But after this she takes no part whatever in the
action. We only know from her shuddering words in the sleep-walking scene, 'The Thane of
Fife had a wife: where is she now?' that she has even learned of her husband's worst crime;
and in all the horrors of his tyranny over Scotland she has, so far as we hear, no part.
Disillusionment and despair prey upon her more and more. That she should seek any relief
in speech, or should ask for sympathy, would seem to her mere weakness, and would be to
Macbeth's defiant fury an irritation. Thinking of the change in him, we imagine the bond
between them slackened, and Lady Macbeth left much alone. She sinks slowly downward.
She cannot bear darkness, and has light by her continually: 'tis her command. At last her
nature, not her will, gives way. The secrets of the past find vent in a disorder of sleep, the
beginning perhaps of madness. What the doctor fears is clear. He reports to her husband no
great physical mischief, but bids her attendant to remove from her all means by which she
could harm herself, and to keep eyes on her constantly. It is in vain. Her death is announced
by a cry from her women so sudden and direful that it would thrill her husband with horror
if he were any longer capable of fear. In the last words of the play Malcolm tells us it is
believed in the hostile army that she died by her own hand. And (not to speak of the
indications just referred to) it is in accordance with her character that even in her weakest
hour she should cut short by one determined stroke the agony of her life.
The sinking of Lady Macbeth's nature, and the marked change in her demeanour to her
husband, are most strikingly shown in the conclusion of the banquet scene; and from this
point pathos is mingled with awe. The guests are gone. She is completely exhausted, and
answers Macbeth in listless, submissive words which seem to come with difficulty. How
strange sounds the reply 'Did you send to him, sir?' to his imperious question about
Macduff! And when he goes on, 'waxing desperate in imagination,' to speak of new deeds of
blood, she seems to sicken at the thought, and there is a deep pathos in that answer which
tells at once of her care for him and of the misery she herself has silently endured,
You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
We begin to think of her now less as the awful instigator of murder than as a woman with
much that is grand in her, and much that is piteous. Strange and almost ludicrous as the
statement may sound, she is, up to her light, a perfect wife. She gives her husband the best
she has; and the fact that she never uses to him the terms of affection which, up to this
point in the play, he employs to her, is certainly no indication of want of love. She urges,
30 | P a g e
appeals, reproaches, for a practical end, but she never recriminates. The harshness of her
taunts is free from mere personal feeling, and also from any deep or more than momentary
contempt. She despises what she thinks the weakness which stands in the way of her
husband's ambition; but she does not despise him. She evidently admires him and thinks
him a great man, for whom the throne is the proper place. Her commanding attitude in the
moments of his hesitation or fear is probably confined to them. If we consider the peculiar
circumstances of the earlier scenes and the banquet scene, and if we examine the language
of the wife and husband at other times, we shall come, I think, to the conclusion that their
habitual relations are better represented by the later scenes than by the earlier, though
naturally they are not truly represented by either. Her ambition for her husband and herself
(there was no distinction to her mind) proved fatal to him, far more so than the prophecies
of the Witches; but even when she pushed him into murder she believed she was helping
him to do what he merely lacked the nerve to attempt; and her part in the crime was so
much less open-eyed than his, that, if the impossible and undramatic task of estimating
degrees of culpability were forced on us, we should surely have to assign the larger share to
Macbeth.
'Lady Macbeth,' says Dr. Johnson, 'is merely detested'; and for a long time critics generally
spoke of her as though she were Malcolm's 'fiend-like queen.' In natural reaction we tend to
insist, as I have been doing, on the other and less obvious side; and in the criticism of the
last century there is even a tendency to sentimentalise the character. But it can hardly be
doubted that Shakespeare meant the predominant impression to be one of awe, grandeur,
and horror, and that he never meant this impression to be lost, however it might be
modified, as Lady Macbeth's activity diminishes and her misery increases. I cannot believe
that, when she said of Banquo and Fleance,
But in them nature's copy's not eterne,
she meant only that they would some day die; or that she felt any surprise when Macbeth
replied,
There's comfort yet: they are assailable;
though I am sure no light came into her eyes when he added those dreadful words, 'Then be
thou jocund.' She was listless. She herself would not have moved a finger against Banquo.
But she thought his death, and his son's death, might ease her husband's mind, and she
suggested the murders indifferently and without remorse. The sleep-walking scene, again,
inspires pity, but its main effect is one of awe. There is great horror in the references to
blood, but it cannot be said that there is more than horror; and Campbell was surely right
when, in alluding to Mrs. Jameson's analysis, he insisted that in Lady Macbeth's misery there
is no trace of contrition. Doubtless she would have given the world to undo what she had
done; and the thought of it killed her; but, regarding her from the tragic point of view, we
may truly say she was too great to repent.
31 | P a g e
In regards to the ending of Lady Macbeth’s life
To Lady Macbeth each new image or perception comes laden with anguish. There is, again,
scarcely a sign of the exaltation of disordered imagination; we are conscious rather of an
intense suffering which forces its way into light against resistance, and speaks a language for
the most part strikingly bare in its diction and simple in its construction. This language
stands in strong contrast with that of Macbeth in the surrounding scenes, full of a feverish
and almost furious excitement, and seems to express a far more desolating misery.
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth
A good many readers probably think that, when Macbeth first met the Witches, he was
perfectly innocent; but a much larger number would say that he had already harboured a
vaguely guilty ambition, though he had not faced the idea of murder. And I think there can
be no doubt that this is the obvious and natural interpretation of the scene. Only it is almost
necessary to go rather further, and to suppose that his guilty ambition, whatever its precise
form, was known to his wife and shared by her. Otherwise, surely, she would not, on
reading his letter, so instantaneously assume that the King must be murdered in their castle;
nor would Macbeth, as soon as he meets her, be aware (as he evidently is) that this thought
is in her mind.
But there is a famous passage in Macbeth which, closely considered, seems to require us to
go further still, and to suppose that, at some time before the action of the play begins, the
husband and wife had explicitly discussed the idea of murdering Duncan at some favourable
opportunity, and had agreed to execute this idea.
The passage occurs in i. vii., where Lady Macbeth is urging her husband to the deed:
Macb. Prithee, peace:

I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
Lady M. What beast was't, then,

That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
Did then adhere, and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while 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.
32 | P a g e
Here Lady Macbeth asserts (1) that Macbeth proposed the murder to her: (2) that he did so
at a time when there was no opportunity to attack Duncan, no 'adherence' of 'time' and
'place': (3) that he declared he wou'd make an opportunity, and swore to carry out the
murder.
Now it is possible that Macbeth's 'swearing' might have occurred in an interview off the
stage between scenes v. and vi., or scenes vi. and vii.; and, if in that interview Lady Macbeth
had with difficulty worked her husband up to a resolution, her irritation at his relapse, in sc.
vii., would be very natural. But, as for Macbeth's first proposal of murder, it certainly does
not occur in our play, nor could it possibly occur in any interview off the stage; for when
Macbeth and his wife first meet, 'time' and 'place' do adhere; 'they have made themselves.'
The conclusion would seem to be, either that the proposal of the murder, and probably the
oath, occurred in a scene at the very beginning of the play, which scene has been lost or cut
out; or else that Macbeth proposed, and swore to execute, the murder at some time prior
to the action of the play. The first of these hypotheses is most improbable, and we seem
driven to adopt the second, unless we consent to burden Shakespeare with a careless
mistake in a very critical passage.
And, apart from unwillingness to do this, we can find a good deal to say in favour of the idea
of a plan formed at a past time. It would explain Macbeth's start of fear at the prophecy of
the kingdom. It would explain why Lady Macbeth, on receiving his letter, immediately
resolves on action; and why, on their meeting, each knows that murder is in the mind of the
other. And it is in harmony with her remarks on his probable shrinking from the act, to
which, ex hypothesi, she had already thought it necessary to make him pledge himself by an
oath.
Yet I find it very difficult to believe in this interpretation. It is not merely that the interest of
Macbeth's struggle with himself and with his wife would be seriously diminished if we felt
he had been through all this before. I think this would be so; but there are two more
important objections. In the first place the violent agitation described in the words,
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair And make
my seated heart knock at my ribs,
would surely not be natural, even in Macbeth, if the idea of murder were already quite
familiar to him through conversation with his wife, and if he had already done more than
'yield' to it. It is not as if the Witches had told him that Duncan was coming to his house. In
that case the perception that the moment had come to execute a merely general design
might well appal him. But all that he hears is that he will one day be King—a statement
which, supposing this general design, would not point to any immediate action. And, in the
second place, it is hard to believe that, if Shakespeare really had imagined the murder
planned and sworn to before the action of the play, he would have written the first six
scenes in such a manner that practically all readers imagine quite another state of affairs,
and continue to imagine it even after they have read in scene vii. the passage which is
troubling us. Is it likely, to put it otherwise, that his idea was one which nobody seems to
have divined till late in the nineteenth century? And for what possible reason could he
refrain from making this idea clear to his audience, as he might so easily have done in the
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third scene? It seems very much more likely that he himself imagined the matter as nearly
all his readers do.
But, in that case, what are we to say of this passage? I will answer first by explaining the way
in which I understood it before I was aware that it had caused so much difficulty. I supposed
that an interview had taken place after scene v., a scene which shows Macbeth shrinking,
and in which his last words were 'we will speak further.' In this interview, I supposed, his
wife had so wrought upon him that he had at last yielded and pledged himself by oath to do
the murder. As for her statement that he had 'broken the enterprise' to her, I took it to refer
to his letter to her,—a letter written when time and place did not adhere, for he did not yet
know that Duncan was coming to visit him. In the letter he does not, of course, openly
'break the enterprise' to her, and it is not likely that he would do such a thing in a letter; but
if they had had ambitious conversations, in which each felt that some half-formed guilty
idea was floating in the mind of the other, she might naturally take the words of the letter
as indicating much more than they said; and then in her passionate contempt at his
hesitation, and her passionate eagerness to overcome it, she might easily accuse him,
doubtless with exaggeration, and probably with conscious exaggeration, of having actually
proposed the murder. And Macbeth, knowing that when he wrote the letter he really had
been thinking of murder, and indifferent to anything except the question whether murder
should be done, would easily let her statement pass unchallenged.
This interpretation still seems to me not unnatural. The alternative (unless we adopt the
idea of an agreement prior to the action of the play) is to suppose that Lady Macbeth refers
throughout the passage to some interview subsequent to her husband's return, and that, in
making her do so, Shakespeare simply forgot her speeches on welcoming Macbeth home,
and also forgot that at any such interview 'time' and 'place' did 'adhere.' It is easy to
understand such forgetfulness in a spectator and even in a reader; but it is less easy to
imagine it in a poet whose conception of the two characters throughout these scenes was
evidently so burningly vivid.
On fainting
Lady Macbeth exclaims, 'Help me hence, ho!' Her husband takes no notice, but Macduff
calls out 'Look to the lady.' This, after a few words 'aside' between Malcolm and Donalbain,
is repeated by Banquo, and, very shortly after, all except Duncan's sons exeunt. (The stage-
direction 'Lady Macbeth is carried out,' after Banquo's exclamation 'Look to the lady,' is not
in the Ff. and was introduced by Rowe. If the Ff. are right, she can hardly have fainted away.
But the point has no importance here.)
Does Lady Macbeth really turn faint, or does she pretend? The latter seems to have been
the general view, and Whately pointed out that Macbeth's indifference betrays his
consciousness that the faint was not real. But to this it may be answered that, if he believed
it to be real, he would equally show indifference, in order to display his horror at the
murder. And Miss Helen Faucit and others have held that there was no pretence.
34 | P a g e
In favour of the pretence it may be said (1) that Lady Macbeth, who herself took back the
daggers, saw the old King in his blood, and smeared the grooms, was not the woman to faint
at a mere description; (2) that she saw her husband over-acting his part, and saw the faces
of the lords, and wished to end the scene,—which she succeeded in doing.
But to the last argument it may be replied that she would not willingly have run the risk of
leaving her husband to act his part alone. And for other reasons, I decidedly believe that she
is meant really to faint. She was no Goneril. She knew that she could not kill the King herself;
and she never expected to have to carry back the daggers, see the bloody corpse, and smear
the faces and hands of the grooms. But Macbeth's agony greatly alarmed her, and she was
driven to the scene of horror to complete his task; and what an impression it made on her
we know from that sentence uttered in her sleep, 'Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him?' She had now, further, gone through the ordeal of the
discovery. Is it not quite natural that the reaction should come, and that it should come just
when Macbeth's description recalls the scene which had cost her the greatest effort? Is it
not likely, besides, that the expression on the faces of the lords would force her to realise,
what before the murder she had refused to consider, the horror and the suspicion it must
excite? It is noticeable, also, that she is far from carrying out her intention of bearing a part
in making their 'griefs and clamours roar upon his death' (i. vii. 78). She has left it all to
[486]her husband, and, after uttering but two sentences, the second of which is answered
very curtly by Banquo, for some time (an interval of 33 lines) she has said nothing. I believe
Shakespeare means this interval to be occupied in desperate efforts on her part to prevent
herself from giving way, as she sees for the first time something of the truth to which she
was formerly so blind, and which will destroy her in the end.
It should be observed that at the close of the Banquet scene, where she has gone through
much less, she is evidently exhausted.
Shakespeare, of course, knew whether he meant the faint to be real: but I am not aware if
an actor of the part could show the audience whether it was real or pretended. If he could,
he would doubtless receive instructions from the author.
Significant Quotes and Analyses

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy
nature, / It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way.” (A1S5)
(Themes: Nature, Supernatural, Innocence)
●Follow the same structure as the Witches’ prophecies, implying she has her own psychic
abilities and associating her with the supernatural.
●Lady Macbeth “fear[s]” Macbeth’s kind nature; fear is typically associated with evil or the
supernatural, but in this statement, Lady Macbeth reverses this thought. By fearing
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Macbeth’s kindness, she implies that morality is a frightening, threatening thing.

Alternatively, “fear” reveals how desperately Lady Macbeth wants to become queen. The
noun“nature” alludes to Macbeth’s mortal soul and shows that she is referring to Macbeth’s
true identity, the parts of himself that he can’t change. Therefore, she is presenting
Macbeth as a person whose moral compass and compassion are inherent or permanent.
○Moreover, by calling it “human kindness”, she implies Macbeth’s personality is
universally recognised to be kind. Shakespeare implies kindness is exclusive to “human[s]”,
and is an objective thing, meaning it can’t be disputed or interpreted differently. Macbeth
shares his goodness with the rest of the human race, but Lady Macbeth wants to rid herself
of it, and take him with her.
●Lady Macbeth continues to portray Macbeth’s “human kindness” as an unfavourable trait
for him to have. The phrase “too full” again suggests his nature will be an obstacle to her
plans, and might also be interpreted as a sign of corruption.
○In ancient medicine, people believed that your health depended on having a
balance of four different fluids, or ‘humours’. By suggesting Macbeth is “too full” of “milk”,
Lady Macbeth might be implying he is ill or mentally unbalanced. The metaphor“milk of
human kindness” presents kindness as a fluid, changeable thing. Milk can expire, go rotten,
or be poisoned, so Shakespeare may be hinting that though Lady Macbeth is worried about
Macbeth at the moment, she believes she can corrupt him. Alternatively, “milk” connotes
breastfeeding, and so associates “human kindness” with femininity. This presents
compassion as a weakness, something that emasculates Macbeth and stops him from being
the strong, brave king she wants him to be. The use of the “milk”metaphor, as well as
applying a ‘feminine’ trait to Macbeth, suggests gender is fluid.
● The connective signifies a change in thought from Lady Macbeth, that Macbeth is
feminine and weak. The connotations of ‘milk’ and the colour white are innocence, purity
and surrender. Macbeth could appear as the more nurturing character,
● The instantaneous insult of her husband’s masculinity ‘too full o’th’milk of human
kindness’ suggests that she is fully aware of his nature which, in this scene, seems to
juxtapose hers. A wife criticising her husband’s nature would shock a Jacobean audience
and more significantly the noun ‘milk’ is associated with the act of breastfeeding,
synonymous with females and their genitals. Through her character, femininity is linked to
weakness, and this notion is solidified with the imperative ‘unsex me here’.
“Hie thee hither, / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear / And chastise with the valour of
my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round.” – Lady Macbeth, (A1S5)
●Lady Macbeth summons Macbeth with a “hie thee hither” in the same way that the
Witches summoned their familiars (animal companions) in the opening scene. This suggests
she views him as a means to an end, or a tool to help her get her way.
●The imagery of “pour my spirits in thine ear” evokes demonic possession,showing how
Lady Macbeth wants to overpower Macbeth with her own villainy.
● On a literal level, Lady Macbeth is simply confessing to her persuasive abilities. However,
on a deeper level, her language is that of great juxtaposition. The abstract noun ‘valour’ is
associated with bravery. Yes, on one hand she is empowering her husband into committing
regicide but on the other hand she is essentially defying the Great Chain of Being and with
this her ambition leads her to her downfall. Coupling this with the verb ‘chastise’ then we
literally have an idea of Macbeth being reprimanded by his wife and even corrected; clearly
her moral values are questionable even heinous.
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●This whole extract might seem sexual, and one interpretation is that sex is used in the
subtext to illustrate the power dynamics Lady Macbeth is manipulating. Typically, to “pour
[your] spirits” would be a masculine action, while the one receiving those “spirits” would be
seen as the female. However, in this case, Lady Macbeth wants to take the masculine role,
reflecting how she consistently strips Macbeth of his manliness. In keeping with the theme
of gender that Lady Macbeth uses in her first soliloquies, she wants to subvert traditional
gender roles as a way of getting what she wants.
“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here / And fill me from the
crown to the toe topfull / Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, / Stop up th’access and
passage to remorse / That no compunctious visitings of nature/ Shake my fell purpose nor
keep peace between / Th’effect and it. Come to my woman’s breasts / And take my milk
for gall, you murd’ring ministers.” (A1S5) (Themes: Power, Supernatural, Sexuality)
●This is a pivotal moment in her character development. She is dedicating herself entirely to
her conspiracy, even willing to sacrifice her own mind and body to whatever evil “spirits”
will help her reach her goal. She views herself as a harbinger of death for Duncan, and so it’s
fitting that what follows is, for all intents and purposes, a witch’s spell. The violent imagery
in the quote demonstrates her aggressive approach to pursuing her ambition. Her lack of
maternal instinct emphasises how unconventional her mindset is for a woman in the 1600s.
She is using commands to emphasise her power over other and she repeats the personal
pronoun ‘I’ to portray what she sees to be moral superiority over her husband.
●The use of anatomy, such as “the crown to the toe” and “breasts”, makes her speech feel
very invasive and uncomfortable, as well as illustrating how Lady Macbeth is trying to
mutate into something else. Disturbing imagery is employed with a refusal of any maternal
instinct or any feminine trait which would make her more vulnerable. Furthermore, the
reference to “blood” and “milk” shows how her soul and mind will also be affected. Because
of the theory of the four humours in medieval medicine, a person’s bodily fluids (such as
Lady Macbeth’s “blood”) would have determined their true nature. By asking the spirits to
tamper with her insides, Lady Macbeth is asking for a complete makeover. Alternatively, the
combination of “blood” and “gall” could be an allusion to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ side was
pierced to prove he was dead, and blood came gushing out; before he died, the Roman
soldiers offered him a wine laced with gall, or poison. Lady Macbeth is welcoming these
substances, suggesting she is on the side of the Roman soldiers.
● ‘Come to my woman’s breasts, / and take my milk for gall…’ juxtaposes the ‘milk of human
kindness’ that is used to describe Macbeth. Thus, the couple have contrasting images:
Macbeth, ‘full’ of ‘human kindness’ and Lady Macbeth, full of ‘gall’.
● Alternatively, the imperative ‘unsex’ can be taken more symbolically. For instance,
perhaps Lady Macbeth wishes to castrate herself as it is a harsh reminder of the very
feminine things she cannot do; provide children to Macbeth. To elaborate, this then takes
on more poignancy when the prophecies remind her that Banquo’s children will succeed.
Clearly, she then looks for validation elsewhere which in this instance is royalty. Being a
queen is used to fill the void of the lost child that she ‘have given suck’ to.
37 | P a g e
●The other key aspect of this quote is the theme of gender, summarised in Lady Macbeth’s
use of the verb“unsex”. Though the attributes Lady Macbeth desires, including cruelty, are
typically associated with masculinity, Lady Macbeth isn’t asking to be made into a man: she
is asking to be rid of the parts that make her a woman. “Unsex” conveys androgyny and
ambiguity. Lady Macbeth seems to associate goodness with humanity (“human kindness”
),and Shakespeare implies that gender is a sign of humanity (“single state of man”). By being
“unsex[ed]”, Lady Macbeth would escape the gender binary altogether, and so would be
removed from humanity. This would free her from the burdens and weaknesses of morality
and conscience.
“To beguile the time, / Look like the time, bear welcome in your eye, / Your hand, your
tongue; look like th’innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t.” (A1S5)
●This quote is an explicit nod to the theme of appearance vs. reality, as Lady Macbeth
instructs her husband on how to fool everyone around them. Shakespeare shows how she
intends to exploit the differences between appearance and reality, as well as exploit how
gullible our senses are, to achieve her goal. Once again, Shakespeare uses anatomical
imagery, such as “eye”, “hand”, and “tongue”, as well as a semantic field of sight, “look” and
“eye”, in Lady Macbeth’s descriptions of emotion. She tells Macbeth to make sure that any
“welcome” or kindness he shows others is purely surface level. This suggests that their
public personas are superficial and hollow, with no genuine meaning behind them. The body
parts she lists implies that emotion can be replicated and imitated, as if it is a physical
product rather than an abstract feeling. The theme of sight conveys how our senses can be
tricked: we are taken in by appearances and performances.
●Shakespeare draws parallels between Eve and Lady Macbeth, making the idea of Original
Sin very explicit, especially when she tells Macbeth to ‘look like the innocent flower, but be
the serpent under it’. The loss of innocence is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve, and
obviously the serpent is central to this allusion.
●The parallel structure in “to beguile the time, / Look like the time” emphasises the idea of
mirroring. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that the best way to trick people is by reflecting back
at them what they want to see. Again ,their identities are surface level, with no substance
behind the reflective glass. The verb“beguile” conveys menace and manipulation. Also, it
connotes enchantment and witchcraft, continuing to present Lady Macbeth as an
enchantress.
“Nought’s had, all’s spent / Where our desire is got without content. ‘Tis safer tobe that
which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.” (A3S2)
●Something significant about this quote is that Lady Macbeth says it when she’s alone on
stage. This implies we can trust it more than other things she says, because she isn’t
performing for an audience: as far as we can tell, she is being her genuine self. We see that
she is admitting she is worried, something she would never want to confess to her husband.
Both of the Macbeths are suffering from the same case of paranoia, but neither will confide
in the other. The parallel phrases “nought’s had, all’s spent” shows how Lady Macbeth’s
thinking is black-and-white. She goes from one extreme to the other: from “nought” to “all”.
38 | P a g e
Shakespeare implies that she sees no value in what they did unless they succeed fully - in
other words, unless they never face consequences, and can enjoy life to the fullest. This
portrays her as a selfish, unsatisfied character, and implies that currently, Duncan died for
nothing. Shakespeare hints that the Macbeths will never be satisfied, and so will always
have “nought”. Fulfilling your “desire” isn’t enough, because you need to be “content”, too.
The list keeps growing.
●We can also detect fear in Lady Macbeth’s character. The use of the comparative adjective
“safer” suggests Lady Macbeth is aware of their dangerous position, and wishes she could
feel more at ease. Shakespeare suggests to his audience that this is a just punishment for
her actions. The phrase “dwell in doubtful joy” is full of uncertainty and hesitancy, reflecting
the unstable environment of the play. Shakespeare shows how nothing can be guaranteed,
and this eats away at a person. The consonance of “d'' could mimic the chattering of teeth
or stuttering, reflecting how Lady Macbeth is struggling to adapt to her new life.
‘Thy letters have transported me beyond / this ignorant present, and I feel now / the
future in the instant’
Initially, lady Macbeth takes on the role of a Machiavellian villainess; she is excessively
ambitious and even in this act verbally challenges and disrupts the great chain of being.
During Jacobean society, this was frowned upon an order was valued. Her use of the
adjective ‘transported’ suggests that the supernatural prophecies have physically moved
lady Macbeth and her flaw is evident here: over ambition. Beneath the surface, her words
highlight a desperation, and need to feel power; The lexical field associated with time
(‘future’, ‘instant’, ‘present’), coupled with the iambic pentameter, intensifies the influence
of the witches and some critics argue that Lady Macbeth is herself the 4th which.
Alternatively, the juxtaposition of ‘present’ and ‘future’ subtly outline an insecurity within
her character. In the present, she is merely a childless wife to a soldier. In the future,
according to the prophecies, she is a queen.
‘Out, damned spot’

As the relationship between Macbeth and his wife begins to disintegrate so does her mental
stability. Her growing sense of guilt causes her to hallucinate and disturbs both her sleep
and mental stability. Metaphorically, the washing of the hands represents the guilt and
torture Lady Macbeth is currently suffering. However, an alternative interpretation could be
that this is the subconscious of Lady Macbeth: her true self. This version of the villainess
establishes the theme of Appearance vs Reality and heavily juxtaposes the dominant
character of Act 1 scenes 5 and 7. Shakespeare, here, presents a vulnerable, mentally
unstable woman who questions her own actions and morality.
More symbolically, the repeated use of the imperative preposition ‘out’ within these
exclamative sentences reiterates a desperation about her in this moment; rather than
speaking to her bloody hands she is in fact pleading for her remorse to disappear. Once
again, Shakespeare uses commands in Lady Macbeth’s rhetoric, yet whereas before his
cemented her power and status, the permanence of the guilt suggests her position has been
weakened. Her language is now that of prose highlighting her great downfall from earlier
scenes where she confidently manipulated language through the iambic pentameter. As the
39 | P a g e
only protagonist in a Shakespeare play to die speaking in prose we see the sanctions of
defying order and royalty. Moreover, the adjective ‘damned’ reminds us of a religious
reprimand where people are condemned to eternal punishments.
The reference to eternal punishment here has connotations of hell. Interestingly, she labels
the blood as ‘damned’, almost deflecting her own actions. Biblically, denying repentance
means she is doomed.
Iambic Pentameter vs Prose

The two personalities of Lady Macbeth are again highlighted by Shakespeare through the
meter used. In her opening scenes, where she appears dominant and is action on behalf of
her conscience utilises the iambic pentameter. By definition, this up and down rhythm
serves to indicate that there is something unstable about this woman. As her relationship
with Macbeth disintegrates and she meets the limit of the power, she then stumbles around
the castle speaking in prose; the only Shakespearean protagonist to die speaking in this way
truly emphasises her insignificance. Alternatively, it also outlines her subconscious: the
ethical and moral.
‘look like th’innocent flower, but be the surpent under’t’ (Themes: Appearance vs Reality)
This quote links back to the theme of Appearance vs Reality, and shows her duplicitous
nature.
Additionally, during Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot, King James I was awarded with a medal
that presents a serpent hiding beneath a flower. By comparing Lady Macbeth to a
massacre/violent act, Shakespeare ultimately presents her as villainous.
The word ‘serpent’ has Biblical connotations, and relates to the serpent in Genesis. The
serpent that tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and as result leads to the downfall of
mankind.
‘My hands are of your colour – but I shame to wear a heart so white!’ (A1S2) (Themes:
Marriage, Innocence, Control)
The use of the dash appears to link Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (their hands are the same –
same colour of blood). Their fate appears intertwined and that they are destined for the
same course. However, Lady Macbeth sees this link to Macbeth’s cowardice as shame and
metaphorically refers to wearing a white heart – connoting cowardice and surrender. You
could also see the dash as the separation and divide in their relationship.
‘Things without all remedy should be without regard: what’s done, is done.’ (A3,S2)
(Themes: Control, Manipulation, Power)
Lady Macbeth is the more dominant in her marriage; this quote shows her lack of remorse
and pragmatic approach to the murder. Lady Macbeth later contradicts this phrase whilst
sleepwalking and claims ‘what’s done cannot be undone’, exposing her change of character
due to the overwhelming sense of guilt. The use of the colon connotes a pause in this
sentence, connoting a sense of finality to her statement.
40 | P a g e
‘ ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy / Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy (A3S2)
(Themes: Power, Death, Control, Fate)
The use of a rhyming couplet ‘destroy’ and ‘joy’ contain two juxtaposed ideas; destroy =
negative, joy = positive. Lady Macbeth points out that they are more secure in the rubble of
their wrong doings, than worrying and doubting what could happen if they do not act/kill.
This line is in iambic pentameter and acts as a reoccurring hook idea for the whole play.
‘Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand.’ (A5S1) (Themes: Guilt)
Like her husband, Lady Macbeth’s guilt is exposed through hallucinations. The adverb ‘still’
suggests her guilt has been growing in intensity to the point of becoming unbearable.
Her most poetical words, 'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand,' are
equally unlike her husband’s words about great Neptune's ocean. Hers, like some of her
other speeches, are the more moving, from their greater simplicity and because they seem
to tell of that self-restraint in suffering which is so totally lacking in him; but there is in them
comparatively little of imagination.
How much of Lady Macbeth’s actions are down to her own person?
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Lady Macbeth: An In-Depth Character Analysis

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LADY MACBETH: AN IN-

CIE IGCSE LITERATURE

Lady Macbeth as an Archetype: Femme Fatale

Lady Macbeth as an Archetype: Eve and the Fall of Man

Stop up th’access and passage to remorse, - feel no guilt

That no compunctious visitings of nature – no natural feelings of pity

Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between

Wherever in your sightless substances

You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,

Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,

Innocence, in contrast, is a virtue that Shakespeare celebrates.

Blood and hallucinations

It cannot be an accident that the image of blood is forced upon us

Sleep and Insomnia

Darkness, we may even say blackness, broods over this tragedy. It is

Student exemplar: Lady Macbeth as Powerful (A)

In conclusion, Shakespeare does portray Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman, but

Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: Beginning (1.1 – 2.1)

Progression of Lady Macbeth’s Character: Middle (2.2 – 3.4)

Does Lady Macbeth manipulate her husband?

Irony in Lady Macbeth’s final scene

So foul and fair a day I have not seen,

Fair is foul, and foul is fair.

A little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then,

Summarised, with significant quotes

from this time Such I account thy love;

Who dares receive it other?

Woe, alas! What, in our house?

Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done 't.

My hands are of your colour, but I shame To wear a heart so white;

and in the banquet scene:

A little water clears us of this deed,

You lack the season of all natures, sleep.

But in them nature's copy's not eterne,

There's comfort yet: they are assailable;

In regards to the ending of Lady Macbeth’s life

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth

Macb. Prithee, peace:

Lady M. What beast was't, then,

Significant Quotes and Analyses

Macbeth’s kindness, she implies that morality is a frightening, threatening thing.

‘Out, damned spot’

Iambic Pentameter vs Prose

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