Lady Macbeth Character Analysis In Shakespeare's Macbeth, many characters undergo extreme shifts in nature. One of those characters is Lady Macbeth. She is bold and menacing by planning out and ordering Macbeth to kill Duncan; however, she drastically progresses because of her guilt. Lady Macbeth’s character begins as confident, becomes hesitant and worrisome, and finally is consumed by guilt and the blood that will never wash off her hands. Lady Macbeth confidently pushes Macbeth to become king. She wants to be queen and obtain the power that comes with it. She is not shaken by the guilt of murder like Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth finds out about the prophecy she knows “[Macbeth’s] nature;/....is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”(1.5.16-17). She must “pour [her] spirits in [Macbeth’s] ear/ And chastise with the valor of [her] tongue”(1.5.29-30). When Macbeth starts to doubt whether killing the king is a good idea she calls him a “coward”(1.7.47). Cunningly, she threatens his …show more content…
She sleepwalks, and reveals what she and Macbeth have done to her servant. Her sleepwalking is her bodies way of dealing with her massive amount of guilt. She “seems thus washing her hands”, trying to wash all the blood she has shed off her hands (5.1.31). She cannot wash the blood off though because it is ingrained in her. She questions “who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”(5.1.40-41). The fact that she is questioning whether people know what she has done shows that people probably do know. She blames Macbeth because he upset everything “with this starting”(5.1.47). She is being consumed by the guilt that her “hands ne’er be clean?”(5.1.45). The “smell of the blood” haunts her and nothing will “sweeten this little hand”(5.1.53-55). The blood she has spilt is driving her to her own demise. Nothing she can do will get rid of her guilt. Only “the divine” can help her
This makes her a very interesting and dynamic character to watch throughout the story. She starts going truly mad after the banquet in act 3.4 and everything becomes too much for her. She starts sleepwalking which alerts Macbeth so he has a doctor try and help her. In her sleep, she discloses all of her secrets to the doctor and the gentlewoman who do not know what to do with such information. While asleep, Lady Macbeth said, “yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?”
(1.5.65). She says this to him to support her husband by using her strengths to make up for his weakness. Although Macbeth committed the murder it is actually his wife who the one is making the decisions. She tells him “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers.
However, the sleepwalking and Lady Macbeth believing her hands still have blood on them signifies that they will be forever punished for the crime they committed. She feels disillusionment and is unable to cope with the guilt that haunts her which ultimately results in Lady Macbeth killing
The Transformation of Lady Macbeth Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates how Lady Macbeth becomes less and less bloodthirsty after the murder of Duncan due to her humane qualities that allow her to feel guilt. Lady Macbeth transforms from a selfish murder-focused accomplice to a woman opposed to the murder of innocent people. Ultimately, she becomes a sleepwalker, consumed by her own guilt.
Although introduced as a thoroughly hardened, ambitious woman, Lady Macbeth’s seemingly unbreakable character shatters when she is consumed by the demon of guilt. The guilt of Lady Macbeth seems nonexistent when she persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan, but the heinous acts she and her husband commit throughout the play strain her slowly. Eventually, the guilt Lady Macbeth harbors emerges from her subconscious and crumbles her. The downfall of Lady Macbeth reveals that even the toughest, strongest, and most powerful people can succumb to guilt. At the commencement of William Shakespeare’s
She encourages Macbeth to kill king Duncan in order to ensure that he will be king. She is cruel and insults his manhood. She is motivated by greed and evil. She even tells Macbeth that the blood on his hands will wash away after he kills king duncan. As the events of the play take place and she plans and participates with Macbeth in the murders of king Duncan and his chamberlains, she begins to struggle with guilt and the conflict between good and evil.
Wash your hands. Put on your nightgown. Look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out of ’s grave' '. Lady Macbeth's doctor would confirm that her sleepwalking is due to the pent up guilt she has for killing Duncan, Banquo and Macduff's family.
Like men, she has the trait to be gruesome and diabolical in nature. She has determined for herself the course to be pursued and nothing can hinder her. She does not need the prophecy of the witches to urge her. She is aware of her strength and she is resolute in her aim. Knowing Macbeth’s weakness,
Here she reveals her guilt about the murder of King Duncan and how he resembled her father. If she was truly evil, she would not be over thinking her actions and having her guilty conscious speaking for her in her
Although this causes her to appear weak and guilt ridden, she never once asks for forgiveness. Additionally, Lady macbeth simply accepts the fact that she is partly responsible for the king’s death, showing that she’s not too deeply troubled. “What’s done/cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.” (Act V, scene ii, lines 58-59).
As soon as she heard Macbeth’s prophecy, she was willing to do anything to get him into the position of king. She was even willing to aid in the murder of innocent people who stood in the way of Macbeth’s ascension to the crown like, King Duncan. Her greed led to Macbeth’s downfall. When Macbeth stated that he was questioning his intentions to kill the king, she pushed him and assisted in the plotting. “We will proceed no further in this business. /
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth, in many cases, is portrayed as being evil. However, his character is not truly the evil force driving the actions of the play. His wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the witches and their misleading prophecies, are the real driving forces of Macbeth’s unspeakable actions. Macbeth is driven mad by the evil around him, causing him to turn to the violent behavior displayed throughout the many murders of the play.
Bloodthirsty ambition is presented throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, beginning with Lady Macbeth's plotting of King Duncan's demise from the throne. Her motivation is fed through her need of constant success and her desire to strive for excellence. In the male-dominated society which she lives in, she realizes that in order to be influential and affluent, she must remove any qualities that are deemed feminine. Yet, as Lady Macbeth retracts her true nature, the unnatural change of her femininity to masculinity inevitably leads to her demise. This disruption of gender roles through Lady Macbeth, presented in Macbeth is demonstrated through her place as the dominant individual in her marriage; because on many occasions, she rules
At first Lady Macbeth did not feel any guilt until things begin to get carried away. Sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth is heard saying, “Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. ”(5:1:53-55) and“ Out damned spot, out, I say”(5.1.37). Lady Macbeth is saying these things because she is visualizing that there is blood still on her hands representing her extreme guilt because she knows what she did not was wrong.
Celia Beyers Tinti Period 1/5 12 April 2015 Literary Analysis: Macbeth In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, he presents the character of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is shown, as a character that schemes into making rebellious plots. She reveals the desire for wanting to lose her feminine qualities in order to be able to gain more masculine ones.