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Lady Macbeth – Character Study


Lady Macbeth is a character in William Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, and the character was based loosely on Queen Gruoch of Scotland. Lady Macbeth was married to Macbeth, who was a General in King Duncan of Scotland’s army. She was respected by the nobility, as was Macbeth.

At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth is loving to her husband but at the same time very strong-willed, confident and ambitious which is shown by her determined desire for Macbeth to become king. She supported her husband and Macbeth trusted her very much. Because of this trust, Lady Macbeth was able to persuade Macbeth to murder King Duncan, thereby Macbeth assuming the position of king with Lady Macbeth his queen. Macbeth carried out this plot as he felt he was obliged to give Lady Macbeth some form of ‘compensation’ as he had been unable to sire a child with Lady Macbeth. Therefore the reason for Macbeth becoming king was not only his hunger for power but to also please Lady Macbeth. Macbeth’s motive for murdering King Duncan was possibly based upon pleasing his wife as much as Macbeth’s desire to assume power.

Macbeth committed the murder but Lady Macbeth was the strategist behind the plot. She was the one whom persuaded Macbeth, drugged the guards beforehand, calmed Macbeth down and instructed him what to then do afterwards. One would ponder as to why she did not murder King Duncan herself but the reason for this is revealed when she commented that she would have killed Duncan herself had he not resembled her father as he slept. This shows throughout all the meticulous planning of this cold hearted plot, deep down, Lady Macbeth had a level of morality that was not shown openly.

When Macbeth became king, he was still mentally fragile and guilt stricken over his actions as shown by his vision of Banquo’s ghost and his reaction to it. Lady Macbeth however was composed, confident and...