This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was. This is true for Lady Macbeth as well, as she convinced Macbeth to follow through with the plan, even with Macbeth doubting himself so much. I don’t think anyone could have predicted how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both responded to Duncan’s murder. In committing the murder, Macbeth became king, but he would also become a nervous wreck that could be executed at any
Lady Macbeth doubts Macbeth’s ambition which ultimately leads her to manipulate him into assassinating King Duncan. She exclaims her doubt in Macbeth’s ambition due to his morals in saying they “. . . are too full of the milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way.” [1.5.13] Her masculinity overshadows Macbeth’s when she asserts her power without contemplation and plans King Duncan’s murder.
She becomes evil and ambitious before the murder of Banquo, and then she becomes fearful of her surroundings because of her guilt after Banquo's murder. Lady Macbeth develops her evil character by informing Macbeth about her idea of killing King Duncan and taking over the throne. "What beast was 't then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst to it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more than a man...When Duncan is asleep, his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason a limbeck only..." said Lady Macbeth (I, VII, Lines 55-77). Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth about her plan to kill Duncan when he sleeps.
She is asking him if he wants to be king or not, and if he is to be king he must commit regicide. By telling Macbeth this, she is his doubting his manliness, and his ambitions. She goes further to say that she would make a better man than he: “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” (Act I, Scene vii, Lines 56-59) As a result of this verbal abuse and pressure, Macbeth ends up killing Duncan that same night. This shows us that Lady Macbeth's ambition is greater than Macbeth’s, because while he hesitates and is distrustful of his powers, she never wavers. She needs no supernatural temptations to urge her on.
When Lady Macbeth says “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be /What thou art promis'd: yet do I fear thy nature / Is too full o' the milk of human kindness” (I, v, 14-16), we see how she considers Macbeth too kind, to prone to letting his conscience take over that she asks the evil spirits to enter her, so that she will be able to achieve what she fears he husband will not. Lady Macbeth thinks that gentleness is weakness. When she says Macbeth is "too full o' the milk of human kindness” (I, v, 16), she means that he will back out of murdering Duncan for reasons of loyalty and common human decency. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth is calm and rational with the idea of committing treason. Her character is shown in Act I, Scene 5, just after she receives Macbeth's letter, and before Duncan and Banquo arrive at the castle.
1. DESCRIPTION OF LADY MACBETH Lady Macbeth is presented to the reader from her first appearance in the play as a woman fired by ambition. What Macbeth lacks in decisiveness, Lady Macbeth makes up for his lack of bloodthirsty lust for power and wealth. Swearing off her femininity at the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband powerfully to follow through with his plans to kill Duncan. After the act of regicide, it is Lady Macbeth who has the soundness of mind to plant the incriminating evidence on Duncan's guards.
(Macbeth I, v, 26) Lady Macbeth made Macbeth feel bad about himself, by lowering his manhood and bravery. Lady Macbeth deceives everyone so well that people were scared to tell her about Duncan’s death, not thinking she can handle it. “Look like an innocent flower /but be the serpent under it” (Macbeth I, IV, 65-66) this means to look innocent and pure but to be evil on the inside. At first Lady Macbeth is able to keep her cool and not think anything of the deed. Macbeth on the other hand cannot sleep and starts to see things.
When she says “What need we fear who/ Knows it, when none can call our power accompt?” (5.1.37-38). In making a comment on this, it not only gives away the fact that she did indeed commit murder, but also that she and her husband, Macbeth, need not worry about people knowing who they had killed if they were able to retain power. The fact that Lady Macbeth was so hungry to for power that she was ready to kill will lead to her self destruction, which would result in her insanity. This demonstrates how ambition can cause destruction. Ultimately, the hallucinations of bloodstains on Lady Macbeth’s hands are what symbolize the guilt and lack of innocence.
Lady Macbeth has just been thinking that her husband is too weak willed to seize what she sees as rightfully his, the throne of Scotland. When she hears that King Duncan will be staying in her home, she says: 'Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top--full of direst cruelty' (1.5). In other words, she longs to act like a 'man' and kill Duncan herself. Lady Macbeth goes as far as to invite demons, or spirits, to inhabit her, enabling her to commit this great evil
She enters the play as a woman whose greed initiates cruel thoughts of murder. To manipulate Macbeth into assassinating Duncan, she verbally assaults him by undermining his manhood: "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" (1.7.56-58). She declares that if she is in Macbeth's position, she "would, ... dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this" (1.7.64-67). She is one to discuss matters rather than taking action. To avoid the consequences, she cowardly does not do the deed herself but instead manipulates Macbeth.