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 has a plan to kill Duncan. In order for this plan to work Lady Macbeth and Macbeth had to be very deceitful. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into killing Duncan, when Macbeth had doubts. Lady Macbeth's criticised towards Macbeth: “that I may pour my sprits in thine ear”. (Macbeth I, v, 26) Lady Macbeth made Macbeth feel bad about himself, by lowering his manhood and bravery.
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.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth while being filled with ambition, convinces her husband to kill the king. There are many atrocious crimes committed in the play, not least of all regicide, and the most guilty of all the characters is Lady Macbeth, husband to Lord Macbeth. Lady Macbeth may seem to the outside world to be innocent as a flower, but in fact she uses deception and persuasion to convince others to carry out her bidding. When her lackeys fail at their tasks, she is fully able to finish the deed for them. Near the end of the play she admits to her crimes, further solidifying her guilt.
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
In the 1690’s, the character of Abigail Williams would be dreadful and obnoxious. Her actions of adultery would deem her imprisonment not only for herself, but for John Proctor. It is her latter actions of perverting the court of Justice which would sentence her for imprisonment in the 21st century. Her criminal offence and her personality of being malicious and wicked, however powerful and mature, allow the audience to appreciate the story and realise that she is pivotal in the play. She is a character who appears in critical parts of the play, and adds crucial information by her language, gestures and actions.
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 is the one who plans the betrayal of Duncan and pressures Macbeth into thinking the only way to fulfill the witches “promise” is to kill the king. She goes so far as to tell Macbeth to stop wearing his emotions on his sleeves, saying “Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men / May read strange matters. To beguile the time, / Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, / Your hand, your tongue: look like and innocent flower, / but be the serpent under it” (I, v, 69-73). She reinforces her strong character by telling Macbeth, in a time where men dominated their wives, what to do. 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.
However, Macbeth has the ultimate decision in whether or not to commit the assassinations, but he loves Lady Macbeth and wishes to please her. After Macbeth kills Duncan, he fairly disappointed in himself for doing it. After killing Duncan, murdering others appears to be the only solution to continue to cover up his terrible actions or lose all that he has driven for. Lady Macbeth is force on Macbeth that unleashes the wicked part of him. She has a forceful impact on him and is another key character to blame for his developing desire of killing others to get away with her master plan.
This is identified in Act Two, Scene Two where Macbeth converses with Lady Macbeth about the death of Duncan. Lady Macbeth is given a reason to condescend and patronize Macbeth because of his self paralysing guilt, which lead him thoughtlessly not leaving the bloody daggers at the murder scene, leaving Lady Macbeth the dangerous task of returning the daggers, due to Macbeth’s plagued worry. ‘I’ll go no more. I am afraid to think what I have done” (P.39). This demonstrates Macbeths’ weakness in character, also juxtaposes with Lady Macbeth as she is a strong character and shows that Macbeth is easily manipulated.