When she says "Come you spirits that tend on murderous thoughts, unsex me," and "make thick my blood, stop th'access and passage to remorse," she is already calling on evil spirits to take away her feminine nature, and to stop her feeling any pity, remorse or compassion; Lady Macbeth is determined to assist Macbeth in murdering Duncan. From this early point, it is already evident that she is contemplating, and intends to take part in a murder so that her husband could have the status he had always wanted, but had been too weak to obtain. When Macbeth enters, Lady Macbeth replies: "O never shall sun that morrow see." When Macbeth informs her Duncan will be leaving the following day. Here, she blatantly reveals that she intends to murder Duncan, saying he won't live to see another day.
But, she is afraid of his personality ‘too full o’th milk of human kindness’ and decides to take matters into her own hands. This is also the scene where we hear her first famous soliloquy which is ‘unsex me here’ when she calls on the evil spirits. Really, she wants to be the same as the three witches, but because of who she is, she has to repress all her inner feelings and her conscience in order to carry on with her plan to murder Duncan. She has to be two-faced. When Macbeth returns later in the scene, she immediately pounces onto him and tries to persuade him to murder the King and she says it in a very manipulative way.
Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness, overriding all his objections, when he hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his manhood until he feels that he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady Macbeth remarkable strength of will persists through the murder of the king, it is she who steadies her husband nerves and convinces him to kill Duncan. ‘‘It is the perfect time and place for you’’, ‘’almost too
As one of the prophecies turn out to be true, Macbeth does become Thane of Cawdor for his valiant efforts in battle, Lady Macbeth believes that Macbeth would become King, naturally, and starts to make plans on how to get the throne of Scotland for her husband and for herself. I think at this point she is evil and cunning and also clever. She says: “Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way.” -Act 1 Scene 5 “To catch the nearest way” would be to get the throne the quickest way and that would be by killing King Duncan. Also she fears that Macbeth is too ‘nice’ to kill King Duncan as she says: “Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness”. This shows she is cunning, clever and always thinking ahead.
Unlike Macbeth she understood that to achieve something you have never done before you must become someone you have never been. This is evident in one scene where she states “unsex me,” demonstrating how she wanted to shed her femininity for a masculine demeanor and veil. Hence, when plotting to kill Duncan she used this veil of masculinity to insinuate that Macbeth was not a man if he could not go through with killing Duncan. Macbeth possessing a great deal of pride in his masculinity ended up killing King Duncan and reaping the consequences. Though their relationship was unorthodox Macbeth and Lady Macbeth can
Lady Macbeth is calling upon the gods to “unsex” her so she can proceed and help Macbeth commit the murder of Duncan. During the Shakespearian era, women and men were viewed quite differently. Women, in contrast to men, had the stereotype of kind, calm, and loving. The reason Lady Macbeth wants to “unsex” herself is in order to remove the kindness and calmness and become more manly, or more aggressive and fierce. With this in mind, Lady Macbeth knows that in her time, for a woman to commit a murder is unheard of.
The play is about Macbeth so why do we have this fascination with Lady Macbeth, I shall delve in to the deep character that is Lady Macbeth and find out if she is a fiend like queen. I can see why most people would believe that Lady Macbeth is presented as a fiend like queen, when she gets Macbeths letter as she immediately begins to plot the murder of Duncan this is out of her selfish desire to bear the name “queen” that drives her she comes over fiend like by using violent language, emotional blackmail, insults his masculinity and attacks his weaknesses to help commit the murder. Lady Macbeth takes full charge of Macbeth’s actions and seems to dominate him. Lady Macbeth calls upon the demons “Come, you spirits” this shows her calling upon evil spirits to help her to commit the deed of killing Duncan also the notion that lady Macbeth is possessed by evil spirits could explain the unnatural darkness, most fiend like. Lady Macbeths plots against killing king Duncan which is God’s appointed monarch, so by murdering him she is going against God which makes her more fiend like.
During this encounter, the withes praise Macbeth naming him three titles, Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King of Scotland. All three titles hold great honor leaving Macbeth yearning for the positions. By the witch sisters declaring Macbeth will possess these titles plants the thought in Macbeths mind which turns into greed; he would not let anything stand in his way to obtain these titles no matter the consequences. The greed Macbeth has come to have becomes apparent after the witches praising when he begs, “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more” (Act l, Scene III pg 307). Greed is the sin that causes Macbeth to commit murder; killing Duncan to secure the crown for his taking.
Macbeth At the beginning of Act 5, we see Lady Macbeth as a very different woman. She no longer shows the ambition that she was so fiercely driven by. Lady Macbeth was a woman who could get anything that she wanted. She was able to manipulate her husband to commit murder, she plotted the murder, and she was there to make sure that her husband followed through with it. As a loving wife, she was also there to steady her husband’s hand after the murder was committed.
1. “Lady Macbeth is the real villain of Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth.” Do you agree? Lady Macbeth is a villain in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, about the battle of kingship in 17th centaury Scotland. But Lady Macbeth, driven by her ambition, is not the only harbinger of death. Macbeth is the real villain and Lady Macbeth is just a partner in crime, egging him on because of her desire to be Queen.