“This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness”. Lady Macbeth’s first appearance in the play is when she is shown reading the letter that her husband has written to her about meeting the three witches: “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor and shalt be”“What thou art promised.”Lady Macbeth however knows the attitude of her husband and what he’s like and she knows that if her husband wants something, he’ll want to achieve it in the fairest way possible. She laughs at what she considers his weakness:”yet I do fear thy nature, it is full o’ the milk of human kindness” Lady Macbeth feels she must find the confidence to persuade Macbeth to leave his soft side which prevents him from seizing the crown. Throughout the first act Lady Macbeth seems the stronger partner in the relationship and she calls out supernatural powers and calls for “spirits” more powerful than her own. “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts.” She tells him to hurry home so that she can poison his mind.
She couldn’t kill the king because he looked like her father as he slept. Nut when Macbeth tell her he has already done it, she goes back to her original self and takes the daggers back to put on the guards, “for it must seem their guilt” (Act II, 56). She and Macbeth wash their hands of the blood and she tells him, “ Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us, / And show us to be watchers” (69-71), so they can appear innocent of any crime. Lady Macbeth again shows her phoniness after everyone discovers Duncan’s death. She says, “What’s the business, / That such a hideous trumpet calls to parlay / The sleepers of the house?
I believe that she is entirely responsible and will be arguing this by outlining some of the things she did and said. In act one, scene five, Lady Macbeth hears of Macbeth's meeting with the three witches and already starts to contemplate whether or not Macbeth has the courage to carry out whatever is necessary to become king. This is evident as Lady Macbeth ponders to herself: "Yet do I fear thy nature, it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness," which means that she thinks Macbeth is too good and kind to take what he should not have. Lady Macbeth immediately decides that she will have to assist Macbeth in his evil deeds when she learns that King Duncan will be stopping the night at their castle. 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.
So why then does their relationship disintegrate through the play so thoroughly that Macbeth doesn’t even care when she dies? This essay will look at, and account for the extreme changes in their relationship from beginning to end. In Act 1 scene 5, she is the only one Macbeth feels he can confide in about the witch’s prophecies. He writes a letter to her straight away informing her of the news, while hiding his thoughts from his best friend and comrade Banquo. In the letter he affectionately calls her his “ dearest partner in greatness” and it is clear that he wishes her to share in his success.
King Duncan calls her ‘‘our honoured hostess’’, she is loving to her husband and wants the best for him. Lady Macbeth is highly determined for Macbeth to be king. This will benefit her and Macbeth equally. She is immediately concludes that ‘The fastest way ‘for Macbeth to become king is by murdering King Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s immediate thoughts make her appear irreligiously cold but that changes throughout the play.
(II, i, 75-77) This last part of Macbeth’s soliloquy is chilling. Before coming to this eerie end, Macbeth imagines a dagger—dripping blood—leading him to Duncan’s quarters. The longer he imagines this, the more fervor blossoms in his words. And this fervor is the same brutal passion as in the words of his Lady; the words that beg to be “blessed” with the barbaric cruelty necessary to murder the king. Lady Macbeth clearly wears the pants in this relationship.
Lady Macbeth Looks: Observations -serious -ambitious -leader in the relationship Text Support - "not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee" Actions: Observations -convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan -says she'll sabotage the servants so it'll look like they killed him Text Support - "But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail…" - "If he do bleed, I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seem their guilt" Speech: Observations -Lady Macbeth doesn't care about the death and easily had the ability to get over it Text Support - "a little water clears us of this deed: How easy is it then" Thoughts: Observations - Personally I believe that Lady Macbeth didn't regret anything that she has caused. I think she views her husband as not capable of fulfilling the deed or cowardly and that she basically initiated the conflict and ran the relationship. She did not want to be the same way as Macbeth, she wanted to be better. Text Support - "My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white." Interactions: Observations -She wants and expects Macbeth to go through with killing King Duncan, but is upset when he responds with he can't.
Guilt is constantly seen throughout the play Macbeth driving the characters to question their morals. To the responder it appears that Lady Macbeth is the driving force behind the initial killing of King Duncan influencing her husband Macbeth to commit the evil deeds by threatening him with his man hood by saying “when you do it, then you are a man”. Her tone portrays her dominant nature and her hunger for authority and demonstrates to the responder her strength as a character. However her over confident traits and clear and concise thinking is diminished once the guilt of the crime poisons her conscience. This is demonstrated by her imagining her hands stained by blood and her constantly trying to clean the “damned spot” away and rid her sole of the guilt.
When Lady Macbeth reads her husband’s letter, she is afraid that Macbeth is not evil enough to do what he must to get the crown. She wants Macbeth to return quickly so that she can tell him to do whatever she wants (the wrong thing to do). Although Lady Macbeth seems like a lovely and polite lady she is actually a very vicious and manipulative woman. She is also a horrible influence on Macbeth telling him to look like the innocent flower, but to
The play ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare uses an array of characters to show the corrupting power of uncontrolled ambition. Lady Macbeth is essential to the play as she drives Macbeth’s wavering conscience to commit regicide because she generally thinks that it is best for her husband. It is only later when she realizes that they have gained nothing from it, and begins a down spiral into madness. Even though Lady Macbeth is initially the driving force of Duncan’s death and the downfall of her and Macbeth’s death, many admirable qualities are shown through her. Lady Macbeth’s admirable traits can be characterized in three groups: ambition, persuasion and loyalty.