Lady Macbeth Analysis of Chracter
Macbeth is the story of a Scottish general who receives a prophecy from three witches. They predict that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and one day king and that his friend Banquo will be the father of kings. After defeating the Norweigians and the Scottish rebels, King Duncan makes Macbeth Thane of Cawdor, which makes the prophecy from the witches come true. When Macbeth conveys this to his wife, Lady Macbeth who is consumed by ambition, she manipulates her reluctant husband Macbeth into killing Duncan and taking the throne for himself.
Once Macbeth has been made king, he is concerned about his position and about the prophecies of the witches that Banquo sons will be kings. He becomes consumed with paranoia and guilt and orders the murder of Banquo and his son Fleance. Fleance escapes but Macbeth commits more and more murders and with each one his confidence grows. He no longer needs the support of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth goes from an ambitious, manipulative woman to a vulnerable guilt ridden one that is unable to cope with the reality that she unleashed her husband evil tendencies and she now has the blood of those murders on her hands.
She slowly spirals toward death as her realtionship with her husband falls apart. In the end when she commits suicide because of her guilt, he could care less. At the end of the story MacBeth goes into battle and is killed by Madduff and the remaining prophecy of the witches is realized.
Lady Macbeth’s character traits are ambition, manipulation and evil. Her behavior throughout the story shows that women can be as ambitious and cruel as men.
The first character trait of Lady Macbeth is ambition. When the play opens, Lady Macbeth’s ambition is already apparent. She is already plotting the murder of Duncan, the king of Scotland.
Lady Macbeth is presented as stronger, more ruthless and more ambitious than her husband. She is aware that her ambitions for her husband are more masculine and is frustrated that she cannot fulfill those ambitions on her own by killing King Duncan herself. She knows her husband is not inclined to kill Duncan, but she is determined and never wavers in her plan. She knows she must manipulate her husband into committing murder in order for him to ascend to the throne. For example, after reading her husband’s letter, her greeting of MacBeth clearly shows how strong and determined she is when she says.
‘Hie thee hither,
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round.’ (Shakespeare 1992, Act 1, Scene 4, 28-31)
Lady Macbeth’s ambition determines the fate of the rest of the characters in the play. In the beginning, her sole ambition is to help her husband gain the throne of Scotland. Lady McBeth wants her husband to be a powerful man and she thinks that her husband will be perceived as weak if he does not steal the Scottish throne from King Duncan. While Macbeth is ambitious, he is not naturally inclined to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth, however, never wavers in her goal to have Duncan killed. Her strength persists immediately after the crime has been perpetrated when she urges Macbeth to remain strong after having killed Duncan. However, once Macbeth crosses that line and decides to use violence in his quest for power, along with the prophecies of the witches, it is difficult to stop. Any potential threats to the throne lead to more violence. For example, Macbeth knows that Banquo suspects him of murdering Duncan. In response, he decides to act quickly and hires two murderers to kill Banquo, but sends a third murderer to shadow the first two. Another example is when MacDuff goes to England to help Malcom (Duncan’s son) put together an army to return to Scotland and defeat MacBeth, Macbeth has Macduff’s family killed. Rather than submit to fear and grief, Macduff reacts and vows to avenge his family’s death and ultimately kills Macbeth. The endless violence weighs heavily on Lady Macbeth’s conscience. For as strong as her ambition was before the murder of Duncan, her guilt after the murder grows stronger. She is consumed by guilt because she played a key role in persuading her husband to kill Duncan. The subsequent crimes and her husbands insatiable ambition ultimately leads her unable to cope. She resorts to sleepwalking through the castle trying unsuccessfully to wash away the invisible blood on her hands. Even though she does not have relationships with some of the other characters other than her husband, she is deeply affected by their deaths. Her sense of guilt about the subsequent crimes ultimately leads her to kill herself. In the end, her relationship with her husband had deteriorated to the point that he does not seem to care that she has killed herself, despite the fact that killing Duncan had initially brought them closer because they were co-conspirators.
The second character trait of Lady Macbeth is that she is manipulative (Shakespeare 1992).
When the play opens and Lady Macbeth is already plotting the murder of Duncan, the king of Scotland, she acknowledges that she cannot fulfill her ambitions without manipulating her husband into committing murder. When Macbeth objects to murdering Duncan, she repeatedly questions his manhood until he feels he is left with no choice but to kill Duncan to prove himself. Even though Lady Macbeth is not the sole influence on her husband, in the beginning, it seems that her words have a strong influence on him. Hence, Lady Macbeth is very effective in using those words to manipulate her husband into murdering Duncan. For example, she appears to be aware of the influence she possesses over her husband when she says.
‘Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou art promised.’ . Yet do I fear thy nature;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst
Highly,
That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false
And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou’d’st have, great
Glamis,? (Shakespeare 1992, Act 1, Scene 5, 15-24)
For example, her power over her husband is evident when he hesitates about committing the crime, but she is determined and ultimately manipulates him.
Macbeth. ‘If we should fail?
Lady M. We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place
And we’ll not fail.’ (Shakespeare 1992, Act I. Scene 7, 68t o 71)
Macbeth himself shows the effect her power has upon him, when he states.
‘Bring forth men-children only,
For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males.’ (Shakespeare 1992, Act I, Scene 7, 83-85)
Lady Macbeth’s manipulation of her husband serves to unleash his true evil tendencies and the subsequent atrocities that are born from those tendencies. After the first murder, Macbeth seemed to have less and less reservations about the subsequent killings. Even though he is wracked by guilt and paranoia, he easily orders the killings of Banquo and his son and Macduff’s family. He feels he is forced to commit the murders in order to protect himself and soon becomes known as a tyrant. If Lady Macbeth hadn’t manipulated her husband then none of the other murders would have occurred which includes the death of her husband in the end at the hands of Macduff after her suicide.
Again, Lady Macbeth is consumed by guilt because just like her ambition, she knows that her manipulation of her husband unleashed his evil tendencies and has now left her unable to cope because she has blood on her hands.
The third character trait of Lady Macbeth which appears at the end is that she is vulnerable and guilt ridden.
In the beginning, Lady Macbeth is the evil mastermind behind the muder of Duncan. Throughout the play she changes as a result of the atrocities committed by her husband to a woman riddled with guilt. Once guilt begins to take over Lady Macbeth, she loses control of her emotions and actions and quickly spirals toward death and commits suicide. For example, when Lady Macbeth can no longer sleep because of her guilt and begins to sleepwalk and dreams she says…
Out, damned spot, out, I say! One. Two.
Why then, ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fle, my
Lord, fle, a solider and afeard? What need we fear
Who knows it, when none can call our power to
Account? Yet would would have though the old man
To have so much blood in him? (Shakespeare 1992, Act 5, Scene 1, 37-42)
By the end of the story, Lady Macbeth has gone through a transformation from an ambitious manipulative wife to a vulnerable, guilt ridden one who has lost control of her husband. Lady Macbeth’s relationship with her husband has deteriorated to the point that he begins to keep secrets from her such as Banquo’s death and no longer seeks her approval. He possesses the confidence to act alone and is now a ruthless and fearless murderer. This transformation is the direct result of murdering Duncan. Lady Macbeth realizes that all of the atrocities committed by her husband once she had manipulated him into murdering Duncan is her fault and loses all self-confidence. She slowly comes to terms with the fact that her obsession with power and greed is to blame and is unable to cope and quickly spirals toward death.
I think this final change in the character was for the better because it teaches us that there is a lesson there for people about doing whatever it takes to get what you want. I think the change in her character teaches us that when we justify our behavior to fit our personal needs, the end doesn’t justify the means but rather the means can always justify the end. Lady MacBeth used ambition and manipulation because she was greedy as a means to bring about what in her mind was a positive outcome, her husband to become King of Scotland. In reality, the outcome wasn’t positive at all. His kingdom was tarnished from the very beginning because she knew the difference between right and wrong and wasn’t guided by doing the right things simply because it was the right thing to do. In the end, the means were justified. Lady Macbeth committed suicide and MacBeth was beheaded in battle by Macduff.
I have learned many things through Lady MacBeth’s character none of which are good. She is not a positive role model in any sense of the word. Through Lady MacBeth I have learned that a person’s lust for power and greed can motivate him/her to commit immoral acts. In Lady Macbeth’s case, she bullied and corrupted her husband and was the catalyst for him to go on and to continue to commit immoral acts on his own. Her experience has shown me that guilt is a powerful thing. Her guilt in the end destroys her both mentally and physically. She is unable to cope, unable to sleep and begins to sleepwalk and in the end she takes her own life as a result of her.
