MACBETH: LADY MACBETH
At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth, unlike her husband, seems
to have only one opinion about murder: if it helps her to get what
she wants, she is in favor of it. For the first two acts of the
play, some readers think she is the most interesting character.
Their fascination is probably based on her total lack of scruples.
Lady Macbeth is a strong woman. She is a twisted example of the
saying, "Behind every great man there's a woman." Once she sees that
her husband's ambition has been inflamed, she is willing to risk
anything to help him get the crown.
She understands her husband very well:
Yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.
(Act I, Scene v, lines 17-19)
In other words, she knows that Macbeth's conscience will stand in the
way of his ambition.
For the sake of their "prize," she renounces all the soft, human
parts of her own nature. In a play so full of supernatural events,
we can take her literally if we want to when she calls upon
"...spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts..." to "Stop up th' access
and passage to remorse / That no compunctious visitings of nature /
Shake my fell purpose..." (Act I, Scene v, lines 41-42 and 45-47).
It is as if she were tearing her heart out to make her husband king.
Lady Macbeth's singleness of purpose seems to prove that she has been
successful in emptying herself of human feeling. When Macbeth tries
to back out of committing the murder, she treats him with contempt.
She questions his manhood and shames him into doing it.
Look at how effortlessly she lies. When Duncan, whom she plans to
kill, arrives at the castle, her welcoming speech drips with false
graciousness. While Macbeth has horrifying visions, Lady Macbeth
seems cool and literal minded. To her, Duncan's blood is just
something to be washed off her hands. Worrying over things you
cannot alter is a waste of time, she says.
But Lady Macbeth is not as simple as she seems. By the end of the
play she has killed herself to escape the horrible nightmares that
torment her. Shakespeare seems to be saying that guilt and fear can
be suppressed for a time, but they cannot be done away with entirely.
