Lady Macbeth Analysis Essay

Lady Macbeth has a manipulative, vindictive nature. She is a very controlling character yet we see her troubled mind reveal itself as the play progresses although as a character, in my opinion, when her mind unravels and her actions of insanity later occurs in the play I do not feel an ounce of sympathy for the murderous malicious actions of Macbeth’s temptress that lead him to doom and destruction. Therefore Lady Macbeth is just like a serpent that poisons her prey. In the opening scenes of the play it is clear to see how acutely in love Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are. When Macbeth is told the prophecy by the witches he immediately writes a letter to Lady Macbeth telling her of this news. Macbeth addresses Lady Macbeth as â€Å"my dearest partner of greatness† act 1 scene 5; this shows the magnitude of his love for her. He thoroughly respects her and reports to her, â€Å"deliver thee† not failing to tell her any new information. The first time we meet Lady Macbeth it doesn’t give the reader a great perspective. She immediately becomes captivated in Macbeths letter and the prophecy of him being King, and conjures up a plan to kill Duncan, it is later revealed they are mutual friends, as he addresses her as â€Å"honored hostess† act 1 scene 6. This cold hearted nature and deep desire for social status and thriving ambition makes her desert any feelings of guilt and remorse, (for the time being). She is confident and strong, she fears Macbeth is not evil enough to execute a friend to reach the final goal of high status we hear this in her soliloquy, â€Å"too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way,† act 1 scene 5 she prays for help â€Å"metaphysical aid† act 1 scene 5 to help Macbeth become ruthless. She fears he is â€Å"without ambition† act 1 scene 5 and so would not carry out the deed properly. Lady Macbeth even would do the murder herself as she prays to become manlier â€Å"unsex me† act 1 scenes 5-7, she prays that she will have no conscience and to be filled with poison. This shows the extent of her ambitious mind. It also reveals that although how evil she is, she still needs an extra push to give her confidence, this doesn’t mean however that she is an innocent flower, she is still an evil serpent at the fact that she wishes to be even more evil and filled with malice. When she first meets Macbeth she begins to goad and persuade him to do the deed she administrates ideas of looking above suspicion. She tells him â€Å"look like th’innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.† act 1 scene 5, Shakespeare uses very expressive language here with contrasting imagery of a flower (which represents good) and a serpent (which represents evil). This could also be interpreted as a metaphor for Macbeth’s relationship with his wife in that when Lady Macbeth is plotting murderous schemes and manipulating her husband, Macbeth is presented in a good and vulnerable light. The same applies for when Macbeth decides to take the murders further later on in the book and the audience gains sympathy for his wife. Macbeth is left with little to say and is interrupted by his wife on several occasions in that scene, providing the audience with a clear insight into Shakespeare’s intentions for the hierarchy within the relationship. That hierarchy being where Macbeth is more or less controlled by what Lady Macbeth tells him to do, almost like a spell of her own. This provides strong evidence for those who believe that Lady Macbeth is like a serpent. Lady Macbeth shows more serpent techniques as she hides her malevolent plans while greeting her guest, the King, at her household. She is skilled with her welcome of politeness towards Duncan as she has already planned that Duncan will die, â€Å"fatal battlements,† act 1 scene 5 yet she can mask her wickedness and still seem courteous towards Duncan. Progressing through the book from the start Lady Macbeth now symbolizes the character of wickedness to her full extent, like a snake that targets its prey and is not satisfied until the aim is achieved. In Act 1 scene 7 we see how Lady Macbeth belittles her husband in an attempt for him to agree whole heartedly to kill the king of Scotland. She tries to make him feel weak and cowardly. She uses foul phrases with appalling imagery such as telling Macbeth that while she was breast feeding her baby she would: â€Å"while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn you had done to this.† She tries to come over as very menacing and heartless at this point in the play, making a point of the fact that if she had promised to kill her own child she would do so. The role of women at the time when Shakespeare wrote this play was that women were mothers and supported their husbands, there main objective would be to look after the home. A Shakespearian audience would be appalled that Lady Macbeth is neither and that she even threatens a life of a child. This shows how Lady Macbeth would have done almost anything to persuade Macbeth however, after the murder of Duncan, she contradicts herself ra ther strongly as she comments on not being able to kill her father. In Act 2 scene 2 Lady Macbeth shows strength. Macbeth returns from killing the king to discuss the event with his wife. Shakespeare uses this as an opportunity for the audience to feel sympathy as we see his grief and guilt. We also get to see a very new side to Lady Macbeth, she admits that if he had not looked like her own father she would have done the deed herself, showing that underneath her hard exterior, there are elements of compassion and guilt that though she expresses little, she still feels them just like any other human being. The audience then can see her snap out of her sensitive phase and channel her emotions into reassuring and controlling her husband. She tells him to dismiss his hallucinations about the dagger and to return them to frame the guards who were guarding Duncan’s room. â€Å"These deeds must not be thought, after these ways; so, it will make us mad.† The audience could consider this as foreshadowing of what occurs as the play progresses as both Lady Macbeth and her husband experience mental disturbances because of the horrific crimes they committed. Hands are used as a metaphor throughout this scene and as an extended metaphor throughout the play. Macbeth refers to his as â€Å"hangman’s hands† and uses phrases such as â€Å"ravelled sleeve of care†, whereas Lady Macbeth is far more literal and tells him to â€Å"wash this filthy witness from your hand.† This could be interpreted as the hands representing guilt and so each character handles the guilt in different ways; Macbeth is very open about his guilt and remorse by using dramatic devices such as personification and metaphors, for example: â€Å"Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor shall sleep no more: Macbeth shall sleep no more.† Lady Macbeth, however, deals with her culpability in a different way in that she pretends to feel nothing towards the situation but it obviously haunts her as we see in her final scene in Act 5 scene 1 where she sleep walks and hallucinates. Shakespeare illustrates this well when Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth for being so gentle: â€Å"My hands are of your colour, but I shame, to wear a heart so white.† She also says rather flippantly, â€Å"A little water clears us of this deed. How easy is it then! Your constancy hath left you unattended.† Shakespeare’s intention for this scene, I think, was to show us that there is a sensitive, guilty side underneath her shell of ambition and malevolence. Conversely the depth of evil she has shown so far throughout the play cannot make her an innocent flower but an evil and manipulative serpent. When Macduff discovers Duncan’s murder with great astonishment, he alerts the whole castle including Banquo, Malcolm and Donaldbain of the king’s death and so Lady Macbeth enters. She acts very much â€Å"like th’innocent flower† by pretending to be oblivious to what had happened in the previous scene, â€Å"What’s the business that such a hideous trumpet calls to parley, the sleepers of the house?† Then with immense dramatic irony, Macduff replies calling her â€Å"gentle lady† and commenting on the fact that the talk of murderous deeds is too tender for a woman’s ears. The audience would find this somewhat amusing as they know that Lady Macbeth is responsible for persuading Macbeth to commit the murder of Duncan and so would not in any way find the subject too sensitive or painful. Lady Macbeth is very much out of control in this scene, she is surprised to find out that Macbeth killed the two attendants which weren’t in her plan and she begins to falter. In the Macbeth’s relationship this is somewhat very different from the beginning, Macbeth did not consult Lady Macbeth of killing the attendants and this shows their relationship distancing. Lady Macbeth shows her fragility by fainting, although it is unknown to the audience if she genuinely fainted or if it is an act. Lady Macbeth experiences a loss of power and control in Act 3 scene 2, where Macbeth arranges his next murder without her involvement. Shakespeare has her character showing compassion to her husband’s ‘sorriest fancies’ when he complains of insecurity about his dangerous thoughts and deeds. She tries to make him forget what has happened by instructing him: â€Å"Using those thoughts which should indeed have died, with them think on? Things without all remedy should be without regard; what’s done is done.† But Lady Macbeth has lost some of her control, her serpent like naturisms have become wilted but like a serpent, it always remains. Lady Macbeth presents herself as the gracious hostess once more as she invites the lords to dinner in Act 3 scene 4. At the beginning of the scene the audience is presented with the news of Banquo’s slaughter. Lady Macbeth suspects this but is not directly informed as her husband has somewhat distanced himself from her, implying that he does not need her influences for villainous thoughts any more, he can do it all by himself now. This scene manages to arouse some sympathy for Lady Macbeth as we see her power lessening downfall. This could be what ultimately leads to her suspected suicide. The audience gets to understand that Shakespeare did not want to present Lady Macbeth as a character who takes pleasure in the sight of bloodshed and gore, but one who craves power and enforces her ambitions upon those she can manipulate. We also see a role reversal here for the second time in the play. She already has upset the natural order of marital hierarchy from the beginning of the play where she presents herself in the dominant role which was extremely uncommon for that period. Then as the play progresses she becomes part of a downward spiral where she loses power and the status within the marriage as she becomes the more recessive figure next to her now dominant husband. Which in essence, could her suicide later on in the play be reflected upon the idea that Lady Macbeth needs to be the dominate figure? I think that she becomes so broken by her husband’s horrific actions that even she wouldn’t commit and she can’t take anymore of the division between the once close couple this could be seen as an innocent flower but considering everything that has happened throughout the play, she can certainly not be called innocent. The ghost of Banquo makes an appearance at the dinner table in this scene but of course only Macbeth can see (another one of his deluded hallucinations like the dagger). He becomes extremely unsettled by this and begins to shout at the ghost with a fiery passion that stuns the rest of his guests. â€Å"Thou canst not say I did it; never shake thy gory locks at me!† Ross initiates the lords standing up and leaving their new king in peace to rest and collect himself but Lady Macbeth being â€Å"th’innocent flower† that she pretends to be assures the lords that he is fine and is just unwell. The audience feels some sort of consideration for her as we can see her husband’s mental health deteriorates and her power disintegrate. She snaps at Macbeth â€Å"Are you a man?† as she quite obviously feels utterly embarrassed by his reactions to the ghost. She tries to use this as an opportunity to regain her status above Macbeth which is understandable as she f eels defeated but is selfish considering her husband’s state, she shows serpent qualities, the need to be in control of her prey. In the most dramatic scene in Lady Macbeth’s presence on stage, the audience is given the opportunity to see the real Lady Macbeth as her subconscious takes over her physical state. Having no further matters to occupy her mind as Macbeth no longer tells her his plans, she begins to dwell on the past, slipping further and further from reality until she eventually completely loses her hold on sanity and takes her own life. At the beginning of her last scene, Act 5 scene 1, the doctor and gentlewoman are analyzing her recent behavior, â€Å"She has light by her continually, ’tis her command.† As light is a common metaphor for purity this insinuates that she doesn’t want to be considered evil and wants to redeem herself but can’t because she is too involved to dig herself out now and so her subconscious speaks the words she cannot. â€Å"Out damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why then ’tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear? Who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?† A Shakespearian audience would have recognized the spot as the devil’s mark and would have reacted with horror as they saw this scene being played; this shows that once again she can be called a serpent. Shakespeare has used very disjointed language with punctuation separating every short phrase. This translates to her being very edgy and emotionally unstable. She then reels off a list of other people for which she feels responsible for their deaths as well as her husband. She refers back to the common theme of hands which has occurred throughout the play. â€Å"What, will these hands ne’er be clean?† â€Å"All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O.† She still refers to her hands as being â€Å"little† and the need for them to be ‘sweetened’ and so this indicates the want for her to be filled with good and that she is feeling genuine guilt and mental anguish. This anguish finally leads to her suicide by unspecified means. Shakespeare probably chose not to present the death of Lady Macbeth on stage to add to the impact of her exit and last scene and also to be slightly ambiguous. I think a dying scene would have been effective for Lady Macbeth’s last scene; she could perhaps have given a soliloquy explaining how she truly was feeling. To let her portray her malice side and let the audience be satisfied to call her an evil serpent. The significance of Lady Macbeth being an evil woman becoming tortured with guilt and grief is off great importance to a Shakespearian audience, in that time they believed in witchcraft and in my opinion Lady Macbeth could be portrayed as how people who are evil and malicious never get away with the deed. I think a Shakespearian audience would think witchcraft would have been involved in Lady Macbeth’s downfall and this would be very real and true for them. She was certainly a bold character for going against the ‘Chain of Being’ in which God was considered to be ultimately at the top with monarchs under that and other members of society such as lords and townsfolk following after, but at the bottom were women and so she was courageous to consider herself to be above even monarchy! Though wrong, especially considering what was said if the chain of being was to be disrupted, that chaos would arise, disrupting the natural order of life on earth and in the heavens which is seen as inexcusable a definite serpent quality. To conclude, it is evident that Shakespeare had Lady Macbeth’s emotional state disintegrate as the play proceeded to in effect show the downfall of a control freak. In the first two acts we have little sympathy for Lady Macbeth as Shakespeare only provides the audience with her vindictive exterior, at this time we cannot see what she is truly thinking and feeling. It is only as the play progresses that we understand why she turns out to be the way that she is, that she has a very ambitious character and so enforces that upon her husband. She feels that Macbeth becoming king will benefit them both and sees killing the existing king as the fastest way to get to the throne. She then becomes gradually defeated as Macbeth’s ambition and obsession with becoming king begins to soar and spiral. She is then over-ridden with guilt and eventually feels that she cannot bear the guilt that torments her troubled mind and so decides to end it all. Had her ambition not overridden her sense of morality, she could have been a respectable, intelligent woman who complemented her husband’s abilities to form a perfect partnership. However, she ended up becoming a tortured, immoral, dejected soul, and disliked by many people becoming a serpent.