Written in 1606, Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most iconic and recognizable tragedies. There have been a number of adaptations of the play and various references in pop culture over the years. At the heart of the play, we see the psychological descent of our main character, who ultimately picks a dark road with no way back. However, one of the other main characters in the play is his wife Lady Macbeth. She is seen as being equally ambitious and cunning. Once Macbeth receives the prophecies from the three Weird Witches, she becomes determined to obtain the crown. Macbeth decides to have fellow leaders, and any impediments put in his way, put to death in order to advance this goal. By looking at Lady Macbeth’s reaction at the time of Duncan’s death, Banquo’s murder and her sleepwalking episodes - we can deepen our knowledge of her character. When examining her character development, Lady Macbeth, more so than other characters in the play, clearly undergoes a character change. Lady Macbeth changes during the play from a strong, convincing figure to one who has gone insane with guilt, which eventually determines her fate. She not only manipulates her husband but also propagates the notion that women are weaker than men. She states, …show more content…
During her sleepwalking episodes she has been caught “washing her hands…for as long as fifteen minutes” (Shakespeare 5.1.24-26). Soon after, Macbeth seeks medical assistance because he is concerned for his wife's mental health. Lady Macbeth has insisted on the murder of innocent people from the very beginning of the play, and now she is suffering the results of her demands. She engages in behaviors during her sleepwalking episodes as a means of 'letting go' of her regret and shame. She has held it in for most of the play and is finally letting go in the form of
In scene 1 of Act 5, Lady Macbeth is presented as quite disturbed and a guilt-ridden character. The scene starts with the Doctor and the gentlewoman, where they both talk about Lady Macbeth and her troubles so far. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and is acting almost powerless and lonely as Macbeth has gone into battle. In the opening paragraph, the doctor and the gentlewomen have been talking about Lady Mabeth and how she is not herself. The gentlewoman is almost like Lady Macbeth's right-hand person, so she knows everything about her.
In the beginning of the play Macbeth is looked at as a brave warrior when around other soldiers. He is well respected by Duncan, but with his wife he comes off as a weaker man. “ it is clear that while the couple share ambition, Lady Macbeth is at first more willing to catch " If Macbeth professes to have "vaulting ambition," it is his wife who encourages him, despite his own fears of cosmic justice, expressed in that remarkable early soliloquy. ”(Masiello, What is the relationship like between Macbeth and lady Macbeth, 2016)
Furthermore, Lady Macbeth starts to feel unsure about what she did “Naught's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content”(III, II,104). Lady Macbeth is guilt-ridden from her actions because she is unsure of what she has done. She has started to become scared because of the backlash that may come. For instance, Lady Macbeth lost her sanity when she started seeing blood on her hands “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (V, I,191).
However, her hands are physically clean, they are actually filthy of murders she causes. These flashbacks of reliving her tragedies of her life are causing her to lose sleep at night. In addition to PTSD, Lady Macbeth is also suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
Lady Macbeth instead shames Macbeth for feeling such a way. However, her lack of remorse changes at the end of the play when she sleepwalks and attempts to wash her hands of the guilt and cries “Out Here’s the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O!”(5.1.53-55.)
One of the first thoughts I had when I picked up Macbeth was, “wow, this is perfect for Halloween.” It starts off a little eerie and has three very spooky witches. And after reading the play and watching the movie, I have to say, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship is goals. The reason I say that is because Lady Macbeth had plot regicide after witches predicted that Macbeth, her husband, is to be crowned king. Not a lot of wives in this day and age are willing to kill man to ensure their husbands success.
Macbeth changes from a well known and loyal solider of the scottish king to a murderous tyrant. At the start of the play Macbeth is Coureagues, ambitious, superstitious and edvoted to his wife. These characteristics are shown through out the victory against the rebels, Macbeth’s trust in the wtiches and his letter to his wife. In the second half of the play Macbeth becomes cruel and treacherous, insecure and distant from Lady Macbeth. The events that show this change are the murders Macbeth commits, his voluntary teurn to the witches and his reaction to his wife’s death.
Soon after Macbeth’s downfall into paranoia, and the countless other murder’s of those in the kingdom, guilt starts to creep up on Lady Macbeth. She is pictured sleepwalking, and more specifically, frantically trying to wash her hands, yelling, “Out, out damned spot!” (Shakespeare 5.1.36). The notion of washing herself, suggests that Lady Macbeth is trying to cleanse herself of the sins she committed, as washing oneself alludes to baptism and purification. In addition, Lady Macbeth talks in her sleep, admitting to several of the murders.
Instead of going along with Macbeth’s new plans to murder more people, Lady Macbeth attempts to dissuade Macbeth, telling him that he “lack[s] the season of all nature, sleep,” trying to get Macbeth to go to bed as opposed to plotting and then carrying out his plans of murder (3.4.142). By trying to stop Macbeth from murdering more people, it is clear that despite wanting to be evil and feel nothing, her sense of guilt is too strong for her to
In scene 5.1, Lady Macbeth is so overwhelmed with her guilt that she begins to sleepwalk. Not only does Lady Macbeth feel guilty for her actions against King Duncan, she recalls the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff. As Lady Macbeth begins to sleepwalk she is seen by a doctor and gentlewoman. When Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, she reads a letter that she has written which is symbolic of her sololiqy mentioned above in Act 1.5. Lady Macbeth starts to obsessively wash the blood she is imagining on them from the deaths.
In the Shakespearean play Macbeth, Macbeth’s character undergoes many significant changes. The visual that we created gives a basic idea of how Macbeth’s character changes throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is illustrated as a loyal, respected and dedicated Thane who is highly regarded by the King of Scotland, King Duncan. As represented by our visual, Macbeth’s character in the beginning can be considered as valiant as he is noted for his bravery and successes on the battleground, but after the witches’ prophecies that Macbeth will be king and with Lady Macbeth’s encouragement, Macbeth falls to ambition. His thirst for the throne causes him to do “shocking” things, as noted by our visual, such as killing King Duncan for the throne and many others that prevent him from
Lady Macbeth’s gentlewoman is witness to these night time episodes that Lady Macbeth has, but she is loyal and will not repeat what is said during these episodes. She has though mentioned that Lady Macbeth walks around trying to wash her hands of the blood that she dreams stains her hands. Lady Macbeth is feeling guilty for having started Macbeth’s murdering spree with the initial murder she planned. As king and queen of Scotland, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not suitable. Lady Macbeth has become mad from her malefactions, which is not a fitting way for a queen to behave.
The change of Lady Macbeth is best seen in the way Ari Mattes’s review describes it stating , “About a third of the way through the film, she suddenly becomes a profoundly sympathetic character” (Mattes
Lady Macbeth tries to mask her guilt by covering up for her husband, but eventually comes to grips with her own instability. In Macbeth, Shakespeare asserts that power drives the title character and his wife to insanity, particularly after their conspiracy to kill Duncan. For starters, prior to killing Duncan, Macbeth imagines the likely consequences of his future actions and whether or not they signal his destiny. At the beginning
Characterization of Lady Macbeth In the tragedy “Macbeth” written by William Shakespeare in 1606, the female protagonist, Lady Macbeth, plays a crucial role and depicts a dynamic character changing dramatically over the course of the play. Lady Macbeth is married to Macbeth, former Thane of Glamis, present Thane of Cawdor and predicted future King of Scotland. Both of them live in Dunsinane Castle, Inverness Castle in Scotland.