Lady Macbeth is a complex character who continuously changes drastically throughout the play. She is first presented to us as a terrifying woman who is manipulative of her husband and she calls upon spirits to “unsex” her . However, by the end of the play, she is presented as a weak person who is delusional and ends up “dead” after the “cry of woman” is heard.
To begin with, Lady Macbeth was the first to suggest defying the chain of being through the murder of King Duncan which is an untraditional trait which she possesses that makes her appear dominant. She mentions that "never" again will Duncan see "that morrow", suggesting that by tomorrow he will no longer be alive, thus giving connotations of murder and so their intervention with the
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This is suggested through the manner in which she challenges Macbeth's masculinity and suggests that Macbeth will "live a coward" in his own "esteem" while he shows hesitation to murder Duncan and defies him in a manner which is very arrogant. By defying him
Eventually, we see a soft side in Lady Macbeth when she mentions had Duncan "not resembled" her "father" she would "had done't", referring to the murder . This is the first glimpse of her femininity that we get. It's also the first time we see her being vulnerable and admitting to her weakness. This informs the reader that although she may be dominant and cunning, she is still a woman and is held back by the weaknesses caused by her gender. Also as we are just seeing her femininity, it may be considered as a turning point to foreshadow her future mindset.
The first major change we see in Lady Macbeth's character is when she starts to get ill after Macbeth, now the King, goes "into the field", in other words to war. She is seen walking, with "her eyes…open" but their "sense are shut", by a doctor and a gentlewoman. These are the common symptoms of sleep walking which is often caused by stress, which is something Lady Macbeth seems to be struggling