Character Analysis Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth Character Analysis In Shakespeare's Macbeth, many characters undergo extreme shifts in nature. One of those characters is Lady Macbeth. She is bold and menacing by planning out and ordering Macbeth to kill Duncan; however, she drastically progresses because of her guilt. Lady Macbeth’s character begins as confident, becomes hesitant and worrisome, and finally is consumed by guilt and the blood that will never wash off her hands. Lady Macbeth confidently pushes Macbeth to become king. She wants to be queen and obtain the power that comes with it. She is not shaken by the guilt of murder like Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth finds out about the prophecy she knows “[Macbeth’s] nature;/....is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness”(1.5.16-17). She must “pour [her] spirits in [Macbeth’s] ear/ And chastise with the valor of [her] tongue”(1.5.29-30). When Macbeth starts to doubt whether killing the king is a good idea she calls him a “coward”(1.7.47). Cunningly, she threatens his

She sleepwalks, and reveals what she and Macbeth have done to her servant. Her sleepwalking is her bodies way of dealing with her massive amount of guilt. She “seems thus washing her hands”, trying to wash all the blood she has shed off her hands (5.1.31). She cannot wash the blood off though because it is ingrained in her. She questions “who knows it, when none can call our power to account?”(5.1.40-41). The fact that she is questioning whether people know what she has done shows that people probably do know. She blames Macbeth because he upset everything “with this starting”(5.1.47). She is being consumed by the guilt that her “hands ne’er be clean?”(5.1.45). The “smell of the blood” haunts her and nothing will “sweeten this little hand”(5.1.53-55). The blood she has spilt is driving her to her own demise. Nothing she can do will get rid of her guilt. Only “the divine” can help her