How does Lady Macbeth change over the course of the play? Over the course of the play the characters of both Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth develop intensively. They share similar ambitions, but it is Lady Macbeth who dares to do unspeakable things to accomplish them. This creates great conflict within Lady Macbeth who does not conform to the traditional female stereotypes of her epoch. Throughout most of the play, she is portrayed as powerful and confident, and more daring than Macbeth himself, though this image changes when she shows signs of weakness, resulting in her death. In Lady Macbeth’s first appearance in the play, Act 1, Scene 7, she behaves in contentious ways that might lead the audience to question her morals. After reading the letter in which Macbeth shares the news, the first words in her soliloquy show her determination and ambition: “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor - and shalt be what thou art promised!” The fact that she states that he shall be what is promised and become king, shows that she is aware of her own strengths and influence over Macbeth. It reveals the possibility that she is the dominant character in their partnership. Aware of Macbteh’s weaknesses, Lady Macbeth knows that he is too gentle to carry out what she may have in mind, and that she will need to help him. As she also knows of her own weaknesses, the frailty of womanhood, she calls upon an occult force to rid herself of them. In the following quote "Come you spirits that tend to