Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is the story of an honorable and noble man falling victim to temptation and eventually descending to the point of murder. Macbeth, the thane of Glamis, is approached by three witches. They tell him of the prophesy that he will become king, causing him to go on a killing spree to get to that position, only to be killed in the end. Even though Macbeth carries out most of the action, his wife, Lady Macbeth, is also a participant; however, there is much controversy over whether she is a decent person or pure evil. Although Lady Macbeth is a negative influence at first, she is shown to be a decent person because she is extremely remorseful of her actions. Lady Macbeth’s role in the play is mainly as an influence on Macbeth, causing him to murder Duncan to become king. At the beginning, Lady Macbeth is the one that comes up with the idea to kill Duncan to become king. Macbeth is even hesitant at first, and she persuades him to go through with it. None of this would have happened if not for Lady Macbeth. Also, when she brings up the idea of murdering Duncan, she says to him “When you durst do it, then you were a man”, meaning that Macbeth was only a man when he was considering going through with the murder (Shakespeare 1.7.49). She is telling him that if doesn’t …show more content…
This shows how she is a decent person because her conscience and morals interfere and make her feel remorse. Towards the end of the play, Lady Macbeth starts sleepwalking and expressing her guilt by asking herself, “will these hands ne’er be clean?” (Shakespeare 5.1.31). She is asking if she will ever be able to get rid of the guilt that she feels for her actions. This regret is symbolized by the washing of hands because she wants the uncleanliness of guilt to go away, but they will