Lady Macbeth's Transformation Analysis

The Transformation of Lady Macbeth
Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates how Lady Macbeth becomes less and less bloodthirsty after the murder of Duncan due to her humane qualities that allow her to feel guilt. Lady Macbeth transforms from a selfish murder-focused accomplice to a woman opposed to the murder of innocent people. Ultimately, she becomes a sleepwalker, consumed by her own guilt. After reading the letter from Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is bloodthirsty and obsessed with planning the murder of Duncan. She immediately starts plotting, with no second thoughts about the severity of what she is doing. This desire for bloodshed is fueled by how “she craves power,” and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve that power (Thompson 8). It is

Lady Macbeth orders a servant to fetch Macbeth and before he arrives, she bemoans “Naught’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content,” indicating that even though she has gotten everything she wants, Lady Macbeth is still not happy because she had to kill to get what she wanted. According to Edith Whitehurst Williams, Lady Macbeth has “a conscience far from dead” that is seen in how she is not happy despite having the power she wanted, since the means of obtaining that power were unsavory (Williams 222). Once Macbeth arrives, Lady Macbeth consults him, advising that “what’s done is done,” meaning that Duncan is dead and their plan is through, so he does not need to do anything more or kill anyone else (3.2.12). Macbeth can sense that Lady Macbeth will not advocate for any more murders and therefore he “does not make her a party to the murder of Banquo” (Williams 222) and so when Lady Macbeth tells him to “sleek o’er your rugged looks”(3.2.27) in order to stop him from his planning of further murders, he simply agrees. At the banquet where Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost, after everyone has left, Macbeth is talking about how he has more schemes to kill people, it is seen that Lady Macbeth’s “dedications to evil… [are] not going to sustain her”(Williams 222). 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