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Research Paper On Lady Macbeth

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Lady Macbeth. A woman of history who brings some heat to the table when her name is mentioned. Shakespeare’s play Macbeth is a play that’s still relevant today. It’s common to see directors write their own interpretations of the many characters in this play. One most commonly looked at is Lady Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s shifting motivations from manipulation to control and finally overwhelming guilt prove her only real concern was herself and the power she holds. This play starts off introducing Macbeth as a war hero, someone who is looked up to. Lady Macbeth on the other hand, is seen as a manipulative side piece to Macbeth. Although both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth experience changes in their inner emotions, Lady …show more content…

Furthermore, literary critics Elizabeth Foley and Beth Coates state Lady Macbeth is murderous, determined, powerfully manipulative, dangerously charming, and prepared to do whatever it takes for her husband’s power to be in her life. (Foley and Coates 98). This proves Lady Macbeth’s control and influences over her husband and her top priority of being queen. Roughly halfway through the play, Lady Macbeth starts to feel some guilt when suspicion rises over the couple after Duncan and his guard's deaths. In Act 3.2 Macbeth reveals he no longer cares as much about taking the throne. Lady Macbeth’s guilt takes over and she tells Macbeth: “Where our desire is got without content:/ ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy” …show more content…

In scene 5.1, Lady Macbeth is so overwhelmed with her guilt that she begins to sleepwalk. Not only does Lady Macbeth feel guilty for her actions against King Duncan, she recalls the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff. As Lady Macbeth begins to sleepwalk she is seen by a doctor and gentlewoman. When Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, she reads a letter that she has written which is symbolic of her sololiqy mentioned above in Act 1.5. Lady Macbeth starts to obsessively wash the blood she is imagining on them from the deaths. Lady Macbeth shouts: “Here’s the smell of blood still:/All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little/ Hand. Oh! oh!

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Oh, oh, oh!” (5.1.53-55). Lady Macbeth is reliving the trauma she faced internally for killing Duncan. She begins to wash her hands and cries that the blood won’t go away.

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Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!” (Act 5, Scene 1) Though she continuously rubs her hands to get rid of the blood, Lady Macbeth can not washed away the guilt that stains her hands.

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