Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a power hungry and vindictive women, whose character is against the

stereotypes of of a Jacobean woman. By changing Lady Macbeths tone through carefully choosing her language
choices and her line structure, Shakespeare creates this unique character.
Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as persuasive and as wanting more power. As soon as Macbeth is informed
of the prophecy that he will be king, from the witches, he tells Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth starts persuading
Macbeth to kill the current king, king Duncan, and rule Scotland, with Lady Macbeth by his side. Macbeth
opposes the idea of killing Duncan at first, but at the end he is broken and Lady Macbeths will is done. This
implies that Lady Macbeth is very persuasive and can control Macbeth,well not fail Lady Macbeth to Macbeth.
In the Jacobean era, the wife would not be able or allowed to argue with her husband, however Lady Macbeth
made Macbeth kill the king, which suggests that she wants to be powerful and doesnt care how she gets it. The
theme in this scene is power and the hunger for it. Power is the fuel that Lady Macbeth craves and is the reason
for many deaths.
Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a deceptive woman, who uses the fact that she is a woman as a
weapon. Why, worthy thane, you do unbend your noble strength to think.. Lady Macbeth is talking to Macbeth.
She begins by praising him,worthy, however ends the speech with orders and telling Macbeth that he did
things wrong, she also insults him infirm of purpose. Macbeth would be proud of himself because Lady Macbeth
is his wife and her opinion means a lot to him. Lady Macbeth is skillful with words, such as worthy and my
husband. Macbeth is the man in the relationship, but he still needs Lady Macbeths praise and acceptance,
which is against the stereotype,which is that the wife is to watch the kids, at home, and her husband succeed in
his chosen career, which implies Lady Macbeth is more than the normal Jacobean woman. This would intrigue
the audience because they probably would never have thought that a woman would be as powerful to act like
Lady Macbeth. The audience of males will be surprised and uncomfortable because this character is unusual.
They would dislike and distrust her.
Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as close to being supernatural or a woman who wants to be a man. He
does this by carefully choosing her language choices.Unsex me here[]make thick my blood. Lady Macbeth
knows about the prophecy and the quotes are taken out of a soliloquy. The entire tone of the soliloquy is dark
because of the vocabulary choices. Lady Macbeth is alone which implies that anything she says and does is the
true Lady Macbeth. Come you spirits she is talking to spirits. She asks them to unsex her, Lady Macbeth
wants to be stripped of her feminine spirit and stereotypes. If you are a man you can kill, kill king Duncan and
Macbeth will be king. This connotes that she is desperate for power.
The second point is that she is talking to greater beings. This suggests that Lady Macbeth has some business
with the supernatural, maybe the witches or she is a witch. She could be mad and be talking to herself. Smoke
of hell this is a metaphor so that what she might do will be covered up, or we can take it literally, as if this was
a spell. We link hell to the devil, in the Jacobean era women would give their souls and have intercourse with the
devil in trade for their powers that will make them a witch. Therefore the theory that Lady Macbeth is a witch is
likely. The theme is this scene is supernatural. this theme is important in the play because without the witches
there would be no story. The audiences will be uncomfortable and quite scared of her because witches can kill
people. They would be immersed into the play because of the plot.
Shakespeare creates the impression that Lady Macbeth is more powerful and dominant in her relationship, by
changing the line structure and iambic pentameter. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a discussion in Act 3
Scene 2, Shakespeare allows Lady Macbeth to interrupt or end Macbeths iambic pentameter, twice. This
suggests that she is overpowering, which is against the stereotype. You must leave this Lady Macbeth says to
Macbeth. This is imperative, which you can link to wanting more power.
In conclusion Lady Macbeth is a mysterious character, who leaves many questions for the audience. What is
clear is that she is not a normal Jacobean woman, she wants power and the ability to control. The audience will
dislike the character because she would not fit into society.
__________________________________________________________________________________ Lady Macbeths sleep walking
scene forms a very crucial part of the falling action of the play Macbeth. This scene underscores the theme of
the play that extreme ambition leads to downfall. Lady Macbeth is tormented by guilt and sleeplessness. She is
frightened, haunted and broken. In this scene the audience is presented with a very different aspect of Lady
Macbeth. She is a ghost of her former self. Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth keeps her emotions bottled up.
While Macbeth is continually pouring out his miseries to his wife and unloading his heart from the guilt; Lady
Macbeth is perseveringly enduring in silence. She goes through the motions of the scenes when Duncan is
murdered, when Macbeth sees Banquoes ghost and when Macduffs wife and kids are slain. The doctors wordsthe heart is sorely charged describe the extreme anxiety and pain lady Macbeth is in.
Lady Macbeths sleep walking scene tells to the audience Shakespeares formation of characters. His characters
are sketched in shades of gray. They are well rounded- none of them are either completely white or completely
dark. If Lady Macbeth comes across to the audience as a very black character, then this scene provides us with
her redeeming qualities. We see her anguish and thus establish her as human. As found in Shakespeares
drama, the personalities of the characters are revealed through dialogues. Even in this scene, Lady Macbeths
personality is revealed through her own dialogues as well dialogues between the gentlewoman and doctor.

Lady Macbeths anguished state of mind is reflected in the diction and syntax adopted by Shakespeare in this
scene. Unlike Shakespeares usual style, in this scene lady Macbeth strays from iambic parameter. She does not
speak in verse in any of her dialogues from this scene. Also her sentences are not very long. In all her dialogues,
each sentence refers to an incident in the past which had occurred after Duncans death- The thane of fife had
a wife: where is she now?what, will these hands neer be clean?no more o that, my lord, no more o that.
As in this dialogue, initially Lady Macbeth reminisces about the murder of Macduffs wife. Immediately she frets
about the blood stain and just after that she is talking to Macbeth. Her dialogues clearly are a reflection of her
disturbed mental and emotional state. Also, the tone of Lady Macbeths dialogues is morbid. It once again
expresses the deep anxiety that is driving her into insanity.
Blood is a recurrent symbol used by Shakespeare to denote Lady Macbeths sense of guilt. She is continually
trying to wash away the blood stain from her hand. Out damned spot! Out, I say!one:two:why, then, tis time
to dot. these words highlight the sense of desperation with which lady Macbeth is trying to wash of the blood
stain. Shakespeare uses a very beautiful hyperbole to describe the strong impression of the blood stain. Lady
Macbeth rues heres the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh,
oh, oh! In her sleep lady Macbeth is extremely anxious that she is unable to rid herself of the blood stain that is
a mark of her guilt. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her
continue in this quarter of an hour. Gentlewoman describes this daily activity of Lady Macbeth to the doctor.
Lady Macbeth seems obsessed about riding herself of that blood stain. Nearly her every dialogue has reference
to that blood stain. Sleep and darkness are other symbols employed by Shakespeare. Sleep represents peace
and innocence. Those who can sleep are innocent and thus are at peace with their conscience. As Lady Macbeth
is guilty she is in turmoil and thus can not sleep. She is haunted by her guilt and she keeps on reminiscing her
past. In the passage, darkness represents a ghost which haunts the guilty. This is why Lady Macbeth is scared of
the dark. She has light by her continually; tis her command. These words of gentlewoman tell that lady
Macbeth can no longer abide by the dark. She needs the support of candlelight to protect her self from the
demons of the dark. We can ascertain that lady Macbeth is wary of the dark because she says, hell is murky,
implying that she is already acquainted with that hell and darkness and she wants to extricate herself from it.
The sleep walking scene of Lady Macbeth contains a lot of irony. Lady Macbeths dialogues that are reminisces
of the past reflect her former self; however, in this scene, paradoxically because of her dialogues we see an
altogether different aspect of Lady Macbeth. You mar all with this starting- this was the advice given by lady
Macbeth to Macbeth when he was hallucinating in the party. Ironically in this scene she gives her self totally
away by speaking about everything in her sleep. The readers can know through this scene that lady Macbeth
had been a calm, practical and astute lady. She tells Macbeth- Banquo's buried; he cannot come out on's
grave. We see that she is unaffected as well as astute. She even says- What's done cannot be undone. But
paradoxically her very outpouring shows how hollow these incisive statements are. Earlier in the play, she
possessed a remarkable strength of will. It is she who steadies her husbands nerves after the murder. When
Macbeth in his anguished senses says that there is so much blood on his hands that it cant be clean, Lady
Macbeth logically points out that the blood can be washed away with a little water. Ironically in this entire scene
she is trying to wash away the blood which does not seem to go. What need we fear who knows it, when none
can call our power to account? she asks, claiming that as long as they are in power their guilt cannot harm
them as nobody would dare to challenge their authority. But her guilt stricken state and her accelerating anxiety
reveal the irony of the words. Even though nobody has yet accused them of murder, Lady Macbeth is already
suffering because of the burden of her guilt. She has created her own hell which is pulling her further in
darkness. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the dignity of the whole body. These words of
gentlewoman reveal the calamitous repercussion of Macbeths and Lady Macbeths deed. Both Macbeth and
Lady Macbeth now rule as aristocrats, but now they are sagged with a burden which doesnt let go. The words of
gentlewoman allude towards a very significant question- we run crazy after wealth, fame, luxury in our life but
ultimately are these things so important that we should forgo our conscience? Our avarice for certain things
sometimes make us so blind that we forget about things that matter. Earlier, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth did not
have the luxury of highest royal life but they had respectability, peace and happiness. Now they are haunted by
demons of their guilt. Lady Macbeth does not even have the luxury of a small thing like peaceful sleep. She is
slowly sliding into insanity. Even though simple, her former life was definitely much better than her present.
How does Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth in Act 1 ?
Lady Macbeth is arguably one of Shakespeares most evil characters. She is ambitious, manipulative, calculating
and deceiving. She is a powerful character who uses negative language and has an overpowering presence on
stage.
In Shakespeares Era, women were not expected to have an opinion, they were regarded as their husbands
possession, unequal and inferior to men. The stereotypical Elizabethan woman was expected to be innocent,
gentle and dutiful. However, Lady Macbeth goes against this stereotype and is very outspoken. She acts as a
catalyst, speeding up Macbeths evildoings and persuading him to kill King Duncan. She personifies evil, an
important theme throughout the play.
In Act 1, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a very ambitious, manipulative woman. We first meet her in Act
one, Scene 5, when she is alone, reading a letter from her husband. The letter describes Macbeths meeting
with the weird sisters and their supernatural predictions given to him by the perfectest report. When Lady
Macbeth learns that two of the predictions have already come true, she believes that Macbeth will become king,
and she realises her ambition to become queen.
However, the current King Duncan is still alive and Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to kill him, but, she fears that
Macbeth is too honourable to kill Duncan; Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full o th milk of human kindness a

symbol of innocence.
Elizabethans believed in witchcraft and the supernatural. People believed that witches had great powers such as
the ability to change the weather and predict the future and they were regarded as unnatural and evil. People
believed in the natural order in society, which should not be interfered with, as it was considered a sin. Lady
Macbeth goes against the natural order.
There is a lot of religious imagery in the play to remind the audience of the Christian Elizabethan beliefs and
damnation would result if anyone challenged these beliefs.
In his letter Macbeth refers to Lady Macbeth as, My dearest partner in greatness which suggests that there
was equality in their relationship, which would surprise the audience and it shows that Macbeth trusted his wife.
When Lady Macbeth learns of Duncans visit, we see her ambition and wickedness grow and flourish. In her
soliloquy, her dark and unnatural language would shock the audience. She asks the spirits to unsex me here.
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull, Of direst cruelty. She is calling on evil spirits to take away her
womanly qualities and replace them with evil. She is very arrogant here and thinks that she can command and
control the evil spirits. She is dominant and more ambitious than it was thought right for a woman to be, and
wishes to be pitiless and iron-willed. She calls on the aid of magic powers, which is associated with witches, and
uses it to wish her breasts full of poison, rather than breastfeeding or nurturing a baby like typical women of this
time. She also wishes to be at one with murdring ministers which is a harsh alliteration, showing Lady
Macbeth ambition and anger. The tone of this soliloquy is set at the beginning, The raven himself is hoarse; as
the raven is an omen of bad luck and is an image of death. At the end of the speech, the murderers knife is
visible to Lady Macbeth and she wants night to arrive so she can get on with her deed. With the force of words
and will-power, Shakespeare has created a monster on stage.
The first time we see Lady Macbeth and Macbeth together is at the end of Act 1, Scene 5. Lady Macbeth greets
her husband addressing him as Thane of Cawdor. The letters have transported me beyond, This ignorant
present, and now I feel, The future in the instant; This shows that Lady Macbeth is ambitious, excited, but also
reveals her scheming nature. She tells Macbeth to deceive King Duncan and hide all real thoughts: Look like the
innocent flower but be the serpent undert. She dominates Macbeth, Leave all the rest to me. She is
presented as a very powerful force, showing the intensity of her desire for her husband to take the throne.
Shakespeare uses many words that have double meaning such as, This nights great business into my
dispatch, which could mean murder. These double meanings show a power and theme of deception and to
show us all that Lady Macbeth is cunning enough to realise that these words could help influence and frighten
her husband, Macbeth into killing King Duncan.
When King Duncan arrives at the castle, Lady Macbeth acts as the perfect hostess, when in reality, harbours
dark desires. She welcomes Duncan, to their castle and speaks of obedience and loyalty but the audience would
be aware of the irony. She hides all traces of her plans and continues to flatter King Duncan. But the audience
would be aware of the evil plans from Lady Macbeth and what was going to happen.
Lady Macbeth is constantly trying to strengthen Macbeths resolve. In scene 7, we see him wandering the castle
in agony and doubt. The castle is a gloomy, dark and sinister place, which adds to the drama and the evil
atmosphere. The darkness is synonymous with evil.
When Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that he has decided that their evil plans should end and he doesnt want to
ruin everything; We will proceed no further in the business. Lady Macbeth tries to inspire her husband to kill
and tries to persuade him.
She is taunting and goading Macbeth; Was the hope drunk, Wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?;
She accuses him of being a drunk, saying that he is saying things he does not mean.
She calls him pale; a weak coward. She uses emotional blackmail, saying that if he loved her, he would do this
for her. She accuses him of cowardice and a lack of manliness. In a horrifying image she says that she would kill
her own child rather than break a promise; dashed its brains out. This is very violent and unnatural. It shows
Lady Macbeths true evil character.
She compares Macbeth to the proverb Cat wants to eat fish, but he wont get his paws wet saying that
Macbeth wants to be king, but is not prepared to kill Duncan.
Lady Macbeth does not consider failure; Screw your courage to the sticking-place, And well not fail; Lady
Macbeth is motivating and encouraging her husband, telling him to pull yourself together, be strong and we will
not fail.
Lady Macbeth has planned the deed. She is calculating, cunning and taking charge. She is behaving more like a
man than Macbeth is. The roles in the relationship have swapped. She is concerned with the practicality of the
plan, whereas Macbeth is more concerned with the morality.
The act ends with Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth the plans for the murder of King Duncan.
Lady Macbeths role is as a catalyst. She speeds up the pace of the place and persuades her husband to murder
King Duncan. Lady Macbeths role in the play was to persuade her husband. Without her, he may not have gone
through with the murder. I do not believe that Macbeth was a strong enough character to commit the murder by
himself. He needed the overpowering support of his wife, who was as equally ambitious as him, but was also
ruthless and cunning. Lady Macbeth made the plan become reality.
When Macbeth has Duncans blood on his hands she tells him, A little water clears us of this deed She shrugs
off the murder and believes that is the end of the deed and all of the evidence will be gone. This shows her evil
nature and now she has no compassion or guilt.
I do think that Lady Macbeth is an evil character, however, I do not think is totally evil. She has many flaws; She
had to drink in order to keep her spirits up and she also would not kill Duncan herself because he looked like her
father sleeping, ...resembled, My father as he slept. She cannot be totally evil and is destructive, and not as
strong as they audience first thought.
However as the play continues, Lady Macbeths role diminishes and she is no longer the dominant partner in the

relationship. Macbeth has Banquo and his son killed which shows that he is now more independent. He does not
tell his wife and he is thinking and acting for himself. The last time we see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth together
in Act 3, Lady Macbeth looks like an exhausted woman.
In Act 5, Lady Macbeth is in a pitiful state. She appears to be not as evil as first thought to the audience. Her
conscience gets the better of herself. She sleepwalks and carries a candle because she is frightened of the dark
and cannot sleep which is ironic because she called on the dark earlier in the play. The dark is a symbol of evil
and now Lady Macbeth has a guilty conscience and has to carry a candle, a symbol of innocence and purity.
Lady Macbeth is also continually washing her hands because she believes she has blood on her hands which is
ironic as earlier she told Macbeth A little water clears us of this deed. She also speaks in rambling prose which
shows that she has lost her sanity. The audience can see her conscience is destroying her.
At the end of the play, Lady Macbeth has probably committed suicide. She was not as strong as she first
thought.
My impression of Lady Macbeth is that she is a highly significant character in Macbeth, and without her, the
whole play could not have evolved. She was an evil character; ambitious, ruthless and the key to Macbeths
success.
At the end of this play, Shakespeare wants us to feel sympathy for Lady Macbeth. She started as a strong
woman, who was malicious, ambitious and ruthless. She has complete support from her husband and she was
the dominant force in the relationship. However as the play progresses, her role diminishes, and she becomes a
pitiful wreck because when Macbeth no longer supports her and she crumbles.
When Macbeth is told about her death, he seems indifferent and emotionless as if she signified nothing. In my
opinion, I consider Lady Macbeth to be a highly significant character in the play, and without, Macbeth would
never have been successful.
At the end of the play, Malcolm calls Lady Macbeth a fi end like queen. Is Lady Macbeth an evil
or tragic fi gure?
In William Shakespeares Macbeth Lady Macbeth is presented as both a fiend like queen as well as Macbeths
dearest partner of greatness. Many characters within Macbeth are left open to interpretation; Lady Macbeth
begs the question, evil or tragic? When we first see her she is already plotting the murder of King Duncan. Her
motives for killing the king are selfish and her cheap use of Macbeth in order to gain what she wants, point to
her evil nature. In addition to this, her manipulation of her husband to achieve her steely purpose and her
complete disregard for humanity signifies her inner darkness. However, while she may seem cold and brutal,
her remorse is eventually shown at the conclusion of the play. She spirals into madness, unable to deal with the
legacy of her crimes. She kills herself, coming to a tragic end and endearing a sense of sympathy for herself
within the audience.
When we first see Lady Macbeth she is already plotting the murder of King Duncan, and we quickly gain a sense
of her harsh and ruthless nature. After receiving a letter from Macbeth speaking of the witches prophecies, she
identifies the fact that Macbeth is too full of the milk of human kindness, to catch the nearest way and decides
to convince him to kill the king in order to gain the throne. While Macbeths private thoughts had alluded to
murder, he made it clear afterwards that if chance will have [him] king, than chance may crown [him], without
[his] stir When Macbeth continues to express doubts about the killing, Lady Macbeth completely disregards his
feelings and continues to push Macbeth into murder for her own self gain. Simultaneously she tells Macbeth he
shall stand to gain more and shalt be what thou art promised. Her selfish use of Macbeth to do what she
cannot, had he not resembled my father as he slept I had done it further establishes her evil nature. Her
selfish motives and deeds directly correlate with her manipulation and deceit to achieve her ambition.
Lady Macbeth is stronger and more ruthless than Macbeth. She seems fully aware of this and knows she will
have to push Macbeth into committing murder. Shakespeare uses the character of Lady Macbeth to undercut
Macbeths idea that undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males. Lady Macbeth uses her female
powers to achieve her desired position. Ladys Macbeths well timed and effective manipulations are able to
override all of Macbeths objections. She compares Macbeth to the poor cat in the adage letting I dare not
wait upon I would , thereby undermining his manhood and continues to do so by saying he could be so much
more the man until Macbeth feels he must kill in order to prove himself. Her attack also includes questions of
Macbeths love for her, entailing lines such as from this time such I account thy love. Her complete willingness
to so violently criticize and manipulate her husband; someone she is supposed to love and support, indicates
another part of her which is well and truly evil.
Lady Macbeths bold character and strength of will persists throughout the murder of King Duncan. Before the
murder she called on the sprits that tend on mortal thoughts to stop up the access and passage to remorse.
Her open disregard for her humanity seems to shows her absolute lack of guilt. However, her plea to the evil
spirits had only short term affects and her deep seeded sorrow eventually surfaced. Her slide into madness at
the conclusion of the play shows the audience that she did feel guilty and she did have remorse despite how
deeply she buried it. It was she who was there to steady her husbands nerves after the murder and while
Macbeth is able to unload his guilt, remorse and sadness, Lady Macbeth was forced to carry his burden as well
as her own. As she internalized her thoughts for the sake of her husband, Macbeth began isolating himself as
the play went on and she could not deal with the legacy of her crimes; especially not by herself. Guilt had
consumed her and her strong and bold character had been reduced to sleepwalking around the castle, trying to
rid her hands of an invisible blood stain, crying out damned spot, out I say will these hands never be clean?
The attending doctor spoke of her unnatural troubles needing more the divine than the physician. Her life
comes to a tragic end when she kills herself, unable to deal with the crushing legacy of her crimes.
As ambition affects Lady Macbeth more than her husband so do the consequences. Her initial lust for power and
position seem to establish her evil nature and fiend like queen status. Her selfish motives, deceitful and harsh
manipulation of Macbeth, as well as her open denial of her humanity further establish this. However the tragic

end to her story endears a sense of sympathy within the audience for her character. A previously bold and
strong woman, seeing no other option but to end her life shows nothing but tragedy.
Macbeths downfall was brought about solely because of his vaulting ambition. To what extent
do you agree with this statement?
The central theme in William Shakespeares Macbeth is the danger wrought when ambition goes unchecked by
moral constraints. This is most powerfully expressed through the title character of Macbeth. It can be argued
that Macbeths downfall was due solely to his vaulting ambition. However, it is a combination of Lady Macbeth,
the witches and Macbeths rising ambition throughout the play which leads to his ultimate demise. Macbeth
starts off as a worthy cousin, and while conflicted after hearing the witches prophecies he is able to keep his
ambition in check. Although, the mood soon passes him after his wife gives him the small push he needs to act
on his desires. His ambition continues to grow and spirals out of control when Macbeth turns to violence to
achieve his goals and is unable to stop. His story comes full circle when he dies fighting at the hands of Macduff
at the conclusion of the play.
We first hear of brave Macbeth at the beginning of the play through accounts of his battlefield valour.
However this perspective is confused when we see his initial meeting with the witches. These withered
witches prophesise that Macbeth shall be Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and king hereafter. He is startled
and Banquo picks up on this asking why do you start, and seem to fear things that do sound so fair. It is as if
Macbeth has already been thinking of being King and is scared that he has been found out. He proceeds to
convince Banquo and perhaps himself that to be king stands not within the prospect of belief. Macbeths
ambition comes into realisation and we see it develop when Macbeth begs the imperfect speakers to tell him
more, only to be disappointed when they vanish. The notion of being king has occurred to Macbeth before, but it
is only now that he considers it to be a real possibility. He knows he is Thane of Glamis, and when he is given
the title of Thane of Cawdor his mind jumps to the happy prologues to the swelling act of the imperial theme.
The witches prophecies, beginning to come true, jump start Macbeths ambition. However, he buries his
objectives, not too deeply, knowing he must hide his black and deep desires and let come what come may.
Macbeth then enters a state of swelling inner turmoil, alternating between thoughts of steps he must oer leap
to become king and thoughts of guilt and his horrible imaginings. He sends word of the witches prophecies to
his partner of greatness. Lady Macbeth knows full well that her husband is too full of the milk of human
kindness to catch the nearest way. She also knows that Macbeth is not without ambition, but without the
illness should attend it. While Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both come to the same conclusion, that they must
kill the king, Lady Macbeth immediately plans to do so, whereas Macbeth has managed to keep his ambition in
check. Lady Macbeth calls on the spirits that tend on mortal thought to give her the strength she needs to be
able to perform this nights great business. She is then able to manipulate Macbeth and push him to act on his
and her aspirations in order to be what thou art promised. It is the combination of the prophecies from the
witches and Lady Macbeths strength of will which sparks Macbeths own ambition. He identifies that he has no
spur to prick the sides of [his] intent, but only vaulting ambition This acknowledgment of his ambition as his
only strength, foreshadows how he will continue to rely on it as it increases throughout the play. The full
realisation of his ambition as a result of the witches prophecies and his wifes pressing, shows how his desires
blind him. There was no mention of murder in the witches prophecies and his ambition is the thing that is
driving him into being an agent of fate, fulfilling the prophecy himself.
After the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth falls into a deep and plaguing guilt. Yet, Lady Macbeth is there to
ease her husbands remorse. Macbeth hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all and it would seem that he could
enjoy his achievement. But again, his mind jumps back to the witches prophecy. They had predicted that
Banquo would father a line of kings and Macbeth worries about his fruitless crown and ... barren sceptre. He
knows to be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus and jumps into fevered action and plots to kill Banquo and
his son. He is only able to kill Banquo and his son Fleance flees. His ambition and lust for power continues to
spiral out of control. He wants his throne to be his and only his, so goes to see the witches again to seek
reassurance. The witches present him with a series of apparitions which entail, beware of Macduff, Thane of
Fife none of woman born shall harm Macbeth and Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam
wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come. These forecasts put great confidence in Macbeth and so he plans to kill
Macduff and his family, but only succeeds in killing his wife and son. Macbeths ambition consumes him and he
begins alienating himself within his boastful madness. When the plans of the English invasion reach him, his
blind confidence in the witches prophecies comfort him in knowing he will keep his throne. However, as the
story comes to a head things begin to turn. The trees began moving and Macduff being from his mothers
womb, untimely ripped emerges victorious.
Macbeths downfall was inevitable. A tyrannous king, blinded by his ambition and confidence, combined with his
equally bold wife and the deceitful antics of the witches all lead to Macbeths ultimate demise. Through
Macbeths character and his story we learn of the dangers of unchecked ambition. We also learn that once one
turns to violence to further their goals it is very difficult to stop.
Out, damned spot, out, I say! One. Two. Why then, tis time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier and
afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have
thought the old man to have had so much blood in him. . . The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?
What, will these hands ne'er be clean? No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that. You mar all with this starting.
(V i 30-48)
In this speech, Lady Macbeth's language is choppy, jumping from idea to idea as her state of mind changes. Her
sentences are short and unpolished, reflecting a mind too disturbed to speak eloquently. Although she spoke in
iambic pentameter before, she now speaks in prosethus falling from the noble to the prosaic.

Lady Macbeth's dissolution is swift. As Macbeth's power grows, indeed, Lady Macbeth's has decreased. She
began the play as a remorseless, influential voice capable of sweet-talking Duncan and of making Macbeth do
her bidding. In the third act Macbeth leaves her out of his plans to kill Banquo, refusing to reveal his intentions
to her. Now in the last act, she has dwindled to a mumbling sleepwalker, capable only of a mad and rambling
speech. Whereas even the relatively unimportant Lady Macduff has a stirring death scene, Lady Macbeth dies
offstage. When her death is reported to Macbeth, his response is shocking in its cold apathy. (Here again
Macbeth stands in relief to Macduff, whose emotional reaction to his wife's death almost "unmans" him.)

The Psychoanalysis of Lady Macbeth

The sleepwalking scene is not mentioned in Holinshed and it must therefore be looked upon as an original effort
of Shakespeare's creative imagination. Lady Macbeth had none of the usual phenomena of sleep, but she did
show with a startling degree of accuracy all the symptoms of hysterical somnambulism. Somnambulism is not
sleep, but a special mental state arising out of sleep through a definite mechanism. The sleepwalking scene is a
perfectly logical outcome of the previous mental state. From the very mechanism of this mental state, such a
development was inevitable. She is not the victim of a blind fate or destiny or punished by a moral law, but
affected by a mental disease.
It is evident from the first words uttered by the Doctor in the sleep-walking scene, that Lady Macbeth had had
several previous somnambulistic attacks. That we are dealing with a genuine somnambulism is shown by the
description of the eyes being open and not shut. Now several complexes or groups of suppressed ideas of an
emotional nature enter into this scene and are responsible for it. The acting out of these complexes themselves
are based upon reminiscences of her past repressed experiences.
The first complex relates to the murder of Duncan as demonstrated in the continual washing of the hands, an
act not seen earlier and here clearly brought out in the sleep-walking scene. This automatic act is a
reminiscence of her earlier remark after the murder of Duncan, "A little water clears us of this deed."
The second complex refers to the murder of Banquo, clearly shown in the words, "I tell you yet again, Banquo's
buried; he cannot come out of his grave," thus demonstrating that she is no longer ignorant of this particular
crime of her husband.
The third complex entering into the sleep-walking scene distinctly refers to the murder of Macduff's wife and
children - "The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now?" Various other fragmentary reminiscences enter into
this scene, such as Macbeth's terror at the banquet in the words, "You mar all with this starting," the striking of
the clock before the murder of King Duncan, and the reading of the first letter from Macbeth announcing the
witches' prophecy. Thus a vivid and condensed panorama of all her crimes passes before her. Like all reported
cases of hysterical somnambulism, the episode is made up, not of one, but of all the abnormal fixed ideas and
repressed complexes of the subject. The smell and sight of blood which she experiences, is one of those cases in
which hallucinations developed out of subconscious fixed ideas which had acquired a certain intensity, as in
Macbeth's hallucination of the dagger. Since blood was the dominating note of the tragedy, it was evidence of
Shakespeare's remarkable insight that the dominating hallucination of this scene should refer to blood. The
analysis of this particular scene also discloses other important mental mechanisms.
There is a form of nervous disease known as a compulsion neurosis in which the subject has an almost
continuous impulsion to either wash the hands or to repeat other actions almost indefinitely. As a rule, this
compulsion appears meaningless and even foolish to the outside observer and it is only by an analysis of the
condition, that we can understand its nature and true significance. The compulsion may arise from the idea that
the hands are soiled or contaminated or there may be a genuine phobia of infection or contamination.

As an example, I had the opportunity to observe the case of a young girl who would wash her hands a number
of times during the day. She could give no explanation for this impulsion. A psychoanalysis, however, disclosed
the fact that the washing of the hands was due to ideas of religious absolution from certain imaginary sins and
arose as an act of defense against imaginary contamination. Now a similar group of symptoms is found in Lady
Macbeth. In the sleep-walking scene the following dialogue occurs Doctor. What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands.
Gentlewoman. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus washing her hands: I have known her continue
in this a quarter of an hour.
Then later in the scene, Lady Macbeth speaks as follows, disclosing the complex which leads to this apparently
meaningless action. "What, will these hands ne'er be clean? ... Here's the smell of the blood still: All the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." Here the symptom develops through Lady Macbeth
transferring an unpleasant group of memories or complexes, which have a strong personal and emotional
significance, to an indifferent act or symptom. The act of washing the hands is a compromise for self-reproach
and repressed experiences. The mechanism here is the same as in the compulsion neuroses, a proof of
Shakespeare's remarkable insight into the workings of the human mind. When the doctor later states, "This
disease is beyond my practise," he expressed the attitude of the medical profession towards these
psychoneurotic symptoms until the advent of modern psychopathology.
In the words, "Out damned spot - Out I say," the mechanism is that of an unconscious and automatic outburst. It
is very doubtful if Lady Macbeth would have used these words if she were in her normal, waking condition. Thus
the difference between the personality of Lady Macbeth in her somnambulistic and in the normal mental state,
is a proof of the wide gap existing between these two types of consciousness.

Lady Macbeth may therefore be looked upon as possessing two personalities, which appear and disappear
according to the oscillations of her mental level. In her normal, waking state, repression and an assumed
bravery are marked. In the sleeping or somnambulistic state, the repression gives way to free expression and
her innate cowardice becomes dominant. In her waking condition, she shows no fear of blood, but shrinks from
it when in a state of somnambulism. Her counsel to her husband while awake is that of an emotionless cruelty,
while in somnambulism she shows pity and remorse. If one could believe in the womanliness of Lady Macbeth,
then her sleeping personality must be interpreted as the true one, because removed from the inhibition and the
censorship of voluntary repression.
Thus Shakespeare, with most remarkable insight, has made the sleep-walking scene exactly conform to all the
characteristics of a pathological somnambulism - that is - the subject sees and hears everything, there is a
regularity of development, as the subject repeats the same words and gestures as in the original experience
and finally, on a return to the normal personality after the attack is over, there is no memory for the attack, in
other words, amnesia has taken place. Lady Macbeth's actions during the sleepwalking scene are very
complicated, show a clear memory of her past repressed experiences, in fact, they are an exact reproduction
and rehearsal of these experiences. Finally, she shows an amount of reasoning and association which would be
impossible during the annihilation of consciousness during sleep and which only could have taken place when
consciousness was very active.

English
The character of Lady Macbeth
The sleepwalking scene (Act 5, Scene 1)
Why does Lady Macbeth begin to walk and talk in her sleep?
Understanding why Lady Macbeth has begun to sleepwalk will help you to understand her character.
She needs to be cleansed. Lady Macbeth never saw the evil of the murder lasting in this way. The blood of
Duncan haunts her.
She re-runs her own part in the murder to come to terms with her guilt. An important point. She
does not try to blame anyone but herself. Her words come back to haunt her.
Lady Macbeth is horrified by Macbeth's continued killing. She was devastated by the slaughter of Lady
Macduff and her children.
What does the scene tell us about her part in the play?
As a woman, Lady Macbeth never had the power to control things independently. The sleepwalking
scene is very intimate. While Macbeth's conscience strikes in a very public banquet, Lady Macbeth's fear shows
up in a private setting. This underlines the different roles of men and women in this society.
Lady Macbeth always saw an end to the process: once Duncan was dead, power would rest
with herself and Macbeth. This is probably the most important point. She goes over this point in her
head.
She was never really an evil person. It was Macbeth who had faith in supernatural powers. Lady
Macbeth invited them in, they possessed her, and have left her powerless.
The isolation has driven her mad: Macbeth no longer seems to exist for her. Lady Macbeth
always instinctively saw herself as part of a couple. Macbeth has gradually broken away from her, leaving
her totally isolated in her chamber. She desperately wants their former closeness.

Lady Macbeth analysis (Act 5 Scene 1)

Lady Macbeth loses her sanity totally by act 5. Her insanity is foregrounded in the first scene of the act in
Macbeth.The gentlewoman serving Lady Macbeth feels simultaneously sympathy and a sense of bitterness to
such heinous path Lady Macbeth along with Macbeth chose to achieve success.
In act 5, scene 1 of Macbeth, it is presented that Lady Macbeth has lost her senses, and suffers from
sleepwalking. She seems to have also a mania regarding her feeling of having blood in her hands. In the
beginning of the scene, it is evident through the conversations between the doctor and the maid that she is
going through an intricate problem. As the actions proceed, it is clear that she does walk in sleep frequently. Not
only that, she has lost senses and has been a sort of maniac since she tries to wash her hands rubbing them as
if there was blood there. She has a psychological illusion that the blood of King Duncan is stuck to her hands.
Her inner guilt and constant trepidation result in insanity. Because it is she who is the closest observer,
confidante, and to many extents, a partner of the brutal tyrant Macbeth in his monstrous crimes. She has
instigated him and knows what dreadful deeds Macbeth has done by now. And she also knows it well that:
"What's done cannot be undone". In fact, now, there is an indication that she seems to find her surroundings
a hell which is a dark place. Probably that is why she keeps "light by her continually".
Herabrupt speech like: "who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him" or
"All the perfumes of Arabia couldn't make my little hand smell better" is not only meaningless lunatic
utterance; rather, the feeling of her that the blood is irremovable and her constant rubbing to wash it away, are
the symbolic expressions of her continuous mental agony and sense of guilt.
The gentlewoman is presented as a very loyal and good servant. When the doctor asks her to tell him about
Lady Macbeth's behavior in detail, she defies to do so by saying loyally: "Neither to you nor any one, having
no witness to confirm my speech ". She is sympathetic to her Lady and very orderly. But, at the same time,
when the secret is disclosed, she is just wondered, and states her bitterness to such devilish deeds Lady
Macbeth has done, witnessed and inspired. Her speech- "I would not have such a heart in my bosom for
the dignity of the whole body", because she can understand that the heinous crimes Lady Macbeth
witnessed or instigated, result in her present condition "where the heart is sorely charged". Definitely, the
maid is very caring and a sensible woman.
Thus, Lady Macbeth's real character through her psychological state is nicely portrayed in this portion of the
play. And, the loyal maid has acted as a auxiliary character to convey the implicit message of this particular
scene.