Macbeth - an analysis of lady (Click to select text)

One of the main characters in the Shakespearean play “Macbeth”, is his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a very two sided character in this play. She consistently acts differently when she is around her husband than she does when she is alone. There are many different examples of this contained in the play. One of the most notable examples of this is contained in Act I Scene v when Lady Macbeth reads the letter written to her by Macbeth. Shortly after reading it, she makes the comment that she feels Macbeth is too kind to murder Duncan and that he will need her help, strength, and willpower to commit it. However, after she hears that Macbeth is returning home, she calls upon evil spirits and other demonic entities to give her some aid. She does this because she realizes that she doesn’t have the strength of will to persuade Macbeth into murdering Duncan after all. Then, when Macbeth arrived, just after she finished praying for help, she acts as if she has a heart of stone and that Macbeth is not a man if he is afraid of killing Duncan. This is a prime example of her deception towards him, and how she acts differently when she is alone than when she is around him. Another example of her being two sided is the role she talks about playing in Duncan’s death, and the role that she actually does play in it. There are a few times in the play, mostly when she is attempting to persuade Macbeth into committing the murder, that she says he should just leave the murder to her. Throughout the play she gradually decreases her role in the murder until it becomes Macbeth’s job to kill Duncan, not hers. This is another very large trick on her part, but one that Macbeth also fails to see; Whether it is because he chooses not to, or because he is too naive to realize it. The last noteworthy example of her inconsistency occurs between Act I Scene vii and Act II Scene ii. In Act I Scene vii she severely scolds Macbeth for having second thoughts about committing the murder. She tries to get rid of his rational thoughts by saying that he must not really love her if he can change his mind on the murder, which she says he promised her he would do. She then says that if she promised him something, even if it was as awful as killing her newborn babe, she would do it. Despite the fact that he never made such a promise, he once again fails to realize that she is lying to him. She then continues by making fun of him until she has weakened his position on the subject and he finally agrees to her plan. However, in Act II Scene ii, when she is alone, she makes the statement that she would have killed the sleeping Duncan had he not looked like her father. This just proves that she isn’t nearly as strong and as evil as she pretends to be around Macbeth. In conclusion I feel that it is fairly easy to see how two sided Lady Macbeth is. When around Macbeth she seems to have no emotions, but when she is alone with the audience it is quite clear that that is not really true.