How the character of Lady Macbeth changes and develops throughout the course of the play Essay

When we are first introduced to Lady Macbeth in Act I, scene v, she is at once perceived as a rather hard, ambitious individual who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. However, throughout the play her character undergoes many changes and in the end she goes insane, because of her heightened sense of guilt, and kills herself. Lady Macbeth’s first 2 soliloquies in Act 1 reveal her character very well. The way she speaks of Macbeth’s character makes it quite clear that hers is very different. She does not feel that she has to achieve things respectably or honourably, and is quick to seize opportunities, unlike Macbeth, as is shown by how she immediately connects the prophecies with the king’s visiting her castle. ‘†¦The raven Himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements’. (Act I, scene v, lines 36-8) As soon as the messenger leaves, Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits of the Underworld to fill her with ‘direst cruelty’ and to let ‘no compunctious visitings of nature shake her fell purpose’. She thinks womanhood and femininity weak, and through this we see her hard, cold, remorseless side, that will do anything to fulfil her desires and ambitions. In Act I Lady Macbeth is only talking about and planning the murder- in Act II we see her spring into action. She is the one behind it all, pushing her weak and unwilling husband to do the deed. In this act it is seen even more clearly that Lady Macbeth has no conscience, or if she does it is lying dormant. Every time Macbeth begins to express his guilt and dismay, his wife cuts him off and says something like ‘These deeds must not be thought/ After these ways: so, it will make us mad.’ (Act II, scene ii, lines 33-4). She is also very much in control of herself and the situation, unlike the verbally incontinent Macbeth (see Act II, scene iii, lines 105-15). When she sees that Macbeth is about to give them away with his babbling, she prudently pretends to faint to draw attention away from him. The banquet and the murder of Banquo take place in Act III. Here we see Macbeth all but fall to pieces when he sees the ghost of the murdered Banquo sitting in his place at the table. Lady Macbeth however, had nothing to do with Banquo’s murder. Now it seems that Macbeth does not need his wife to push and chivvy him anymore- he thinks of and plans evil deeds without help. In this act Lady Macbeth only serves to cover up for her husband when he starts rambling and talking to the ghost. Her domineering character is not needed anymore and her role has dropped from that of the dominant wife, to a smiling one, concealing her husband’s evil deeds. Even at this early stage Lady Macbeth shows signs of growing weaker. In the first 2 acts, she was the one in charge, telling her husband what to do and laying all the plans. But now she seems to depend on him more, e.g. Act III, scene ii, line 45 ‘What’s to be done?’ Lady Macbeth is actually asking her husband what to do, but Macbeth tells her to ‘be innocent of the knowledge’. Macbeth is withholding information from her, and yet she is not upset. It is the beginning of the end for Lady Macbeth. She even regrets what they have done, because of the niggling doubts and insecurities she has about the safety of their position. ‘Nought’s had, all’s spent, Where our desire is got without content ‘T is safer to be that which we destroy, Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.’ (Act III, scene ii, lines 4-7) Lady Macbeth is insecure and lives in ‘doubtful joy’ despite the eagerness with which she encouraged Macbeth to kill Duncan and seize the throne. She sees now the futility of merciless ambition, for she has obtained the power she desired, but cannot enjoy it because of the guilt that accompanies it. Lady Macbeth’s sanity seems to have propelled downward very fast, but as we see nothing of her in Act IV, and know nothing of the time span in which Act IV occurred; it is hard to say how quick it happened. In Act V however, ‘Since his majesty went into the field’, says the gentle woman, Lady Macbeth has been showing signs of erratic and insane behaviour- ‘I have seen her rise from her bed, throw her night gown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon ‘t, read it, afterwards seal it, again return to bed, yet all this while in a most fast sleep.’ In Act V we can see how much Lady Macbeth has changed since the beginning of the play. For in Act I she fears the light as it might show what she was doing, e.g. ‘Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark To cry, â€Å"Hold, hold!†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ (Act I, scene v, lines 48-52) Compare that statement with this- ‘DOCTOR How came she by that light? GENTLEWOMAN Why, it stood by her: she has light by her continually; ‘t is her command’ (Act V, scene i lines 17- 19) The darkness which she asked for and rejoiced in Act I now worries her, and she must always have light by her. Light is symbolic of goodness, and darkness of evil. She also continually rubs her hands, as if to clean them. This is clarified in her speech- she keeps saying things like ‘Out, damned spot! Out I say!’ as if speaking to the mark of blood. ‘What will these hands never be clean?’ She is speaking of when her hands were coated with blood when she had to go back and smear Duncan’s on his guards. Then she said ‘a little water clears us of this deed’ Now she says ‘all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.’ In act V, scene v the queen dies. Whether she kills herself or dies of natural causes it is unknown. But as the doctor said in Act V, scene i ‘Yet I have known those which have walked in their sleep, who have died holily in their beds.’ The insane, guilty woman who died at the end of the play was a far cry from the strong, hard, ambitious woman in the beginning.