Lady Macbeth is one of the most contrasting characters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth; in the beginning of the play, she is greedy and selfish for her husband and herself. She was presented by Shakespeare as a devious, plotting character, who, it seems, is willing to go to any length to become superior.
In Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth, having just read Macbeth’s letter, describes her husband as being ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness,’ to be successful. She knows about the witches’ prophecy and also knows that, in order for it to happen, Duncan must be killed. Eager to gain power, she persuades her doubtful husband to murder Duncan, leaving them to reign over Scotland, as King and Queen.
After reading the letter, confident Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to forget about his conscience and do what she wants, to allow them to become royalty. ‘Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valour of my tongue.’ This presents her as a controlling, manipulative person. She calls upon the spirits; ‘Unsex me here.’ As a woman, she believes she could not possibly be cruel enough to murder. ‘Fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty.’ She begs all of the evil spirits to fill her with spite and aggression, which she believes to be masculine characteristics. Although she wants this brutality, she also calls upon the ‘thick night’, so as to hide her wickedness from heaven and let her remain a good person. Perhaps this is a sign that Lady Macbeth, even in this particularly evil speech, does have some sense of right and wrong. She knows, in asking to be hidden from heaven, that it is an immoral act, but, despite this, continues to plan the murder. Shakespeare builds up this speech; ‘Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, to cry ‘Hold, hold.’’ Hiding her thoughts from heaven would not only let her remain innocent in God’s eyes, but also would prevent any unearthly presence from stopping the murder.
In Act 2, Scene 2, after the murder, Lady Macbeth tells her husband ‘My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white,’ saying that she had committed murder, just like Macbeth, but she calls him a coward, as if she looks down on his guilt. She had also told her husband to ‘go get some water and wash this filthy witness from your hand,’ as if, by washing his hands of the blood, he could almost rid himself of any guilt and no longer have had anything to do with it. ‘A little water clears us of this deed.’ However, in Act 5, Scene 1, Lady Macbeth develops an obsession with cleaning her hands of a ‘damned spot’ of blood, as if she cannot stop thinking about the murder and the responsibility she holds over Duncan’s death. She no longer finds that she can just wash her hands and forget about the wrongdoing. Later in the play, she is almost how Macbeth had been, earlier on. After the murder, he said ‘To know my deed, ‘twere best not know myself,’ but his wife had been carefree, ‘how easy it is then!’ While, in Act 5, Scene 1, the audience see how hard it really is for her.
‘Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’ Lady Macbeth tries to wash her hands of his ‘blood,’ but cannot stop the image of how they had looked. Lady Macbeth relives the night of Duncan’s murder, in her head, calling ‘To bed, to bed; there’s a knocking at the gate,’ just like on the night, when she was telling Macbeth to go to bed and put on his nightgown, as if they were innocent, and when Macduff is knocking at the gate, that night. Even when the doctor and gentlewoman are speaking, she appears to pay no attention and Shakespeare continues to express her troubled mind.
‘The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?’ Lady Macbeth also feels guilty from the murder of Lady Macduff. ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth’s hand-cleaning ritual to express the guilt she feels; first with Duncan, then with Macduff. She also mentions Banquo, ‘he cannot come out on’s grave,’ trying to reassure herself that she is safe.
In conclusion, the audience sees a transformation from Lady Macbeth being strong and confident to ridden with guilt and resentment, from the start of the play to Act 5, Scene 1.