Lady Macbeth Character Analysis

Cunning. Ambitious. Intelligent. Beautiful. Some might say that Lady Macbeth has it all, but does she really? The female lead of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is known to be the one of Shakespeare’s most elaborate and fleshed out characters and also one of the most ruthless and frightening female leads the famous playwright has ever introduced to an audience. I have chosen this high lady to analyze because she is such a complex character with many layers to unfold. She is not just the wife of a nobleman, she is a ruthless woman who follows her ambitions, even though they might be morally wrong, and is not afraid to work against the patriarchy by showing that women can in fact be stronger and crueler than most men.

We are first introduced to Lady Macbeth late in the fifth scene of the first act, where she reads a letter her husband sent her relaying his meeting with three witches, who’s prophecies lead him to believe that he will be king in the near future, and announcing that Duncan, the king of Scotland at the time, will be visiting them at their castle. In that same scene, she starts plotting Duncan’s death and demise. This gives us some great insight into her mind and also tells us a great deal about her as a character. We can easily deduce from this scene that she is power-hungry and wants to climb the social ladder as the first thing that comes to mind for her is committing regicide and becoming queen. Another side of her is also revealed to us in the fifth scene when she says “Yet do I fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness.” This uncovers her thoughts and feelings towards Macbeth’s bravery and strength. She decides that she has to take charge and do whatever it takes to make these prophecies come true, because in her eyes, Macbeth is too weak and not ruthless enough to commit such a heartless crime. Later in that same scene she asks the “Spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts” to “unsex her”, meaning she wants them to remove her feminine traits, although she is already looked at as a fairly masculine character, which are looked at as weak during the 11th century, so she can successfully plant and go through with murdering the king.

As the play progresses, we get to see Lady Macbeth take on a more manic and power hungry role in the cast. She begins to control and manipulate Macbeth in many ways to fulfill the plan she  has made. We see this first when the couple meets face to face for the first time during the play. Lady Macbeth seems very eager and excited to discuss the king’s demise with her husband, but settles on giving him, and indirectly giving herself, a small piece of advice first. “Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under ’t.” Many things are uncovered in this little quote. We see that Lady Mcabeth is trying to fit into the role of the normal 11th century lady by acting innocent and sweet while covering up her true plans of evil and murder underneath. The ‘serpent’ mentioned in the quote also has some religious connotation as it represents the devil in a way, thus describing herself and her husband as devilish people. In addition, this extract plays into one of the major themes found in the play, the difference between the way things appear and the way they are in reality, which was introduced to us in the first scene of the first act with the quote “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” We also figure out the relationship dynamic at that moment, which puts Lady Macbeth in charge while Macbeth is more of a submissive. We also find out who is in charge of the relationship’s affairs and who holds the upper hand: Lady Macbeth. This is shown to us through the command words she uses when talking to her husband; “look” is used in the quote above, as well as “come”, “wake” and many others which appear later on throughout the play. She also refers to Macbeth as “My Thane” which shows possession and complete control over him. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth is equipped with a very effective manipulation tactic which is used plenteously before the killing of Duncan. The serpent-like lady questions her Thane of a husband, Macbeth’s masculinity and love towards her whenever he begins to stray away from their original plan or even starts to question her. We see this at the end of Act one when she says “From this time/ such I account thy love,” which implies that if he loves her then he wouldn’t even think before killing Duncan. She also calls Macbeth “coward”, “green”, and “pale” when he expressed his discomfort towards the killing, making him feel that the thoughts running through his head are cowardly.We can see her emasculating Macbeth when she says “Was the hope drunk?” and “when you durst do it, then you were a man.”

...