Lady Macbeth

• The ambitious wife of Macbeth.
• She encourages her husband to kill the king and she helps him to do it.

  As a result, she becomes Queen of Scotland.
• She is dominant, cunning, determined and haunted
• Duncan describes her as a gracious wife: ‘Fair and noble hostess’ and ‘most kind hostess’. She is able to deceive the king, easily.
• She is loved and trusted by Macbeth, initially: ‘my dearest partner of greatness’ and ‘my dearest chuck’.
• Macbeth compliments her strength of character, likening her to a man: ‘Bring forth men-children only; / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males’
• Malcolm has the final say on the character – likening her to the devil: ‘fiend-like queen’.
• Shakespeare does not present Lady Macbeth as an equal to Macbeth – it not their tragedy, only his. Her role, however, is vital and also supplementary to the work of the witches: Macbeth is tempted to do evil and Lady Macbeth is the key human agent – the one Macbeth loves and trusts – who ensures his temptation is thorough and complete.
• Despite her initial overpowering presence, she is not a heroine herself. This is shown when she collapses once Macbeth withdraws his confidence from her.
• Lady Macbeth’s introduction is quite chilling. Her willingness to associate herself with diabolical spirits – to ‘unsex’ herself, to be filled with cruelty and to be utterly excluded from feelings of remorse – highlight how ambitious and strong she is for a woman of her time.
• She conveys this power through her ability to convince Macbeth to kill the king, especially when she dares to call him a coward and question his manhood.
• Her inability to kill the King reminds us of how weak she really is. This is furthered after the crowning of Macbeth, when he doesn’t confide in her anymore.
• Her demise is sealed when Macbeth returns to the witches and, as a result, kills Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth cannot cope with the guilt and remorse and begins sleepwalking.
• Eventually, she dies, presumably by suicide. The fact this happens off stage and isn’t explained, coupled with Macbeth’s nonchalant reaction, reminds us of Lady Macbeth’s insignificance both as a character and as a woman in society.
• Lady Macbeth is an incredibly ambitious woman, taking charge and manipulating her husband right from the start of the play. She is ruthless in her pursuit of power, taking full control of the plot to kill King Duncan.
• As the play unfolds, she begins to suffer the ill effects of committing regicide, and deteriorates to the point that she takes her own life.
• To a certain extent, she subverts the stereotypical gender roles which were so prevalent at the time.
• "I do fear thy nature / It is too full o'th' milk of human kindness"
• "Hither / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, / And chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round"
• "The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan"
• "Come you spirits / That tens on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / of direst cruelty"
• "Come to my woman's breasts, / And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers"
• "Come thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell"
• "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, / Greater than both, by the all hail hereafter"
• "O never / Shall sun that morrow see"
• "Thy letters have transported me beyond / This ignorant present"
• "Look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under't"
• "You shall put / this night's great business into my dispatch"
• From this time / Such I account thy love"
• "What beast was't then / That made you break this enterprise to me?"
• "I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked the nipple from his boneless gums, / And dashed the brains out"
• "His two chamberlains / Will I with wine and wassail so convince, / That memory, the warder of the brain, / Shall be a fume"
• "Bring forth men children only, / For thy undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males" (Macbeth)
• "Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done't"
• "A little water clears us of this deed"
• "Naught's had, all's spent, / Where our desire is got without content"
• "Out, damned spot: out, i SAY"
• Significance: Early in the play, she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless of the two. However, she isn't as strong as Macbeth and kills herself because she cannot cope. Again, a major player in causing Macbeth to go down this particular path.