Lady macbeth

• Antagonist


  A character who opposes the protagonist and drives the plot forward
• Tragic heroine


  A character who starts in a position of glory and success but falls from grace due to an error in judgement of their own making
• Lady Macbeth is the wife of a Thane, so her husband owns land given to him by the king. She can't possess any land herself, but she lives in luxury and has a good reputation.
• At the time of the play, Lady Macbeth is childless and we don't see any of her family.
• After receiving a letter from Macbeth that informs her of the Witches' prophecies, Lady Macbeth is determined for Macbeth to become king.


  1. She worries that Macbeth is too tame and hesitant to do it himself, so commits to mocking and tempting him until he gives in.

  2. After Duncan's murder, she grows more anxious and blunt, but is kept out of most of her husband's actions and plots.

  3. Ultimately, she is broken by grief and guilt and takes her own life.
• Motivation


  What drives Lady Macbeth to ensure her husband becomes King
• Possible motivations for Lady Macbeth

  • Fulfilling her role as the devoted, helpful wife
  • Her own ambitions and goals
  • Wanting to be queen and reap the benefits of Macbeth's successes
  • Compensation for her lost children
• One of Shakespeare's resounding messages in the play of 'Macbeth' is that nothing is as it seems. Appearances cannot be trusted as they rarely match up with reality.
• Lady Macbeth's main role in the play

  To shake things up and cause havoc, meaning her aim is to fool and manipulate as many people as possible with her deceitful ways
• Lady Macbeth benefits hugely from the divide between appearances and reality.
• Feminine wiles


  The use of feminine charm and seduction to persuade or manipulate
• Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth over and over to make sure he puts on a facade for other people. She believes that as long as they can maintain their deceitful masks, they will get away with murder and so much more.
• Lady Macbeth transfers her desires and plans into Macbeth. Though Macbeth is the one acting and killing, he is fulfilling Lady Macbeth's wishes.
• Lady Macbeth's gender identity is ambiguous. On the outside, she looks feminine, but if her spells were successful, then she is wombless and full of gall on the inside.
• Lady Macbeth isn't even fully honest to her husband. Only we, the audience, know the extent of her plots and motivations.
• As the plot develops, Lady Macbeth's own sense of self deteriorates. Her suffering, torment, and hallucinations could all be side effects of her fragmented self.
• Femme fatale


  A mysterious and seductive woman who uses her charm to ensnare men and lead them into dangerous or deadly situations
• Shakespeare uses the aspects of the femme fatale archetype in the character of Lady Macbeth. She threatens to emasculate Macbeth, and uses her power over him as his wife to get her own way.
• The Fall


  An archetype where a character descends from a higher to a lower state, often because something happens to them that means they lose their innocence and happiness
• There are many parallels between Lady Macbeth's story, the archetype of 'The Fall', and the Biblical tale of the Garden of Eden.
• Arthurian Legend


  The legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, seen as examples for ideal kingship and chivalry
• Lady Macbeth takes a similar role to Morgan le Fay: she is the lover of the story's main hero, but she is also his downfall.
• Maternal mortality


  How common it was for a woman to die from pregnancy, childbirth, or the period after birth
• Within her marriage, Lady Macbeth is a dominant figure with her own clear identity and purpose. Outside of her marriage, she is viewed only as Macbeth's wife and a good host.
• Gender nonconformity


  Behaviour or identity that does not conform to prevailing cultural and social expectations about gender
• Lady Macbeth plays a pivotal role in Macbeth's perception of his own gender. Her highly critical attacks on his manhood, and her perception of masculinity as violent, drives Macbeth to murder and tyranny.
• Lady Macbeth is a very unconventional female character by traditional and Jacobean standards. She is given multiple soliloquies - something that usually only male characters were allowed.
• Lady Macbeth


  • Her wish to be "unsex[ed]" and made cruel is questionable
  • After Duncan's murder, she loses a lot of her confidence
  • Her ambition disappears, and she is fixated on her paranoia
  • Her ambition was all bravado
  • She commits herself entirely to her ambition
  • She abandons all hopes of virtue or salvation by calling upon evil spirits
• Lady Macbeth's ambition


  It isn't the issue, but the way she embraces its control
• Lady Macbeth doesn't care for morality and natural order
• Lady Macbeth


  • She is instrumental in planting the idea of murder in Macbeth's head
  • She speaks in rhyming couplets while persuading Macbeth
  • Her relationship with appearance vs. reality is similar to the Witches'
• Lady Macbeth's subversion of femininity


  In Jacobean times, more than enough evidence that she was a witch
• Lady Macbeth could be called the 'creator of evil' in Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth's methods to manipulate Macbeth

  They hold explicit links to the supernatural
• Lady Macbeth's quote "pour [her] spirits in [his] ear"


  An allusion to demonic possession
• Shakespeare associates the Fall of Man with seduction, femininity, and the supernatural
• Lady Macbeth


  • Guilt and remorse are the undoing of her, leading her to her death
  • Her mind is her enemy
  • Her ambition took her down violent paths that she couldn't cope with
  • Guilt and regret are the most destructive consequences of her ambition
• At first, Lady Macbeth shows no signs of guilt or remorse
• Lady Macbeth's words "a little water clears us of this deed"


  They come back to bite her as she repeatedly tries to wash invisible blood off her hands
• Lady Macbeth never refers explicitly to the murder or to blood: she uses euphemisms