Lady Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth at the play's outset

  • Ambitious - has a thirst for power unmatched even by Macbeth, calls on evil spirits to help her achieve it
  • Ruthless - will do anything to gain power, lacks conscience to question committing regicide, would have "dashed out the brains" of her own baby
  • Duplicitous - warmly greets Duncan knowing he will be murdered
  • Controlling - plans to commit regicide, dominates her husband Macbeth
• Lady Macbeth is shown to be thoroughly untypical of a woman in the Jacobean era
• How Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as subverting typical attributes of women of that time

  • Not dutiful - does not do what her husband tells her, not loyal to her king
  • Not compassionate - wants to stop herself from feeling remorse for evil acts
  • Not nurturing - wants to replace mother's milk with "gall": courage or poison
• Lady Macbeth is a less complex character than Macbeth, she does not have the same feelings of doubt or pangs of conscience that Macbeth does
• As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth loses control of:

  1. Her resolve - finally realises the true extent of her crime and its eternal consequences

  2. Her relationship - Macbeth does not share his plans with her after Act II and becomes the dominant force

  3. Her mind - begins hallucinating blood, cannot stop walking and talking in her sleep, tormented by guilt and commits suicide
• Shakespeare presents a role reversal in the traditional husband and wife relationship


  However, as the play progresses, Macbeth assumes the traditional, dominant role in their relationship
• Shakespeare could be suggesting that because she is a woman, Lady Macbeth is less capable of handling the power that comes with being a king or queen
• Shakespeare could also be comparing Lady Macbeth - as a woman - to the evil influence of the witches

  She is 'unnatural', just like the witches are, because of her untypical attributes and her dominance over Macbeth