One of the main characters in the Shakespearean play Macbeth , is

his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a very two sided character in this

play. She consistently acts differently when she is around her husband than

she does when she is alone. There are many different examples of this

contained in the play.

One of the most notable examples of this is contained in Act I Scene v

when Lady Macbeth reads the letter written to her by Macbeth. Shortly after

reading it, she makes the comment that she feels Macbeth is too kind to

murder Duncan and that he will need her help, strength, and willpower to

commit it. However, after she hears that Macbeth is returning home, she calls

upon evil spirits and other demonic entities to give her some aid. She does

this because she realizes that she doesn t have the strength of will to persuade

Macbeth into murdering Duncan after all. Then, when Macbeth arrived, just

after she finished praying for help, she acts as if she has a heart of stone and

that Macbeth is not a man if he is afraid of killing Duncan. This is a prime

example of her deception towards him, and how she acts differently when she

is alone than when she is around him.

Another example of her being two sided is the role she talks about

playing in Duncan s death, and the role that she actually does play in it.

There are a few times in the play, mostly when she is attempting to persuade

Macbeth into committing the murder, that she says he should just leave the

murder to her. Throughout the play she gradually decreases her role in the

murder until it becomes Macbeth s job to kill Duncan, not hers. This is

another very large trick on her part, but one that Macbeth also fails to see;

Whether it is because he chooses not to, or because he is too naive to realize

it.

The last noteworthy example of her inconsistency occurs between Act I

Scene vii and Act II Scene ii. In Act I Scene vii she severely scolds Macbeth

for having second thoughts about committing the murder. She tries to get rid

of his rational thoughts by saying that he must not really love her if he can

change his mind on the murder, which she says he promised her he would do.

She then says that if she promised him something, even if it was as awful as

killing her newborn babe, she would do it. Despite the fact that he never

made such a promise, he once again fails to realize that she is lying to him.

She then continues by making fun of him until she has weakened his position

on the subject and he finally agrees to her plan. However, in Act II Scene ii,

when she is alone, she makes the statement that she would have killed the

sleeping Duncan had he not looked like her father. This just proves that she

isn t nearly as strong and as evil as she pretends to be around Macbeth.

In conclusion I feel that it is fairly easy to see how two sided Lady

Macbeth is. When around Macbeth she seems to have no emotions, but when

she is alone with the audience it is quite clear that that is not really true.