Benjamin W. Cheng

Princeton University '00

LADY MACBETH: NOT AS EVIL AS SHE APPEARS TO BE

In many of his plays, William Shakespeare portrays women as more virtuous than

men. For example, in Othello, we see the stark contrast between Desdemona's tender love

and her husband's jealous vengeance. Similarly, in The Winter's Tale, we witness

Hermione patiently enduring her miserable plight at the hands of the raging Leontes.

Furthermore, we notice that very few of Shakespeare's villains are female. Indeed, in

several of his works, Shakespeare seems to support the view that women are by nature

tender, loving, and incapable of the evils which men often commit. Upon a first reading,

Macbeth appears to run counter to this common image of women, for in this tragedy, we

see a cunning Lady Macbeth plotting to kill the King of Scotland. Her ruthlessness in

pressuring Macbeth to carry out the murder leads us to believe that Lady Macbeth directly

contradicts the above stereotype. However, a closer reading of Macbeth reveals that the

play actually upholds this view of women as naturally loving and good, for although Lady

Macbeth appears capable of boundless evil, she in fact is not.

Throughout the play, Shakespeare employs various gender-related metaphors to

portray women as kind and loving by nature. One of the symbols he uses is milk, a

substance we normally associate with femininity. As we read Macbeth, we notice that

every time the word "milk" appears, Shakespeare equates it with virtuous qualities such

as tenderness and concord. We first encounter this symbol in a speech by Lady Macbeth

in Act I Scene v, immediately after she reads Macbeth's letter describing the witches'

prophecy that he will become king. As she plots the assassination of King Duncan, Lady

Macbeth expresses concern that her husband's nature is "too full o' th' milk of human

kindness" to "catch the nearest way" (Macbeth, ed. Sylvan Barnet [New York: Signet

Classic, 1963], 1.5.18-19). She further laments that although Macbeth harbors the

ambition to become king, he is without the "illness" necessary to carry out Duncan's

murder (1.5.21). In this context, Shakespeare uses the word "milk" to represent "human

kindness" and a lack of "illness," indirectly suggesting that women are by nature loving

rather than ruthless. We see a similar implication in Act IV Scene iii, in which Malcolm

deceives Macduff about his true nature. According to the young Prince of Cumberland,

because he is guilty of such vices as lust and greed, he would "pour the sweet milk of

concord into hell" (4.3.98). By establishing that his vices are incompatible with the

qualities of "sweet milk," Malcolm in effect depicts milk and vice as antithetical

concepts. Thus, through this metaphor of milk, Shakespeare relates femininity not only

with kindness and love, but also with virtues such as sweetness, concord, and innocence.

Besides portraying women as tender and loving, Shakespeare also suggests that

they are incapable of the evils which men often commit. We see this implication most

clearly in a speech by Lady Macbeth in Act I Scene v, in which she invokes supernatural

aid in her resolution to seize the Scottish crown. In this passage, Lady Macbeth attempts

to transcend her femininity by calling on spirits to "unsex" her (1.5.42). To her, being

"unsexed" means "[stopping] up th' access and passage to remorse" so that "compunctious

visitings of nature" cannot interfere with her plan (1.5.45-46). By referring to her pangs of

conscience as "compunctious visitings of nature" (italics mine) which can be repressed

only through the loss of her femininity, Lady Macbeth implies that as a woman, she is too

conscientious to be capable of committing such a savage crime. Only by transcending her

womanly nature can Lady Macbeth carry out her murderous plans without interference

from her conscience. We see a similar portrayal of femininity when she calls upon the

"murd'ring ministers" to "come to my woman's breasts" and "take my milk for gall"

(1.5.48-49). Lady Macbeth's need to exchange her milk for gall suggests to us that as a

milk-bearing female, she does not possess the bitter cruelty necessary to assassinate the

king. Indeed, she must first be filled "from the crown to the toe" with "direst cruelty"

before she is able to carry out her plan (1.5.43-44). Thus, through Lady Macbeth's speech,

Shakespeare implies that women are too conscientious and loving by nature to commit

murder. Only by losing her femininity could a woman be capable of such evil deeds.

The ruthlessness and bold resolution Lady Macbeth exhibits appears to challenge

this virtuous portrayal of womanly nature. As we see in Act I Scene vii, she relentlessly

pressures her husband to cooperate in her plan to murder Duncan in his sleep. When

Macbeth expresses his reluctance, she tauntingly questions his manhood, suggesting that

he is even more "womanly" than his wife. Furthermore, to prove her own ruthlessness,

Lady Macbeth declares that she is willing to "[pluck her] nipple from [a baby's] boneless

gums" and "[dash] the [baby's] brains out" (1.7.57-58). Her bold claims seemingly reveal

that Lady Macbeth is completely devoid of the loving and tender qualities we associate

with femininity. At the same time, we also notice that Lady Macbeth never seems to

suffer from the pangs of conscience which constantly afflict her husband. Indeed, her

resolution impresses Macbeth so much that he declares to her: "thy undaunted mettle

should compose nothing but males" (1.7.73-74). Through these words, Macbeth suggests

that his wife's ruthlessness and lack of compunction can only characterize a man, for it is

against a woman's nature to possess such qualities. Thus, Lady Macbeth's behavior

appears to directly contradict Shakespeare's notion of femininity.

Despite her apparent capacity for evil, however, a close examination of Lady

Macbeth's words and actions reveals that she is not as wicked as she seems. At the

beginning of Act II Scene ii, after she has drugged the king's bodyguards, Lady Macbeth

declares that the wine "which hath made [the guards] drunk hath made me bold" (2.2.1).

In this case, however, her definition of "bold" apparently means waiting in the anteroom

while her husband commits the actual murder. As we recall, in order to elicit Macbeth's

consent to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth had mocked his manhood, suggesting that he was

even more "womanly" than she. Yet, when she is in the same room with the sleeping king

while planting the daggers, she herself cannot carry out the deed. Despite her claims of

being ruthless enough to kill her own baby, she is incapable of murdering Duncan

because he "resembled [her] father as he slept" (2.2.12-13). At this point, we begin to

notice an obvious contradiction between the bold assertions she makes in front of her

husband and the words she utters in private. Similarly, throughout the play, Lady

Macbeth pretends not to suffer from the pangs of conscience which afflict her husband.

Indeed, immediately after the king's assassination and during the banquet in Act III Scene

iv, we marvel at the stark contrast between her steely composure and Macbeth's fearful

histrionics. Despite her seeming lack of conscience, however, we learn in Act V Scene i

that Lady Macbeth does in fact endure the "compunctious visitings of nature." As she

sleepwalks, Lady Macbeth wails that "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this

little hand" (5.1.43-44). Through her lamentation, Lady Macbeth not only reveals that her

"heart is sorely charged," but by using the words "sweeten" and "little," she also exhibits

the very femininity she had appeared to lack (5.1.46). This revelation of Lady Macbeth's

troubled conscience, coupled with her inability to murder Duncan, exposes her self-

proclaimed ruthlessness as a mere facade. Although Lady Macbeth appears to contradict

Shakespeare's portrayal of womanly nature, she in fact does not.

Despite our initial impression that Lady Macbeth is a purely evil character, we

discover that her wickedness is more self-proclaimed than real. By showing us the

conscience and timidity she harbors under her evil facade, Shakespeare emphasizes that

women -- even Lady Macbeth -- are loving and compassionate by nature. Shakespeare's

virtuous portrayal of femininity in Macbeth and other plays may simply reflect a desire to

conform to a widely held view of women during the early seventeenth century.

Furthermore, Lady Macbeth's inability to truly transcend her womanly qualities may

suggest Shakespeare's belief that human nature cannot be suppressed. Regardless of what

his reasons were, however, Shakespeare's portrayal of Lady Macbeth definitely serves as

an example of how even the most ruthless seeming villains may possess natural virtues.