Essay, Research Paper: CHARACTERIZATION OF LADY MACBETH

Ambition can inhibit ones personality to be decisive and ruthless. When opportunity

knocks one can go to great lengths to gain power by any means necessary. Shakespeare's

Macbeth which sets in eleventh century Scotland during the war with Norway, tells of a tale of an

ambitious general, Macbeth, usurps the throne of Scotland to become a malevolent king who

will stop at nothing to ensure his power which then later leads to his downfall, relates to such

subjects. The character of Lady Macbeth, the wife and coconspirator of Macbeth, is often

characterized as ambitious and ruthless, but Shakespeare reveals certain clues in which show a

less harsher side. Within her composure, relationship with Macbeth, and ultimately her death

these clues are revealed.

Lady Macbeth seems to be a woman of great nobility by her composure, but an

underlying ambition is revealed through her actions. Duncan ,the king of Scotland whose throne

is taken by Macbeth, greets Lady Macbeth as a "fair and noble hostess" (1. 6. 24) which shows

her gracious and outward appearance toward Duncan. In the scene in which Macbeth goes mad

when seeing the ghost of Banquo, Macbeth's friend who is later killed by Macbeth, Lady

Macbeth retains her composure and saves Macbeth from further emberassment by saying :

..My lord is often thus,

And hath been from his youth. Pray you keep seat.

The fit is momentary; upon a thought

He will again be well, If much you note him,..

(3. 4. 53-56)

Lady Macbeth's play-acting is meant to hide the true nature of Macbeth's outburst by saying he

has been doing such things when he was a youth. In Lady Macbeth's composure she creates a

facade in which hides her ruthlessness.

The relationship with her husband can be seen as being decisive and demanding but clues

of certain actions or inaction's show a less harsher side. In the scene 2 of act 2 Lady Macbeth's

ambition can be shown by her overwhelming will of pushing Macbeth into killing Duncan, but

her inactions can show her remorseful side.

Alack, I am afraid they have awaked

And 'tis not done! Th' attempt and not the deed

Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;

He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled

My father as he slept, I had done't.

(2. 2. 9-13)

Lady Macbeth being unable to kill Duncan can be interpreted as her showing remorse.

The madness that Lady Macbeth goes through before her death ultimately reveals the

remorseful and guilty side in which her ruthlessness hid. An example of the change from the

ambitious to remorseful is the doctor scene in which in previous scenes Lady Macbeth states:

"Come thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell," (1. 5. 50-51) where Lady

Macbeth welcomed darkness, but she now finds the darkness fearful when she says " Hell is

murky" (5. 1. 35) The revealing of Lady Macbeth's remorse is apparent in her madness.

The Characterization of Lady Macbeth by Shakespeare is complex in that she has sides

which can have an outward appearance of harshness but at the same time show the human side

which is less apparent.