Macbeth
by William
Shakespeare
(Character
of Lady Macbeth)
Shakespeare takes great pain and care in
creating his characters. In ‘Macbeth’ Lady Macbeth is complete and developed
character. She is one of the most powerful female characters in literature.
Unlike her husband, she lacks all humanity, as we see well in her opening
scene, where she calls upon the "Spirits that tend on mortal
thoughts" to deprive her of her feminine instinct to care. She is a ‘She
Monster’. We can call her the fourth witch of ‘Macbeth’. Hers is just the
opposite character of her husband. As the play comes to its ending, we see that
Macbeth takes the place of Lady Macbeth and Lady Macbeth becomes what Macbeth
initially was.
In
the opening scenes of ‘Macbeth’ Lady Macbeth is shown a Lady strong in will, no
matter what comes the consequences. Macbeth is shown strong in his imagination
but his imagination is centered to him only whereas Lady Macbeth is entirely
devoted to her husband Macbeth. She persistently taunts her husband for his
lack of courage, even though we know of his bloody deeds on the battlefield. She
has sacrificed her conscience and womanliness for her husband. However, she is
an ambitious woman but her ambition is for her husband and not for herself. In
the play she loves her husband only who after being stable in his crime deserts
her and she is left alone. Only because of her this condition we feel pity for
her.
Lady
Macbeth has been portrayed as a powerful woman with a firm purpose. Her words
and deeds make us believe that she is monstrous. When she receives Macbeth’s
letter then only, she has decided to kill Duncan. She evokes the dark powers to
unsex her and to fill her breasts with gall. She advices her husband to be
innocent and leave all the rest to her. She drinks wine to stimulate her
nerves.
In
many respects, Lady Macbeth is more ambitious and power-hungry than her
husband, going so far as to call his manhood into question when he has second
thoughts about committing murder. She proves herself the most powerful
character of the play. For Lady Macbeth, the end is all and the means are
nothing because the end means the crown for her husband Macbeth.
Lady
Macbeth is not happy when she becomes the queen because she finds that the
crown is gemmed with blood drops. The murder of Duncan disturbs him but she
keeps herself calm and notions under control. She manages her husband’s behavior
when he sees Banquo’s ghost in the banquet. In the play she behaves queenly as
far as the outer world is concerned. She never once loses her presence of mind.
She is every inch a queen.
Lady
Macbeth receives a tragic end. In the last act the doctor and the gentlewoman
look after her. Her disturbance of mind is reflected in her ‘sleepwalking
action’. The guilt of murdering Duncan lies heavy on her soul. She keeps on
thinking the murder and becomes mad. She suppresses her conscience for the
benefit of her will. Lady Macbeth dies in a fit of insanity at her own hand. We
feel pity for her because we know that she could not even kill a fly. When she
sees Duncan sleeping on the night of his murder. She says if he had not
resembled my father as he slept, I would have done it.
Lady
Macbeth is a woman of word and not of action and she never uses daggers though
she talks of them. She excites her own temper as well as our pity. The murder
of Duncan is her first and the last crime. She did everything for her husband
who deserts her when he becomes perfect in the crime.
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