3.2.2
Manipulative & Disturbed
Lady Macbeth - Secretive and Manipulative
Lady Macbeth - Secretive and Manipulative
Lady Macbeth seems to be very good at hiding her true thoughts and is portrayed as a manipulative character from the start.
Secretive
Secretive
- Lady Macbeth seems to be very good at hiding her true thoughts.
- She proves this when she greets King Duncan in Act 1, Scene 6. He refers to her as 'honoured hostess' many times. This repeatedly emphasises that she is supposed to protect him in her home.
- Shakespeare is using dramatic irony here: the audience know that she plans to kill him, but she meets him with kind words and welcome. King Duncan seems to completely trust his friends.
- Her manipulative and secretive nature highlights her as a villain in the story. She wants her husband to murder the king purely so they can become more powerful.
Manipulative (towards Macbeth)
Manipulative (towards Macbeth)
- When Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that they will no longer kill King Duncan, she tries to change his mind by manipulating him.
- At first, she attacks his courage. She asks him if he plans to live his life in fear: 'live a coward in thine own esteem' (1,7).
- She then tells him that he has broken a promise to her. She says she would rather murder her own child than go back on her word to him.
Manipulative (towards others)
Manipulative (towards others)
- Lady Macbeth drugs the guards outside King Duncan's chamber and puts their daggers ready for the murder. In this way, she manipulates the murder scene itself to make sure that Macbeth will not be blamed.
- She even thought about killing the king herself: 'Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done ‘t' (2,2).
- This is interesting because it shows that she has some softer emotion - a love for her father.
Lady Macbeth - Mentally Disturbed
Lady Macbeth - Mentally Disturbed
By Act 5, Lady Macbeth seems to have gone mad from the murders. She begins sleepwalking among other things.
Sleepwalks
Sleepwalks
- The doctor and a gentlewoman who works as Lady Macbeth's lady-in-waiting see her sleepwalking (Act 5, Scene 1).
- Sleepwalking was seen as a sign that someone was possessed by a demon. So a Jacobean (during the reign of James I of England) audience might have thought that this was because Lady Macbeth invited the spirits into her at the start of the play.
- Sleepwalking here is also the sign of a distressed mind. The doctor later tells Macbeth, 'Not so sick, my lord, / As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies / That keep her from her rest' (5,3).
Regrets when she sleeps?
Regrets when she sleeps?
- Lady Macbeth has already said that she doesn’t feel guilty about the murder of King Duncan when she is awake. But she seems to be acting out of regret when she sleeps: 'Here's the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand' (5,1).
- Shakespeare could be suggesting that we cannot escape from the consequences of our actions. Sometimes, we have to admit to our faults and deal with them – otherwise, like Lady Macbeth, they will haunt us.
- Even though Lady Macbeth comes across as a somewhat evil, cruel character, she does have a human side that struggles to deal with the reality of what she has done.
Language in sleep
Language in sleep
- The structure here (5,1) moves into prose (ordinary language without a metre), rather than the usual iambic pentameter that Shakespeare writes in.
- Shakespeare might be doing this to show how her speech is fluid (free) and doesn’t have structure. This would suggest that it is more natural and honest.
- When she is sleeping, Lady Macbeth loses the mask of innocence that she normally wears when she is awake.
Blood on hands
Blood on hands
- Lady Macbeth seems haunted by the blood on her hands – the same blood she said did not bother her in Act 2, Scene 2: 'Out damned spot! Out, I say!' (5,1).
- She is trying to order the blood to leave her hands. This makes it seem like she is permanently marked by it. The blood isn't real - it is a symbol of the guilt that she feels over the murder.
Lady Macbeth's Death
Lady Macbeth's Death
In Act 5, Scene 5, when Macbeth is preparing for Malcolm's army to advance on the castle, there is a stage direction: 'A cry of women within'. This is the moment that Lady Macbeth dies. It is not seen on stage, and Seyton tells Macbeth that the queen is dead.
Suicide and sin
Suicide and sin
- At the end, Malcolm tells those surrounding them that Lady Macbeth, 'by self and violent hands / Took off her own life' (5,9). This suggests that she killed herself.
- Suicide was seen as a sin. But by this stage, Lady Macbeth has already damned (condemned) her immortal soul by being involved in the plot to kill King Duncan. It’s unlikely that she fears this happening.
- When she was sleepwalking, she said 'Hell is murky' (5,1). This may suggest that she is already existing in a sort of hell.
Humanity
Humanity
- The human side of Lady Macbeth comes through with her apparent suicide – she cannot live with the guilt of what she has done, and so only sees one solution: suicide.
- For Lady Macbeth, life is no longer an option because she cannot escape the horrible guilt about her role in the murders.
- Audiences may feel some sympathy for Lady Macbeth, as Jacobean audiences would know that suicide was a very last resort (because it was an unforgivable sin) – the suicide shows that she does have some humanity.
1Literary & Cultural Context
2Plot Summary
3Characters
3.1Macbeth
3.2Lady Macbeth
3.3Other Characters
3.4Grade 9 - Key Characters
4Themes
4.1Themes
4.2Grade 9 - Themes
5Writer's Techniques
5.1Structure, Meter & Other Literary Techniques
Jump to other topics
1Literary & Cultural Context
2Plot Summary
3Characters
3.1Macbeth
3.2Lady Macbeth
3.3Other Characters
3.4Grade 9 - Key Characters
4Themes
4.1Themes
4.2Grade 9 - Themes
5Writer's Techniques
5.1Structure, Meter & Other Literary Techniques
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