Lady Macbeth Essay

Macbeth In William Shakespeare‘s play, Macbeth, we see the character, Macbeth, fall to his tragic flaw. His downfall is brought on not only by his own desire for power, but is also compelled by his wife’s, Lady Macbeth, bloodthirsty aspiration for power. While Macbeth down fall is still his own fault, Lady Macbeth is the backbone of almost the entire plot to kill King Duncan. Without her encouragement, Macbeth would have never gone through with the plan to take the throne. As the play continues, we see Lady Macbeth at her peak but quickly fall to her own demise by her own hand, leaving her to be one of Shakespeare’s most notable and frightening women throughout not only his tragedies, but all of his plays. From the beginning of the play, we see the evil within Lady Macbeth, starting when she first reads Macbeth’s letter to her entailing his promotion to thaneship of Cawdor and the witches’ premonition of his and his children’s success. Lady Macbeth knows that her husband is a very ambitious person, but is too full of human kindness that she knows that he will never go forth with taking out King Duncan without some kind of push from her. As Macbeth arrives to castle and informs his wife that they will be hosting King Duncan for the night, but Lady Macbeth immediately tell her husband that the king will not see tomorrow’s light and tells him to leave the planning to her. Act one shows that while Macbeth is ambitious, Lady Macbeth is almost more ambitious than her husband. In her famous soliloquy in Act 1, scene 5 (lines 36-52), Lady Macbeth reveals to the audience that she will do anything to take the throne. This signifies that she has great strength, and is very decisive compared to her husband whom tends to waver on his decisions. The soliloquy reveals to the audience that Lady Macbeth is the true backbone to the entire plot. While Lady Macbeth is the architect behind the evil deed it is quite surprising to see her never shed anyone’s blood, but her own. While Lady Macbeth refers to masculinity in her soliloquy in scene 5, she tends to stay in the feminine role and show some slight signs of softness still. One example of this softness is in Act Two when Lady Macbeth declares “had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t”. Yet, Lady Macbeth quickly regains her harsh attitude when her husband forgets the bloody dagger in the King’s room. This shows, once again, without Lady Macbeth the plan would have fallen through, and Macbeth would have never gained the throne. While Lady Macbeth has been backbone in this play, we eventually do see the beginning of her mind’s unraveling in Act Three.

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