lady macbeth essay lc

Macbeth: Full Guide for Leaving Cert English

• Post author: Martina
• Post published: December 5, 2017
• Post category: English / Macbeth - Single Text

With our guide on Macbeth, you will get: ✔access to the key LC English skills video ✔access to 625Lab: we will give you feedback on one typed up essay corrected.…

Leaving Cert Macbeth: Essential Quotations

• Post published: October 16, 2017

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Macbeth Plot Summary

• Post published: August 29, 2016
• Post category: Macbeth - Single Text

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Macbeth Sample Essay: Kingship

• Post published: August 30, 2012

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Macbeth: driven by ruthless ambition and tortured by regret

• Post published: April 26, 2012

SHAKESPEARE'S MACBETH INVITES US TO LOOK INTO THE WORLD OF A MAN DRIVEN ON BY RUTHLESS AMBITION AND TORTURED BY REGRET.You may also like: Full Notes on Macbeth (€)The essay title…

Macbeth Sample Essay Plan: Power

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Macbeth Sample Essay: Evil and Violence

• Post published: April 25, 2012

The language of the play “Macbeth” contributes to the creating of the atmosphere of evil and violence which pervades the play.Discuss this statement with reference to the play.Click here for…

Macbeth Sample Essay: Atmosphere of Evil

The language of the play “Macbeth” contributes to the creating of the atmosphere of evil and violence which pervades the play. Discuss this statement with reference to the play. Essay…

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Tag Archives: Lady Macbeth

Lady macbeth jigsaw.

Recently, I decided there were 3 things I’d really like all of my students (not just those who always get A’s) to understand about essay writing. They were

STANCE – you have to take up a position, interpret events, offer an opinion. The same facts can lead to different conclusions for different people (mostly agree, balanced view, mostly disagree)

STRUCTURE – you must create tightly woven paragraphs, with depth, flow and sophistication. See the “ perfect paragraph project ” for a simplified version of this idea.

SEQUENCE – for character and theme essays you’ll probably follow the chronological order of the play. You don’t have to, but it probably helps to follow the order in which events unfold. Also, starting with the murder of Lady Macduff, then jumping back to Duncan’s murder, then hopping to the sleepwalking scene and then back to the Banquet scene wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, now would it? The danger here is that you need to avoid telling the story . ONLY include details relevant to answering the question.

(WARNING: certain questions require a non-chronological response, for example “ Relevance to a Modern Audience ” or “ Shakespeare’s play offers a dark and pessimistic view of human nature ” because each paragraph will most likely focus on a different character or theme or scene).

To teach these concepts, I came up with the following lesson, designed for a double class period:

Below you’ll find 15 paragraphs on Lady Macbeth all mixed up in no particular order. 

5 of them, arranged in the correct sequence, create an essay which takes a very positive interpretation of her motivations and behaviour.

5 of them, arranged in the correct sequence, create an essay which takes a balanced view of her motivations and behaviour.

5 of them, arranged in the correct sequence, create an essay which basically slates her! 

I didn’t include introductions or conclusions – I felt that would makes the ‘ jigsaw ‘ too easy.

I gave the fifteen paragraphs, out of sequence, to my Leaving Certs. I asked them to decide which 5 paragraphs belonged in the positive essay; the balanced essay; and the negative essay. (Thus they were reading for a specific purpose)

Then they had to arrange them in the correct order. As they completed the exercise, I gave them a photocopy of each essay in the correct sequence so they could check the correct order and see how they’d done.

Next I asked them to highlight any words/phrases or ideas they didn’t understand and I explained what they meant. (Again, reading for a specific purpose)

Their next challenge was to figure out what the essay title was!

Finally, I gave them 3 essay titles. For homework they had to select one and write an essay as a response.

Here are the essay titles I gave them:

“ Lady Macbeth is the architect of her own downfall ” – Discuss

“ We feel little pity for Lady Macbeth in the early stages of the play, but as her remorse grows, so does our sympathy for her ” – Discuss

“ Lady Macbeth is motivated by selfish ambition and lacks a moral conscience ” – To what extent do you agree with this assessment of her character?

Below you’ll find the paragraphs in mixed up sequence:

Lady Macbeth did not make a positive first impression on me. She sees nagging as a form of bravery, vowing to “ chastise [Macbeth] with the valour of [her] tongue ” and views kindness as a weakness, criticising her husband for being “ too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way ”. This moral confusion and inability to distinguish between right and wrong makes her in some ways similar to the witches who claim that “ fair is foul and foul is fair ”. However, unlike them, evil does not come easily to her – she knows she will need help to behave in an immoral way, hence her demand “ come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts…. fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty ”. Furthermore, she may be doing the wrong thing but she’s doing it for the right reasons: she is utterly devoted to her husband. She knows he wants to be King but may not be willing to do what she feels is necessary to realise this goal (“ thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition but without the illness should attend it ”)  and hates the thought that he might live to regret his inaction in the face of the prophecy. Thus, although I don’t approve morally of Lady Macbeth’s behaviour I found it easy to understand her, to empathise with her motivation and thus to like her somewhat despite her flaws.

From the very first moment she appeared on stage, Lady Macbeth struck me as a manipulative, domineering wife with zero moral conscience. She immediately jumps to the conclusion that they will have to engage in acts of “ direst cruelty ” in order for Macbeth to become King, despite the fact that her husband never suggests that they use violence to achieve “ what greatness is promised”.  This evil streak is further evident in her commentary on her husbands’ personality: she views his humanity and empathy as negative traits, describing that fact that he is “ too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way ” as a weakness. Her eagerness to “ pour my spirits in [Macbeth’s] ear ”, her willingness to be possessed by evil spirits (“ come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here… ”) and her delight in embracing the darkness (“ come thick night and pall thee in the funnest smoke of hell ”) are all to me strong evidence of her fundamentally immoral outlook and domineering personality. I certainly would not like to be married to her. 

Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter about the witches prophesy introduced me to a devoted wife who will go to any lengths to help her husband achieve his potential. Her belief that her husband is “ too full of the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way ” and lacks the ruthlessness necessary to fulfil his ambitions is what drives her on. She is determined to “ chastise [him] with the valour of [her] tongue ” because she hates the idea that her husband will one day look back on his life and feel as if he let opportunities for greatness pass him by. It’s also clear that Lady Macbeth in not inherently evil – she in no ways relishes the idea of committing the sin of regicide. In fact, she knows she will need to be possessed in order to see it through, hence she proclaims “ come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty ”. Thus, my initial reaction to Lady Macbeth was quite positive: here was a woman willing to do whatever it took to support her husband in achieving his dream of one day becoming King.

Whilst some critics point to Lady Macbeth’s failure to carry out the actual murder, this does not endear her to me. Duncan’s coincidental similarity to her father (“ Hath he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t ”) is not enough to make her re-consider their plan. She fakes comforting words (“ these deeds must not be thought of after these ways; so, it will make us mad” ) to try and snap Macbeth out of his reverie but in my opinion she is motivated entirely by self-interest here – she doesn’t want them to get caught. Her lack of compassion reappears as she lambasts her husband for bringing the murder weapon from the crime scene ( ”infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers ”) and without hesitation, she returns to Duncan’s chamber to “ gild the faces of the grooms ” with blood, thus framing them for the murder. She will do whatever it takes to get away with murder, including her false fainting spell, designed to draw attention away from Macbeth. She is a selfish, ruthless, immoral individual whose lack of empathy or remorse is best summed up in her flippant remark “ a little water clears us of this deed ”. As you can see, I do not like this woman, nor do I buy into the notion that she is guiltless simply because she did not “ bear the knife [herself] ”.  

However, ultimately I found myself devastated to witness her intense suffering during the sleepwalking scene, and this I took as proof that despite her significant flaws, I had grown fond of her. I found her horror as she relived their crimes (“ the Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now? ”) and her devastating realisation she would never again be free of this guilt (“ All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand ”) truly heartbreaking. She made a mistake and this mistake destroyed her, her marriage, her happiness and her future. Thus I liked her despite her flaws, yet I could nonetheless understand why Malcolm described her as a “ fiend-like queen ” given the havoc and destruction wrought upon Scotland by her and Macbeth’s crimes.

This devotion to her husband is again evident when she convinces him to murder Duncan. Although her tactics are quite manipulative (suggesting he doesn’t truly love her if he doesn’t keep his promise) Lady Macbeth is once again concerned only for the regret he will feel if he backs out now. She warns him that he will have to “ live a coward in thine own esteem ” forever and worries about the negative impact this would have on his self-esteem. Her obsession with Macbeth’s future happiness is actually quite easy to understand. Firstly, she loves her husband. Secondly, she knows that he is deeply ambitious. Thirdly, it’s possible that she feels guilty that she has not provided him with a living heir; after all, a woman’s role in this era was primarily to get married and produce children. We know they have had at least one child (“ I have given suck and know how tender tis to love the babe that milks me” ) who, for reasons unknown, has died. It is possible that she feels guilty that she has failed to fulfil his dream to be a father and this in turn has made her doubly determined to see him achieve his other life’s goal, which is to be King. She may be convincing him to do the wrong thing, but she is doing it for good reasons and as a result I could not help but like her. 

The sleepwalking scene is generally highlighted as the moment of greatest empathy and connection between the audience and Lady Macbeth but I personally found myself unmoved by her suffering. Yes, she is reliving their crimes, which is no doubt unpleasant, but she also reminds us here of her part in convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan (“ Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier and afeard? ”) and of her filthy smearing of his royal blood on the chamberlains ( “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? ”). In this context, is it any surprise that she asks the question “ what will these hands ne’er be clean? ” In my opinion, it is about time that the horror of her crimes registered with her properly, but it stretches the bounds of human empathy too far to expect me to feel pity for this “ fiend-like queen ”.

My fondness for Lady Macbeth increased tenfold when her intense remorse finally surfaced. She learns too late that “ a little water ” will be wholly inadequate to clear them of this deed as she realises that “ noughts had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content ”. I empathised with her deep suffering as she began to envy Duncan’s peaceful sleep of death, observing sadly “ tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy ”. Yet she conceals her inner turmoil from her husband, pretending that everything’s fine so that he won’t worry about her. Her desire to comfort and protect him never wanes as she advises him that “ things without all remedy should be without regard ”. Even as he pushes her away (“ Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck ”) she continues to protect him, both during the banquet (“ Sit worthy friends, my lord is often thus and hath been since his youth ”) and afterwards (“ You lack the season of all natures, sleep ”). Her humanity has never been more evident and my sense of her as an essentially good, if misguided woman, was strengthened even further here.

Lady Macbeth’s humanity is briefly evident when she finds herself unable to murder Duncan and this glimpse of a conscience (“ Hath he not resembled my father as he slept I had done’t ”) made me like her a lot more. Her desire to help her husband (“ these deeds must not be thought of after these ways; so, it will make us mad ”) and save him from insanity is touching, as is her naive belief that they will be able to simply forget their crime (“ a little water clears us of this deed ”) and move on with their new life as King and Queen. However, just as I was starting to like her, she lambasted her husband for bringing the murder weapon from the scene of the crime ( ”infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers ”) and without hesitation, she returned to Duncan’s chamber to “ gild the faces of the grooms ” with blood, thus framing them for the murder. Once again I found myself on a roller-coaster, unsure how to feel about the Machiavellian yet vulnerable Lady Macbeth.

Immediately prior to Duncan’s murder, Lady Macbeth’s behaviour is bullying, manipulative and quite shocking, making it difficult for us to like her. She mocks her husband, demanding dismissively “ Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? ”; emotionally blackmailing him by suggesting that he doesn’t really love her if he backs out; painting a horrific picture of a future filled with self-loathing (“ and live a coward in thine one esteem ”) if he passes up this opportunity; calling his manliness into question (“ when you durst do it, then you were a man ”) and most disturbingly of all, describing in vivid detail how she would commit infanticide – would pluck her nipple from her beloved child’s suckling mouth and dash his brains out on the floor – rather than break a promise to her husband. However, all of this is motivated by her love for her husband and her awareness of his ‘vaulting ambition’. I also found myself feeling very sorry for her when I discovered that she had given birth to and lost a child. Hence, almost despite myself, I found myself quite liking this determined forceful woman who would let nothing get in the way of her husband achieving his ambition.

Lady Macbeth finally begins to realise that evil actions have very real consequences (“ nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content ”) but this was not sufficient to make me actually like her. Yet again her focus was entirely on her own happiness, and I found it particularly twisted that she would have the cheek to ‘envy’ Duncan (“ tis safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy ”) because he is ‘safe’ in death. I’m sure given the choice he would have swapped death for life in a heartbeat – but Lady Macbeth did not give him the option to live and now she has the gall to suggest that he’s better off dead! Her utterly selfish desire to protect her own power and position is again evident in the Banquet scene. She first blames Macbeth’s erratic behaviour on epilepsy and when it becomes clear that this is an inadequate explanation, she dismisses their guests unceremoniously “ stand not upon the order of your going but go at once ”. Combined with her sarcastic mockery of Macbeth (“ Why do you make such faces? You look but on a chair ”), I found Lady Macbeth an utterly contemptible character with few, if any, redeeming characteristics.

Even in the moment where Duncan is murdered, Lady Macbeth’s humanity is in evidence. She gets the chamberlains drunk, yet when it comes to committing a truly evil deed, she does not have what it takes to murder an old man in his bed, commenting sadly that Duncan “ resembled [her] father as he slept ”. Once there is no going back, yet again her wifely concern surfaces as she tries to shake Macbeth out of his trance insisting “ these deeds must not be thought after these ways; so, it will make us mad ”. She is naive in believing that “ a little water clears us of this deed” but naivety is not a trait I normally associate with evil people and her fainting spell may well have been genuine shock when faced with the reality of their crime. Alternatively, even if her faint was fake, it was nonetheless inspired by a desire to protect her husband, lest anyone get suspicious following his admission that he killed the chamberlains. Thus, despite her immoral scheming, I continue to see her humanity and like her as a person. 

The ultimate testament to Lady Macbeth’s character comes in the moments before her suicide. In the sleepwalking scene, I found her guilt as she relives their crimes (“The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now?”) and ultimately recognises that she will never again view herself as anything but a killer (“ All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand ”) truly heartbreaking. She made a mistake and this mistake destroyed her, her marriage, her happiness and her future. I liked her despite her flaws,  was devastated to hear that she “ by self and violent hands took off her life ” and could never see her as Malcolm did, as nothing more than a “ fiend-like queen” . 

My negative impression of her was further strengthened when she bullied Macbeth into agreeing to murder Duncan. She mocked her husband, demanding dismissively “ Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? ”; emotionally blackmailing him, suggesting that he doesn’t really love her if he backs out; painting a horrific picture of a future filled with self-loathing (“ and live a coward in thine one esteem ”) if he passes up this opportunity; calling his manliness into question (“ when you durst do it, then you were a man ”) and most disturbingly of all, describing in vivid detail how she would commit infanticide (would pluck her nipple from her beloved child’s suckling mouth and dash his brains out on the floor) rather than break a promise to her husband. Her manipulation of him was so profound, so morally bankrupt and so effective that within minutes she had transformed him saying “ we shall proceed no further in this business” to moments later agreeing to kill Duncan “ I am settled and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat ”. How anyone could like this woman or defend her behaviour is absolutely baffling to me.

Lady Macbeth’s remorse, when it surfaces, does help us to like her, yet her failure to confide her doubts and fears in her husband is a frustrating aspect of her personality that lessens our fondness for her. She admits to us that “ nought’s had, all’s spent where our desire is got without content ” and that she would rather be dead like Duncan (“ tis safer to be that which we destroy ”) than living the hellish uncertainty she now inhabits (“ than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy ”), terrified at any moment that they will get caught. However, her pretence that everything is fine (“ what’s done is done ”) and later, during the banquet, her scorn for her husband’s suffering (“ this is the very painting of your fear”…. “Shame itself! Why do you make such faces? You look but on a chair ”) made me waver in my affection for her. Every time I find a reason to like her, she provides me with a very good reason not to.

PRINT THEM OFF – CUT THEM UP – SEE IF YOU CAN RE-ARRANGE THEM IN SEQUENCE!!!

Remember, there are no introductions or conclusions but you MUST include both.

Finally, the essay title was the very simple “ Lady Macbeth is not a likeable character ” – Discuss.

Posted in Macbeth

Tagged essay structure , essay writing , Lady Macbeth , leaving cert english , macbeth , sequence , shakespeare , viewpoint

The Macbeths’ Marriage

Well a quick google reveals that to nurture your relationship you should:

2. Communicate – if you confide in each other, problems won’t seem so big.

3. Support – try to support each others decisions. Avoid being judgemental and constantly criticising.

4. Be affectionate – make your partner feel loved! Embrace opportunities for intimacy.

5. Solve conflicts – or at the very least agree to disagree! You may genuinely have differing values so if possible learn to live with that…

According to Dr. John Gottman a troubled relationship is marked by:

2. Contempt – partners start to actively dislike each other.

3. Defensive behaviour – feeling as if your partner is always criticising you or is constantly disappointed in you so you over-react to every little comment always assuming that they are nagging at you… again!

4. Stonewalling – they start avoiding each other because spending time together is too painful.

5. Separation –  or affairs or living under the same roof but leading separate lives…or marriage counselling which come to think of it is probably what this guy John Gottman is selling 😉

NOW what next? Well think about all of the times we see Macbeth and Lady Macbeth together and think about how they behave when they’re apart. In each of these moments ask yourself:

•  do they seem like a couple in love? Do they support each other? Communicate? Are they available & affectionate?
• Are they motivated by the desire to protect each other & make each other happy? Or do they care about the other’s happiness at all?
• If they had behaved differently in this moment would things have been any different? Would their marriage have survived?
• From what point in the play was their marriage doomed? When did conflict & contempt morph into avoidance? Do they end up living under the same roof but leading separate lives? (The term “together but alone” springs to mind…)

PHASE ONE : from the prophesy up to the decision to kill Duncan.

[youtube_sc url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iatzg0J9wcQ]

They seem really close as a couple but there’s definitely some tension there. They seem to have differing opinions and values but vaulting ambition is one thing they definitely do have in common!

MANIPULATION – Lady Macbeth certainly shows contempt for her husband’s desire to “ proceed no further in this business ” but does she think she’s actually helping? or is she motivated purely by selfish ambition? You decide. She certainly goes to extreme lengths to change his mind but she does seem to genuinely fear that he’ll regret it forever (“ and live a coward in thine own esteem “) if he doesn’t act now.See Act 1, scene 7.

PHASE TWO:  immediate reaction to the crime and efforts to conceal their guilt.

[youtube_sc url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldbeR-CujwY]

Key moments = DAGGERS   Lady Macbeth is furious with her husband for being so overwhelmed with shock and guilt that he brings the dagger out of Duncan’s chamber but she covers his tracks by returning to the scene of the crime. See Act 2, scene 2.

FAINT –  Does she faint or does she fake a faint? It’s not clear. Perhaps she really faints because she’s genuinely shocked that her husband found it so easy to kill two more people (the chamberlains) and because the horror of what they’ve done suddenly hits home. Or perhaps Lady M feels her husband’s yet again not doing a good job of feigning innocence, particularly when he starts waffling on about killing the chamberlains. Perhaps she fake faints to protect her husband and draw attention away from him. See Act 2, scene 3.

PHASE THREE:   before and during the banquet.

BANQUET =  Macbeth basically has a breakdown in public – well it’s either a breakdown or a psychotic episode. Remember no-one else can see the ghost so Lady M is more than likely right when she observes “ this is the very painting of your fear ” (but not everyone would agree with me on this one!). Yet again it is left to her to conceal what her husband cannot; to  make excuses publicly in order to protect them and their position on the throne; here again she is angry with him, asking the insulting question “ are you a man ” which echoes her earlier tirade (“ when you durst do it then you were a man “) when she convinced him to kill Duncan in the first place. If you glance back at the discussion above of what causes problems in a marriage, you’ll notice that one warning sign is where couples keep having the same argument over and over again! See Act 3, scene 4.

[youtube_sc url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3YKU6I2m8]

PHASE 4:  from the sleepwalking scene to the end of the play

Key moments = SLEEPWALKING – if you want proof that their marriage is effectively over, here it is. She’s been driven insane with guilt and remorse and her husband is no-where to be found. She also seems to have heard rumours about what happened to Lady Macduff (“ the thane of fife had a wife; where is she now? “) but again she has not been consulted. She seems frightened, possibly even terrified by what she and her husband have become. Perhaps there’s some poetic justice here – Macbeth felt alone in his remorse because every time he mentioned it to his wife she either ridiculed him or at the very least she discouraged him from dwelling on it (“ these deeds must not be thought of after these ways; so it will make us mad “) always dismissing his worry and fear. Maybe she was just trying to protect him from his own conscience, but if she had allowed him to listen to his conscience in the first place, none of this would have happened, the silly cow! Now she’s facing the very same emotions alone and ironically her prediction that dwelling on their crimes would result in madness has come to pass. See Act 5, scene 1.

DOCTOR DOCTOR – instead of visiting his wife to see how she is, he visits her doctor, asking “how is your patient?” rather than “how is my wife”. Even in the phrasing of this question he seems to have washed his hands of her – she is the doctor’s problem now rather than her husband’s responsibility. Yes he cares enough to ask how she is and to order the doctor to do something; anything. But we get the impression that he has more pressing matters to attend to. She is not his first priority; she’s an afterthought. See Act 5, scene 3.

Tagged Lady Macbeth , Laving Cert , leaving cert english , macbeth , relationship macbeth lady macbeth , relevance to a modern audience

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• Act I: Scene 1
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• Act III: Scene 5
• Act III: Scene 6
• Act IV: Scene 1
• Act IV: Scene 2
• Act IV: Scene 3
• Act V: Scene 1
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Character Analysis Lady Macbeth

Macbeth 's wife 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. Her burning ambition to be queen is the single feature that Shakespeare developed far beyond that of her counterpart in the historical story he used as his source. Lady Macbeth persistently taunts her husband for his lack of courage, even though we know of his bloody deeds on the battlefield. But in public, she is able to act as the consummate hostess, enticing her victim, the king, into her castle. When she faints immediately after the murder of Duncan , the audience is left wondering whether this, too, is part of her act.

Ultimately, she fails the test of her own hardened ruthlessness. Having upbraided her husband one last time during the banquet (Act III, Scene 4), the pace of events becomes too much even for her: She becomes mentally deranged, a mere shadow of her former commanding self, gibbering in Act V, Scene 1 as she "confesses" her part in the murder. Her death is the event that causes Macbeth to ruminate for one last time on the nature of time and mortality in the speech "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" (Act V, Scene 5).

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Lady Macbeth Character Analysis

Lady Macbeth is possibly Shakespeare’s most famous and vivid female character. Everyone, whether they have read or seen the Macbeth play , has a view of her. She is generally depicted in the popular mind as the epitome of evil, and images of her appear over and over again in several cultures. She is usually portrayed in pictures as something like a Disney character, a cross between Cruella DeVille and the wicked stepmother in Snow White.

Although she has some of the most bloodthirsty lines in Shakespeare she is not quite Cruella De Ville or the wicked stepmother. The response she gets from the male characters suggests that she is a young, sexually attractive woman and, indeed, in her effort to influence Macbeth, she uses every method at her disposal, including the employment of her sexual charms.

She is usually depicted as a strong, tough woman and, in her drive to induce Macbeth to murder King Duncan, she appears to be that, but, having succeeded, it does not take long for her to crumble and break down, destroyed by guilt, and she ends up committing suicide.

Shakespeare does not have any evil characters. What he has are ordinary human beings, like you and me, placed in situations that challenge and test them. Some of them, like Iago in Othello , have personality defects, but that’s rare in Shakespeare and it’s not the case with Lady Mcbeth.

The challenges that Shakespeare presents his characters with generates different responses from different people. Lady Macbeth’s challenge is that she discovers that her husband has been tempted by an encounter with three witches to do something about their prediction that he will become king. She knows that the king would have to die for that to happen. When she gets a message that King Duncan plans to spend the night with them at Glamys Castle it seems to confirm the thought that they would have to kill him and that this was their once in a lifetime opportunity. That’s the situation into which she has been thrust.

She is as ambitious as Macbeth but she knows that for all his bravery in battle, all his soldierly and diplomatic qualities, he is basically much too soft –“too full of the milk of human kindness” – to take advantage of the opportunity. She makes up her mind to make him do it.

And she is right about his lack of resolve – they talk it over and he tells her that he just can’t do it. She goes into high gear and virtually holds his hand through it. One of her strongest qualities is persistence and she shows it here. Macbeth hesitates, equivocates and falters but she holds firm. She argues the case, she mocks him, bringing his manhood into question, she appeals to his sense of loyalty to her, she takes him to bed, and she finally prevails.

Macbeth kills Duncan in his sleep and from that moment their marriage begins to fall apart. They each fall into their own guilt-trip and hardly speak to each other. As king, Macbeth fears his political enemies and embarks on a reign of terror while Lady Macbeth stays in bed, unable to sleep, having nightmares when she does manage it. While walking and talking in her sleep she gives the game away about what they have done and sinks into a moral, physical and spiritual collapse. When Macbeth is on his last legs, with the rebels closing in, he gets the message that she’s dead. At that point, he says he doesn’t have time to think about it. “She should have died hereafter,” he says. Their partnership in this murderous enterprise has destroyed their marriage.

The promise of strength that we see in her at the beginning of the play is an illusion. What we are seeing is naked ambition and a willingness to act on it without having the resources to deal with the consequences. We see how guilt can eat up your soul and destroy you. We see how hollow ambition is, both in her journey and Macbeth’s. (Read the most  significant Macbeth ambition quotes .)

Character attributes

Some significant character attributes of Lady Macbeth are:

• Controlling – she understands that her husband doesn’t have the savageness required to murder the king of his own accord, so she manipulates him. She plans out the murder, then takes control of events when Macbeth loses his mind.
• Cruel – she is a violent, cold-blooded character who is happy to scheme the murder. She ridicules Macbeth when he doesn’t agree to participate in her violent plans.
• Two-faced – she welcomes King Duncan like a friend whilst at the same time planning his murder. She also advises Macbeth to be two-faced.

Erika Sunnegårdh as Lady Macbeth

Top Lady Macbeth Quotes

“I fear thy nature; It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness

( act 1, scene 5 )

“To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like th’ innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t.”

“ The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements”

“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,

“Would’st thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,” Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage? “

( act 1, scene 7 )

“I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this.”

“ Out! damned spot! “

( act 5, scene 1 )

Read more Lady Macbeth quotes .

See All Macbeth Resources

Macbeth | Macbeth summary | Macbeth characters : Banquo , Lady Macbeth , Macbeth , Macduff , Three Witches | Macbeth settings | Modern Macbeth translation  | Macbeth full text | Macbeth PDF  |  Modern Macbeth ebook | Macbeth for kids ebooks | Macbeth quotes | Macbeth ambition quotes |  Macbeth quote translations | Macbeth monologues | Macbeth soliloquies | Macbeth movies | Macbeth themes

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Common Questions About Lady Macbeth

Is lady macbeth a true story.

Although Shakespeare used the names of real historical people in writing Hamlet, the events of the drama are mostly made up. So in that sense, Lady Macbeth is not a real character. There was an 11th-century Scottish king named Mac Bethad Mac Findlaich . Presumably, he had a wife but we know nothing about her.

What kind of character is Lady Macbeth?

Lady Macbeth is ambitious. She is manipulative and uses several techniques of a skilled manipulator to entice Macbeth into the murder of Duncan. Usually thought of as a hard, ruthless woman, she is, in reality, soft. Not long after the murder, unable to cope with her guilt, she falls apart and loses all sense of herself.

What happens to Lady Macbeth?

Lady Macbeth tries to prop her husband up as he descends into a guilt-ridden hell but she soon falls victim to the same condition. Her whole life literally becomes a nightmare, in which she relives the event that has brought her condition about. Her life becomes unbearable and she commits suicide.

Who does Lady Macbeth kill?

Lady Macbeth does not personally kill anyone. She conspires in the murder of the king, Duncan, though, and actively encourages Macbeth to kill him. It is Macbeth who does the actual killing. Lady Macbeth plays no part in the many further killings that Macbeth engineers. Soon after the killing of Duncan the two don’t even talk to each other.

What made Lady Macbeth go crazy?

Lady Macbeth is partly responsible for the kind of killing that was taboo in Mediaeval Scotland – murdering one’s king, murdering one’s relative and murdering a guest in one’s house. In killing Duncan the couple did all three. She begins to have nightmares about the murder and, in particular, the blood on her hands, which she can’t get rid of no matter how hard she scrubs. That drives her to suicide.

How does Lady Macbeth feel after the killing of Duncan?

Once Duncan is killed Lady Macbeth is pleased that her ambition to be the wife of a king has been achieved, but that feeling very soon turns sour as guilt begins to eat away at her. She then she has feelings that she can’t live with, and ends up killing herself (one of 13 suicides in Shakespeare’s plays ).

Is 2016 film Lady Macbeth based on Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth character?

No. Lady Macbeth is a 2016 British film based on Nikolai Leskov’s novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District , and starring Florence Pugh.

Lady Macbeth as Powerful

The essay below uses this simple structure:, an introductory paragraph to summarise an answer to the question, one paragraph about the extract, one about the rest of the play, one about context., lady macbeth:, the raven himself is hoarse, that croaks the fatal entrance of duncan, under my battlements. come, you spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full, of direst cruelty. make thick my blood., stop up the access and passage to remorse ,, that no compunctious visitings of nature, shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between, the effect and it come to my woman’s breasts,, and take my milk for gall , you murd'ring ministers,, wherever in your sightless substances, you wait on nature’s mischief. come, thick night,, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes,, nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, to cry “hold, hold”, starting with this speech, explain how far you think shakespeare presents lady macbeth as a powerful woman., write about:, how shakespeare presents lady macbeth in this speech, how shakespeare presents lady macbeth in the play as a whole., the essay below is written using a simple structure:, an introductory paragraph to summarise an answer to the question., one paragraph about the extract., one about the rest of the play., before you read the answer below, why not have a think about how you'd answer this question. i've highlighted the quotes i'd write about - do you agree or would you focus elsewhere also, which sections from the rest of the play would you focus on and what contextual factors influenced lady macbeth's presentation, most importantly, though, have a think about how you'd write that opening paragraph - answer the question in two or three simple sentences., an example answer, during the majority of the play, lady macbeth is presented as being a powerful woman who defies the expected gender stereotype of the caring, soft, gentle female. by the end of the play, however, she kills herself as she discovers that although she can order the rest of the world around, she cannot control her own guilt, right at the opening of this speech, lady macbeth makes her position known when she describes “my” battlements. the use of the possessive pronoun emphasises that she thinks of the castle walls as being her own. she follows this by calling “come you spirits.” the use of this magic spell has two effects on the audience: firstly, she is calling for dark magic to come and support her. this would have reminded the audience of the possibility that she was a witch and had all the evil powers connected with them. also, she is using an imperative here: “come you spirits.” she’s not asking them but telling them. this shows that she expects even the supernatural world to answer to her demands. one of the things she demands is that they “stop up the access and passage to remorse.” this means that lady macbeth doesn’t want to feel any regret for what she is about to do, which would make her powerful. she is no longer going to be slowed down by feelings of compassion or care in her pursuit of power. finally, she says that the spirits should “take my milk for gall.” here, she is asking that her own milk be turned to poison. this suggests that she is turning something caring and supportive into something deadly, giving her even more evil powers. also, milk is pure white and suggests innocence and purity so lady macbeth is asking that what is innocent and pure about her gets turned into something deadly. throughout this speech lady macbeth sets herself up as being someone very powerful, who is able to control even the spirits., her power continues throughout the play. lady macbeth suggests the murder and talks macbeth into it – showing that she is powerfully persuasive. she also plans the murder, showing that she is intelligent as well. she also stays calm under pressure, such as when macbeth arrives with the daggers from the murder scene but lady macbeth returns them to the scene so that they don’t get caught. she is also able to manipulate macduff when she faints in shock after they discover duncan’s body. you could easily argue that lady macbeth’s ambition was more powerful than macbeth’s, and that the murder wouldn’t have ever happened with her involvement. she is determined to become powerful and will stop at nothing to get it. at the end the play though she is caught sleepwalking, and she confesses to all that they’ve done. this is interesting, however, as while she is sleep-walking she is not in control of herself so she is not really aware of what she’s doing. it could be the case that lady macbeth herself never felt guilty, though she couldn’t hide her real feelings from her dreams. in the end, she dies. malcolm claims that she killed herself quite violently, but since it happens off-stage we cannot be sure. what is clear is that although she could push macbeth around, and trick macduff, and even order the spirits to do her bidding, she couldn’t order the blood off her own hands., shakespeare presents a very powerful female character in lady macbeth, and although this would have been quite radical for people in jacobean england there were other powerful, female role models to choose from: bloody mary or queen elizabeth are good examples. this play, however, was written for king james who had just taken the throne of england, and james was not a fan of queen elizabeth – who had killed his mother, mary queen of scots (and he might not even have been a big fan of his mum, because she married the man who killed his dad) as a result, james would have enjoyed seeing this powerful woman become such a villain and then getting punished for her crimes..

An Interesting Character Study: Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is widely regarded as one of the most villainous female characters in all of English literature, and perhaps Shakespeare’s most cold-hearted female character. Not only does she urge her husband to murder their King for no other reason than heartless ambition, she also states that she would dash out her own baby’s brains rather than lose her courage for such a regicidal act.

‘How many children had Lady Macbeth?’ was the title of a long essay by the critic L. C. Knights, published in 1933, mocking the school of criticism (ultimately influenced by the critic A. C. Bradley) which seeks to ask, and answer, such questions about details hinted at, but not confirmed, in the play concerning characters’ lives. Although the play doesn’t tell us, Lady Macbeth does declare that she has ‘given suck’ to a baby, although whether this was her child with Macbeth, or a child by a previous marriage (in keeping with the source material in Holinshed), the play never reveals.

Does the question matter? In one sense, no. Even if Macbeth has no heir to succeed him (so the crown might end up passing to Banquo’s descendants anyway), he may hope to get one. So the motivation for keeping the crown and getting rid of Banquo and Fleance remains the same. The most important thing, perhaps, is Lady Macbeth’s shocking revelation that she would be prepared to murder her own baby that she had suckled (whether her child with Macbeth or not is beside the point) in order to fulfil her ambition for power.

2 thoughts on “An Interesting Character Study: Lady Macbeth”

For me, Lady Macbeth is the ultimate supportive spouse: ready to do everything it takes to help her husband to achieve his ultimate goal, no matter if this will cause her madness first, and then her death. Macbeth is quite the ungrateful sod: when he is told about his queen’s death, he simply shrugs. Poor Gruoch (the real Lady Macbeth’s name), what kind of fame was she undeservedly given.

Very much interesting..

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Macbeth — Gender Roles and Lady Macbeth

Gender Roles and Lady Macbeth

• Categories: Gender Roles Macbeth

About this sample

Words: 1185 |

Pages: 2.5 |

Published: Jun 29, 2018

Words: 1185 | Pages: 2.5 | 6 min read

Works Cited:

• American Psychological Association. (2019). Xenophobia. In APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association. https://dictionary.apa.org/xenophobia
• Banks, J. A. (2001). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching. Allyn and Bacon.
• Barrett, R. (2016). Why is it important to learn about different cultures? Retrieved from https://www.yfu.org/blog/why-is-it-important-to-learn-about-different-cultures
• BBC. (2019). Why is culture important? Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zdq4jxs/revision/1
• Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. Basic Books.
• Hall, E. T. (1976). Beyond culture. Anchor Books.
• Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Sage Publications.
• Kagitcibasi, C. (2019). Family, self, and human development across cultures: Theory and applications. Psychology Press.
• LeVine, R. A., & Campbell, D. T. (1972). Ethnocentrism: Theories of conflict, ethnic attitudes, and group behavior. Wiley.
• Smith, P. B., Bond, M. H., & Kagitcibasi, C. (2006). Understanding social psychology across cultures: Engaging with others in a changing world. Sage Publications.

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      Macbeth is a statement of evil. I use the word "statement" (unsatisfactory as it is) in order to stress those qualities that are "non-dramatic," if drama is defined according to the canons of William Archer or Dr. Bradley [both eminent literary critics]. It also happens to be poetry, which means that the apprehension of the whole can only be obtained from a lively attention to the parts, whether they have an immediate bearing on the main action or "illustrate character," or not. Two main themes, which can only be separated for the purpose of analysis, are blended in the play—the themes of the reversal of values and of unnatural disorder. And closely related to each is a third theme, that of the deceitful appearance, and consequent doubt, uncertainty and confusion. All this is obscured by false assumptions about the category "drama"; Macbeth has greater affinity with The Waste Land than with The Doll's House.      Each theme is stated in the first act. The first scene, every word of which will bear the closest scrutiny, strikes one dominant chord: Faire is foule, and foule is faire, Hover through the fogge and filthie ayre. It is worth remarking that "Hurley-burley" implies more than the tumult of sedition or insurrection." Both it and "when the Battaile's lost, and wonne" suggest the kind of metaphysical pitch-and-toss that is about to be played with good and evil. At the same time we hear the undertone of uncertainty: the scene opens with a question, and the second line suggests a region where the elements are disintegrated as they never are in nature; thunder and lightning are disjoined, and offered as alternatives. We should notice also that the scene expresses the same movement as the play as a whole: the general crystallizes into the immediate particular ("Where the place?"—"Upon the Heath."—"There to meet with Macbeth.") and then dissolves again into the general presentment of hideous gloom. All is done with the greatest speed, economy and precision.  (32-33)

Dr. Bradley claims, on the strength of this and the "To morrow, and to morrow" speech, that Macbeth's "ruin is never complete. To the end he never totally loses our sympathy. . . . . In the very depths a gleam of his native love of goodness, and with it a tinge of tragic grandeur, rests upon him." But to concentrate attention thus on the personal implications of these lines is to obscure the fact that they have an even more important function as the keystone of the system of values that gives emotional coherence to the play.  (51-52)

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Like My Book Title? Thanks, I Borrowed It.

Literary allusions are everywhere. What are they good for?

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By A.O. Scott

You see it everywhere, even if you don’t always recognize it: the literary allusion. Quick! Which two big novels of the past two years borrowed their titles from “Macbeth”? Nailing the answer — “ Birnam Wood ” and “ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ” — might make you feel a little smug.

Perhaps the frisson of cleverness ( I know where that’s from!), or the flip-side cringe of ignorance ( I should know where that’s from! ), is enough to spur you to buy a book, the way a search-optimized headline compels you to click a link. After all, titles are especially fertile ground for allusion-mongering. The name of a book becomes more memorable when it echoes something you might have heard — or think you should have heard — before.

This kind of appropriation seems to be a relatively modern phenomenon. Before the turn of the 20th century, titles were more descriptive than allusive. The books themselves may have been stuffed with learning, but the words on the covers were largely content to give the prospective reader the who (“Pamela,” “Robinson Crusoe,” “Frankenstein”), where (“Wuthering Heights,” “The Mill on the Floss,” “Treasure Island”) or what (“The Scarlet Letter,” “War and Peace,” “The Way We Live Now”) of the book.

Somehow, by the middle of the 20th century, literature had become an echo chamber. Look homeward, angel! Ask not for whom the sound and the fury slouches toward Bethlehem in dubious battle. When Marcel Proust was first translated into English, he was made to quote Shakespeare, and “In Search of Lost Time” (the literal, plainly descriptive French title) became “Remembrance of Things Past,” a line from Sonnet 30 .

Recent Proust translators have erased the Shakespearean reference in fidelity to the original, but the habit of dressing up new books in secondhand clothing persists, in fiction and nonfiction alike. Last year, in addition to “Birnam Wood,” there were Jonathan Rosen’s “ The Best Minds ,” with its whisper of Allen Ginsberg’s “ Howl ,” Paul Harding’s “ This Other Eden ” (“ Richard II ”), and William Egginton’s “ The Rigor of Angels ” (Borges). The best-seller lists and publishers’ catalogs contain multitudes ( Walt Whitman ). Here comes everybody! (James Joyce).

If you must write prose and poems, the words you use should be your own. I didn’t say that: Morrissey did, in a deepish Smiths cut (“ Cemetry Gates , ” from 1986), which misquotes Shakespeare and name-checks John Keats, William Butler Yeats and Oscar Wilde — possibly the most reliably recycled writers (along with John Milton and the authors of the King James Bible) in the English language.

Not that any of them would have minded. When Keats wrote that “ a thing of beauty is a joy forever ,” he surely hoped that at least that much of “ Endymion ” would outlive him. It’s a beautiful sentiment! And he may have been right. Does anyone read his four-part, 4,000-line elegy for Thomas Chatterton outside a college English class, or even for that matter inside one? Nonetheless, that opening line may ring a bell if you remember it from the movies “ Mary Poppins ,” “Yellow Submarine” or “ White Men Can’t Jump .”

Wilde’s witticism and bons mots have survived even as some of his longer works have languished. If it’s true (as he said) that only superficial people do not judge by appearances, maybe it follows that shallow gleaning is the deepest kind of reading. Or maybe, to paraphrase Yeats, devoted readers of poetry lack all conviction , while reckless quoters are full of passionate intensity .

Like everything else, this is the fault of the internet, which has cannibalized our reading time while offering facile, often spurious, pseudo-erudition to anyone with the wit to conduct a search. As Mark Twain once said to Winston Churchill, if you Google, you don’t have to remember anything.

Seriously though: I come not to bury the practice of allusion, but to praise it. (“ Julius Caesar ”) And also to ask, in all earnestness and with due credit to Edwin Starr , “ Seinfeld” and Leo Tolstoy : What is it good for?

The language centers of our brains are dynamos of originality. A competent speaker of any language is capable of generating intelligible, coherent sentences that nobody has uttered before. That central insight of modern linguistics, advanced by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s and ’60s, is wonderfully democratic. Every one of us is a poet in our daily speech, an inglorious Milton ( Thomas Gray ), a Shakespeare minting new coins of eloquence.

Of course, actual poets are congenital thieves (as T.S. Eliot or someone like him may have said), plucking words and phrases from the pages of their peers and precursors. The rest of us are poets in that sense, too. If our brains are foundries, they are also warehouses, crammed full of clichés, advertising slogans, movie catchphrases, song lyrics, garbled proverbs and jokes we heard on the playground at recess in third grade. Also great works of literature.

There are those who sift through this profusion with the fanatical care of mushroom hunters, collecting only the most palatable and succulent specimens. Others crash through the thickets, words latching onto us like burrs on a sweater. If we tried to remove them, the whole garment — our consciousness, in this unruly metaphor — might come unraveled.

That may also be true collectively. If we were somehow able to purge our language of its hand-me-down elements, we might lose language itself. What happens if nobody reads anymore, or if everyone reads different things? Does the practice of literary quotation depend on a stable set of common references? Or does it function as a kind of substitute for a shared body of knowledge that may never have existed at all?

The old literary canon — that dead white men’s club of star-bellied sneetches ( Dr. Seuss ) — may have lost some of its luster in recent decades, but it has shown impressive staying power as a cornucopia of quotes. Not the only one, by any means (or memes). Television, popular music, advertising and social media all provide abundant fodder, and the way we read now (or don’t) has a way of rendering it all equivalent. The soul selects her own society ( Emily Dickinson ).

When I was young, my parents had a fat anthology of mid-20th-century New Yorker cartoons , a book I pored over with obsessive zeal. One drawing that baffled me enough to stick in my head featured a caption with the following words: “It’s quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods and becks and wreathed smiles.” What on earth was that? It wasn’t until I was in graduate school, cramming for an oral exam in Renaissance literature, that I found the answer in “ L’Allegro, ” an early poem by Milton, more often quoted as the author of “Paradise Lost.”

Not that having the citation necessarily helps. The cartoon, by George Booth, depicts a woman in her living room, addressing members of a multigenerational, multispecies household. There are cats, codgers, a child with a yo-yo, a bird in a cage and a dog chained to the sofa. Through the front window, the family patriarch can be seen coming up the walk, a fedora on his head and a briefcase in his right hand. His arrival — “Here comes Poppa” — is the occasion for the woman’s Miltonic pep talk.

Who is she? Why is she quoting “L’Allegro”? Part of the charm, I now suspect, lies in the absurdity of those questions. But I also find myself wondering: Were New Yorker readers in the early 1970s, when the cartoon was first published, expected to get the allusion right off the bat? They couldn’t Google it. Or would they have laughed at the incongruous eruption of an old piece of poetry they couldn’t quite place?

Maybe what’s funny is that most people wouldn’t know what that lady was talking about. And maybe the same comic conceit animates an earlier James Thurber drawing reprinted in the same book. In this one, a wild-eyed woman bursts into a room, wearing a floppy hat and wielding a basket of meadow flowers. “I come from haunts of coot and hern!” she exclaims to the baffled company, disturbing their cocktail party.

That’s it. That’s the gag.

Were readers also baffled? It turns out that Thurber’s would-be nature goddess is quoting “ The Brook ,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. (I’ve never read it either.) Is it necessary to get the reference to get the joke? If you chuckle in recognition, and complete the stanza without missing a beat — “I make a sudden sally/And sparkle out among the fern,/To bicker down a valley” — is the joke on you?

It’s possible, from the standpoint of the present, to assimilate these old pictures to the familiar story about the decline of a civilization based in part on common cultural knowledge. Sure. Whatever. Things fall apart ( Yeats ). In the cartoons’ own terms, though, spouting snippets of poetry is an unmistakable sign of eccentricity — the pastime of kooky women and the male illustrators who commit them to paper. This is less a civilization than a sodality of weirdos, a visionary company ( Hart Crane ) of misfits. But don’t quote me on that.

A.O. Scott is a critic at large for The Times’s Book Review, writing about literature and ideas. He joined The Times in 2000 and was a film critic until early 2023. More about A.O. Scott

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