“Macbeth” the famous play written by Shakespeare is a story of the powerful and ambitious couple Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The plot surrounds after another win for Macbeth on the battlefield the 3 weird sisters approach Macbeth and announce a prophecy where he will one day become King of Scotland. To do so he must commit several murders including his best friend (Banquo), Macduff and all his family including his children and the beloved King Duncan. As Macbeth commits more and more murders, he becomes more power hungry but so does his wife Lady Macbeth. As Macbeths head begins to fill with doubts Lady Macbeth manipulates him into following through with the crimes, which later causes her to become overwhelmed with guilt. Throughout the play we watch Lady Macbeths character dramatically change and as the guilt gets further into her conscious how it affects her and the decisions it causes her to make.
We first meet Lady Macbeth she is a bold, manipulative and determined women who wants nothing more than for her husband to succeed and for fill his what she believes is his pre-determined fate. Her strong will for this causes her to call upon the dark spirits to “unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood, Stop up th’access and passage to remorse” she also prays “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” her intent for these wishes is so she can be and stay strong for her husband and ensure he completes the prophesy so they can soak up all of the power and become the most powerful people in Scotland. Lady Macbeth is willing to do whatever it takes for her own personal gain no matter the heartbreak or bloodshed it will cause others. Before the assassination of King Duncan takes place Lady Macbeth states “I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ‘em. Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.” justifying how on board she was for the commitment in the felony. This side of Macbeth however doesn’t last throughout the whole play as we see her from a perspective that makes the audience question if she is really as cold blooded as she seemed.
As the play beginning to come to an end lady Macbeth begins to become paralyzed by her guilt for her part in the carnage of king Duncan. Although lady Macbeth didn’t actually commit the bloodshed she did go back to the body and plunge the dagger back into the wounds inflicted by her husband not long earlier. She did this as her husband couldn’t bare to go back to the scene so she had no choice but to go back and finish off the job ensuring it wouldn’t be traced back to her. She constantly questions “who would have thought the old man to have so much blood on him”, Lady Macbeth has more and more thoughts like this as her remorse weakens her and causes her to go mad. She hallucinates constant spots of blood on her hands. She is always saying things like “yet here’s a spot” and “will all great Neptune’s pecan wash this blood from my hand” the hallucinations are representing the guilt and she is trying to wash it away so she no longer has to carry this Burdon with her. As the play continues Lady Macbeth continues to go more and more insane and the guilt grows stronger causing her to have to end her own life.
As the play reaches its ending Lady Macbeths character gains more weight on her shoulders from the felony she committed. In the ending of the play Macbeth utters “To bed, to bed. There is knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed” these are her last words and it shows that remorse has shattered her strong personality and that no matter how much she repents the violence and bloodshed the action cannot be taken back. Not long after she spoke those words Lady Macbeth threw herself from her tower killing herself as she couldn’t handle the sin, she committed by taking the life of the beloved and innocent King Duncan. This shows just how deeply Lady Macbeths character changed throughout the play and how one’s choices shape the person they are.
The story of Macbeth can be taken as viewed in many perspectives but one thing everyone can see is that Lady Macbeths character dramatically changes from her starting honorable, ambitious and confident personality to her remorseful, weak and jumpy self after she carried the burden of the crime of killing King Duncan. It represents how each choice has a equal reaction.
