The Development of Lady Macbeth's Character throughout the course of Shakespeare's Macbeth

Act 1, Scene 5

Jan 1, 1040

Lady Macbeth reads the letter Macbeth has sent her announcing the prophecy of the weird sisters and the greatness they promised to her husband. Lady Macbeth worries that Macbeth would like to have that greatness, but isn't strong enough to do what needs to be done to get it.

Act 1, Scene 5

Jan 1, 1040

Upon hearing that the King will stay with them that night, Lady Macbeth appeals to dark spirits "that tend on mortal thoughts" and asks to be the mouthpiece of their deeds. She hopes to be able to speak strongly enough to steel Macbeth to their cause. She hails Macbeth as the future king, and tells him to be strong. She'll take care of the details if he just puts a good face on it.

Evidence from the text

Jan 1, 1040

" Come, you spiritsThat tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,And fill me from the crown to the toe top-fullOf direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.Stop up the access and passage to remorse,That no compunctious visitings of natureShake my fell purpose, nor keep peace betweenThe effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,And take my milk for gall, you murd'ring ministers,Wherever in your sightless substancesYou wait on nature’s mischief."

Translation

Jan 1, 1040

Lady Macbeth is initially referred to by Macbeth in his letter as "my dearest partner in greatness". It shows that she was highly respected by her husband, and aspects of this scene and some following ones suggest she was a driving force in their relationship - she decides almost immediately that she must persuade her husband to "catch the nearest way" and to do it that night when she learns of Duncan's impending arrival. It shows that she does not consider right and wrong an obstacle.

Translation

Jan 1, 1040

She does, however consider a conscience an obstacle, at this point. She thinks her husband is "too full of the milk of human kindness" and she calls on evil spirits to suppress her conscience. It can possibly be suggested that because she wanted to suppress her conscience, she did actually have one, but saw it as a negative, rather than a positive. That she needs to take alcohol to go through with the plan is another indication of this "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold"

Translation

Jan 1, 1040

• she wants something to suppress her conscience.

Lady Macbeth's inclusion in Macbeth: Act 1, Scene 2 - Act 5, Scene 5

Period: Jan 1, 1040 to Jan 8, 1040

A timeline which shows the personality of Lady Macbeth throughout the duration of the play, and her slow mental decline.

Act 1, Scene 6

Jan 2, 1040

Lady Macbeth greets Duncan, his sons and the noblemen, assuring them that she is pleased to take the worries of hosting them the night. She agrees to take them to Macbeth, and catches him resolving himself to not do the deed. She speaks of his manhood as being augmented by their unnatural action of murdering Duncan, and insists that if he just bounds up his courage, she has enough of a plan put together that they can pull off the murder and framing the guards.

Act 1, Scene 6

Jan 2, 1040

She convinces him to go through with the deed.

Evidence from the text

Jan 2, 1040

"All our service,In every point twice done and then done double,Were poor and single business to contendAgainst those honors deep and broad wherewithYour majesty loads our house. For those of old,And the late dignities heaped up to them,We rest your hermits."

Act 2, Scene 2

Jan 3, 1040

Lady Macbeth has drugged the guards and claims she is made strong by what weakens the others. She sees Macbeth, who is out of sorts after having done the deed. She is full of reassuring words, and urges him not to think so deeply of what's done, but look to the good that can be gained by it. She urges Macbeth to go wash his hands while she puts Duncan's blood on the sleeping guards. She then takes Macbeth to bed so they don't look suspicious later.

Evidence from text

Jan 3, 1040

"Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers.
The sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures.
'Tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil.
If he do bleed,
I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt."

Act 2, Scene 3

Jan 4, 1040

When alarms are sounded about Duncan's death, Lady Macbeth wakes, seemingly innocent. She mostly plays quiet, but becomes faint when she hears that Macbeth has murdered the guards, which was so not a part of the plan. She is carried from the room.

Evidence from the text

Jan 4, 1040

"What’s the business,That such a hideous trumpet calls to parleyThe sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!"

Act 3, Scene 2

Jan 5, 1040

Lady Macbeth had earlier been with Macbeth when he was asking for Banquo's whereabouts before the big dinner party. She goes to Macbeth. He seems occupied by his own thoughts, and probes him enough to learn that he's planning something sinister. He claims Banquo's murder is all that stands between them and peace of mind. Lady Macbeth protests, as she is not so comfortable with the idea of murdering Banquo.

Act 3, Scene 2

Jan 5, 1040

Macbeth reassures her by saying she doesn't need to know what she doesn't need to know, but that she'll applaud him later for the courage of this act.

Evidence from text

Jan 5, 1040

"Using those thoughts which should indeed have died With them they think on? Things without all remedy Should be without regard. What’s done is done."

Translation

Jan 5, 1040

It is she who insists single-mindedly on the murder each time her husband - she insists the rewards will be worth it. Yet, prior to the feast she feels "All's lost, all's spent, where our joy is got without content". She is beginning to feel what they have done and considers their success "doubtful joy". It seems that dealing with the actuality of murder is harder than planning it for her. She didn't expect it to affect her conscience so much.

Translation

Jan 5, 1040

Yet, she continues to play the dutiful wife and Queen, persuades her husband to put on a good front for their guests.

Act 3, Scene 4

Jan 6, 1040

Lady Macbeth plays hostess at the Macbeths' first big dinner party as King and Queen. Her main task over the course of the night becomes stopping Macbeth from looking like a madman while he effectively acts like a madman from seeing Banquo's ghost. She tries to distract their guests, urging them to eat and ignore the King, as he is given to fits of momentary madness, but then she chides him privately for being unmanly.

Act 3, Scene 4

Jan 6, 1040

She tells him to chill out and then sends everyone home, as it is clear they are all disturbed by Macbeth's strange behaviour. Then Macbeth seems rational again. He is ready to hatch a plan to kill the traitorous Macduff, and promises to visit the weird sisters once more. In private, she does not question his manliness again, nor does she try to reason with him, but tells him he lacks "the season of all natures, sleep." The two go to bed.

Evidence from text

Jan 6, 1040

"O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear.
This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
Led you to Duncan. Oh, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear"

Act 5, Scene 1

Jan 7, 1040

Next time we see Lady Macbeth, she is still sleeping, but seems weary. A doctor and gentlewoman watch her sleepwalking fit, an activity which appears to have been happening a lot lately. She comes out and re-enacts bits and pieces of her own plan to murder Duncan with Macbeth, but her sleepy recounting is peppered with her own insecurities, or perhaps guilt.

Act 5, Scene 1

Jan 7, 1040

She cannot seem to wash the blood (or its stench) off her hands, and she cries for the wife of the Thane of Fife, perhaps knowing that Macduff, the Thane of Fife, has had his wife recently murdered by Macbeth. She hurries back to bed when she hears a knocking in her dreams, probably remembering the knocking that happened after she and Macbeth saw to Duncan's murder.

Evidence from text

Jan 7, 1040

"The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?—What, will these hands ne'er be clean?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that. You mar all with this starting." "Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, Oh, Oh!"

Translation

Jan 7, 1040

Her suicide later, at the time of battle is due to her buried conscience overwhelming her.

Translation

Jan 7, 1040

The true deterioration of Lady Macbeth's strength is shown in the sleepwalking scene - "she has light by her continually" and speaks of her crime, her belief that her hands can never be washed clean shows she sees that she can never make amends or escape her guilt. She suppressed her conscience to bring Macbeth to the throne and it emerges in her sleep, possibly the only time she loses the control of herself she maintains so firmly in her waking hours.

Note

Jan 8, 1040

One of the Queen's most important impacts occurs offstage. She commits suicide as announced in 5.5, but we do not see her again. She is not even mourned properly by Macbeth, who at this point is driven to further violence by the same desperation that seems to have killed her.