How Does Lady Macbeth Change Throughout The Play

Improved Essays
Lady Macbeth, a key role in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth, progresses throughout the play from a heartless person to a sensitive and fragile woman.

In the beginning, we learn Lady Macbeth is both aspiring and evil as she convinces her husband to kill the King in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecies by gaining social power on the throne as king and queen. She calls upon three spirits to help give her strength in order to help her husband go through with the murder

Holding the dominant role, she successfully manipulates Macbeth by ignoring his objections about the murder. Lady Macbeth mocks his manhood due to him not understanding his doubts and hesitates.

Evil is the opposite of humanity in the play, the divergence, which is natural for humankind, although evil comes from the human heart.
…show more content…
The witches’ words were innocent. It is Macbeth that puts value to them, concluding that he must put on a fake/ strange act to earn the title as king. killing a kinsman, a king, or a guest in his house isn’t allowed puts Macbeth at war with himself. It is impossible to murder the King. His desire for the crown and his revulsion, which he must use to obtain which causes him to facilitate. As mentioned before; after killing the King, Macbeth is immediately filled with remorse but he does nothing to make things right.
His fear of justice makes him vulnerable towards more inhuman choices. He tries to blame the grooms, but kills them before they can prove their innocence. He thinks Banquo suspects him and tries to have Banquo and Fleance killed, to which he only succeeds with Banquo’s death, while Fleance escapes. Murder becomes his primary tool of leadership. Missing the opportunity to kill Macduff, he decides to kill Lady Macduff and her children. By the end of the play, Macbeth is a grotesque tyrant, and disappointed in

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Lady Macbeth is a person of many traits and changes drastically throughout the play. She is an innocent person until she receives a letter from her husband that states he has received three prophecies from three witches. Lady Macbeth becomes cold blooded and begins to plot against king Duncan. Once Duncan has been killed and the Macbeths have been named king and queen, Macbeth decides that they must kill Banquo because of the prophecies he received about being king. During Banquo's killing you see lady Macbeth starting to change.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth is a play that starts with a successful couple and ends in a tragedy. Lady Macbeth, the wife of the ruthless soldier Macbeth, plays a key role in the play. Lady Macbeth is one of the most powerful female characters in literature. Unlike her husband, she lacks humanity as we see well in her opening scene where she calls upon the ‘Spirits that tend on mortal thoughts’. Lady Macbeth persistently taunts her husband for his lack of courage to kill Duncan, even though we know of his bloody deeds on the battlefield.…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One of the most interesting things about "Macbeth" is the way both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's personalities change from beginning to end. Throughout the play, both characters waver between extreme confidence and self doubt. In the beginning, Lady Macbeth is ruthless, ambitious, and relentless. By the the end of the play she is plagued with a guilt so strong it ultimately leads to her death. This same development occurs in Macbeth, however, the reason for his downfall is the exact opposite.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Macbeth Crucible "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red" (II.iii. ). A crucible is a place or situation in which different elements interact to produce something new. Castles, Witches and Macbeth's all inevitably step on each others toes, setting them off the path they once pilgrimaged to a destination now, unknown. The reader must realize through unnatural interactions, these characters mix with one another based off the situation they are in much like a crucible.…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the play of Macbeth, both Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, have changed. There are many things that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have that are different to each other, where very few are similar to the other. Throughout all the shifts in the relationship between the newest King and Queen, both are starting to experience the other's hardships of act one and two. Macbeth, ironically doesn’t want to slit the throat of his friend Banquo even though he already spilled the blood of the King before him. This makes for a change in character because unlike the first time, he didn’t even think twice about murdering Banquo.…

    • 218 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Lady Macbeth In The Scottish Play no other character is portrayed with such deviation and alteration of a feminist view, such as Lady Macbeth, William Shakespeare’s casting of such an abnormal, creation of characterisation opens up the darkest, deepest secrets of a power lusting women, starting in Act 1 Scene 5, Lady Macbeth’s cravings for godly power is unleashed when she is shown to have opened up her chamber to a different dimension of an abnormal self where she is seen as an manipulating, destructive obliteration of the normal, controlled 1600’s ‘woman’. In William Shakespeare’s original Macbeth (the play) after Act 1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth is set out to make the paranormal witches predictions be set in stone, this is supported when Lady Macbeths states she will, “pour my spirits in thine ear”, this is stating that she is going to poison Macbeth’s mind with her thoughts and change him, this is because she feels that that he…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth Villain Quotes

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Macbeth blames Banquo of evil things happening because he knows that he stands in his way for him to become king but doesn’t want to commit the action so he persuades two murders to kill Banquo. According to Macbeth, “Know that it was he, in the times past, which held you so under furton, which your thought had been our innocent self” (3, 1, 75-78). This shows how Macbeths ambition changes him from being good friends with Banquo to enemies. Macbeth grows suspicious about Macduff since he fled to England so he decides to commit a more violent action and kill Macduffs entire family. According to Ross, “Your castle is surprised, your wife and babes savagely slaughtered” (4, 3, 205-206).…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Who Is Lady Macbeth Evil

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the true evil personalities of both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are portrayed. After learning that Macbeth could one day possibly become king, the couple decides to do whatever it takes. Lady Macbeth is very manipulative and convinces Macbeth that the only way he will ever be king is if he kills Duncan, the king at the time the prophecy was given. After killing Duncan Macbeth begins to show his evil tendencies by killing many innocent people without the help of Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth struggle with their need for power making them both evil; however, Macbeth is shown to be more evil due to his lack of emotion and sanity.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character Macbeth is a very ambitious man, with an equally ambitious wife who will stop at nothing to make sure she gets what she wants. Lady Macbeth,wife of Macbeth, is a very complex character, and over the course of the play, she displays on numerous occasions her ability to put on a strong and masculine face for Macbeth. While a major part of the play is Macbeth’s deep and dark desires to become king, Lady Macbeth also has secret ambitions of her own. Because of these ambitions, she manipulates Macbeth so that she can reach her own personal goals. She is able manipulate Macbeth in that she calls him a coward, she makes herself as ruthless as possible, and she questions his masculinity.…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth wants to kill the innocent because he does not known the difference of what is right and what is wrong. He has trouble with Macduff not Macduff’s family but he decides to kill the family because Macduff wants to steal the throne and give it to Malcolm. Macbeth has no morality he had an innocent family killed which is wrong but the more power you get the more you want. This just gives you an idea of how much of an animal Macbeth has turned…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Manipulation of Macbeth Within Shakespeare ’s play Macbeth the character of Lord Macbeth is manipulated by the powerful females throughout the drama. Macbeth 's character is weak in the beginning and is easy prey to the demanding threats of his wife, Lady Macbeth, as well as the witches’ manipulation throughout the telling of the prophecies. As the play unfolds Macbeth becomes more confident and more reckless while depending on the witches’ prophecies.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ending the life of Macduff 's family led to nothing but anger causing him to lash out and take macbeth 's life. Macbeth should have been happy, but the pressure of his wife lady Macbeth also played a part in the death of one important man in the play, Duncan. He betrayed the king, Scotland his friend and Macduff just for more power and security. It wasn 't enough being Thane Of Cawdor and thane of Glamis, that bit of power and influence over the people that Macbeth had, needed to be…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The reader should notice that not once does Lady Macbeth speak of her own desire to be queen or the power that she might gain. Upon realizing that Macbeth can only attain the crown through regicide, her only concern is that her husband will need her help. She even feels it necessary to beg the forces of darkness to fortify her for the task, thus betraying the fact that she does not believe herself to be capable of the murder without appealing to the supernatural. This is important. In Shakespeare’s time, the act of opening oneself up to evil spirits would have been scandalous, and Lady Macbeth does exactly that for the benefit of Macbeth.…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Macbeth Draft Ambition is highlighted all throughout the play 'Macbeth '. The typical roles of masculinity and femininity are often reversed as desire for power increases. Ambition also causes peoples actions to change in the heat of the moment. This is a common theme within the play. When Shakespeare wrote 'Macbeth ', he had a message he wanted to portray.…

    • 1847 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play, Macbeth murders many guiltless people: King duncan, “I go, and it [The murder] is done,” (II. i. 63) Banquo and his son “ you must kill both Banquo and his son, Fleance,” (III.i.138-140) Macduff’s family “ My soul is too much charged with blood of thine [Macduff’s family] already,” (V. viii. 5-6) and Siward’s son “Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier’s debt.” (V. viii. 39)…

    • 1354 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays