Untitled Essay, Research Paper
By: Garth Benson
The Guilt of Lady Macbeth
“To metamorphose ones character through years of experience and age is salutary.
To deteriorate ones character through a short period of fast decisions and
unsure actions is perilous.” Lady Macbeth gives truth to this theory. The
impulsive mistakes and power-hungry tactics littered the journey Lady Macbeth
paves throughout this play is ultimately her dramatic flaw. She feels overwhelmed
by all that is happening, both physically and mentally, and decides to end
her own life. The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare illustrates
two seemingly ordinary nobles whose lives intertwine in a whirlwind of power,
corruption, and the supernatural resulting in their descents. They both,
so wrapped up in this greedy world, failed to consider the consequences of
their actions and more realistically Macbeth started to succumb to the belief
of deeds that he is about to perform is the right thing to do, “I dare do
all that may become a man. Who dares do more is none.”(Shakespeare, Macbeth
291). Lady Macbeth in particular loses sight of rationality from the play’s
beginning to end. She creates an image of ruthlessness and believes she can
handle the intrusion of unearthly evil in her mind and soul. She presents
a seemingly stable foundation of control in which she clutches with an iron
fist. As Macbeth becomes less dependent on his wife, she loses more control.
She loses control of her husband, but mostly, of herself, proving her vacillating
truth. Lady Macbeth’s character gradually disintegrates through a false portrayal
of unyielding strength, an unsteady control of her husband and shifting
involvement with supernatural powers.
Throughout the duration of play Lady Macbeth’s truly decrepit and vulnerable
nature is revealed. Lady Macbeth has been the iron fist and authority icon
for Macbeth, yet deep down, she never carried such traits to begin with.
This duality in Lady Macbeth’s character plays a huge role in planting the
seed for Macbeth’s downfall and eventual demise. At the beginning of the
play, Lady Macbeth is introduced as a dominant, controlling, heartless wife
with an obsessive ambition to achieve kingship for her husband. Her weak,
sheltered, unsure and unstable condition is only revealed at the end of the
play. However, the audience begins to see hints of this hidden nature by
the manner in which Macbeth addresses her. Contrary to her supposed ruthless
nature, her husband regards her as a pure being. He attempts to shield her
from foreign agencies by saying, “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,”
(319). It is only in private that Lady Macbeth shows her weaknesses. As oppo!
sed to her seemingly violent persona, Lady Macbeth is horrified by blood,
and during her sleepwalking soliloquy refers to her hand as if suggesting
a delicate stature by uttering this: “All the perfumes / of Arabia will not
sweeten this little hand.” (353). Although Lady Macbeth is unstable and
vulnerable, she uses dramatic analogies to persuade her openly fragile husband
to follow through with the first murder:
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. (291).
Her shocking and persuasive effect on Macbeth convinces him that he is settled.
By hearing a woman who seems to be fearless of his anxieties, he is soothed.
But even here we begin to catch a greater glimpse of Lady Macbeth’s very
unstable mind. By using such a graphic description, she reflects her straining
desperation for Macbeth’s commitment. She knows that Macbeth is a strong
person, and she must seem stronger to convince him to go along with her.
She now has to wear a ‘mask’ of this determined and cold character, creating
more distance between her true self and Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has the persuasive
capable of humiliating someone into murder, but has no personal capacity
to execute ‘the deed,’ though she spoke, at times, as if she would take the
opportunity whenever it arose, “Had he not resembled my father as he slept,
I had done’t.” (298). Lady Macbeth imagines that she has ability to hide
her true emotions, though her mind is as frail as an “egg”. She claims that
sh!
e can act to “look like the innocent flower/But be the serpent under’t” (287).
Lady Macbeth imagines that she has the capability to be a remorseless and
determined villain, but she isn’t anything of the like in reality; in actuality,
at the end of the play Lady Macbeth is so feeble-minded she becomes overwhelmed
with the guilt that has been set upon her by her husband. In reality, the
final results are only accountable to Lady Macbeth. She is the one who convinces
her husband to commit the murders, therefore ending in a series of emotional
and mental problems. As the play begins, she is a motivated, power-hungry
woman with no boundaries; however, as the play moves on, Lady Macbeth begins
to fall further and further into a guilt-filled world, ending in her own
suicide.
Throughout the play, Lady Macbeth’s shifting control over her husband is
mainly responsible for aggravating the struggle between Macbeth’s morality,
devotion and “vaulting ambition.” In the beginning, she believes matters
should be taken into her own hands from the moment she receives the letter
about the witches’ prophecies. At the dawn of the play, Lady Macbeth believes
that Macbeth doesn’t have the “spirit” to “catch the nearest way” (286).
At this moment, she decides that quick action will be the basis of her reasoning
and planning. Her spur-of-the-moment orders will affect Macbeth so deeply
his character will be forever changed. Lady Macbeth intentionally tries to
ignore consequence and concentrates on securing Macbeth’s future as king
of Scotland. She looks to the ‘quickest way’ as one that may lack rationality,
but shortens their path to the throne. She receives a letter from Macbeth
with the news that he was prophesied as the king of Scotland. As soon as
he!
r eyes ran across the words, she said, “thou. shalt be / What thou art promised”
(286). She suggests, by this quick reaction, her intentions to be a major
participant in ensuring Macbeth’s royal success. After the murder is plotted
between the two, Duncan decides to make a surprise appearance at Macbeth’s
house. Lady Macbeth tells her husband to put the “great business into my
dispatch” (287), taking charge and covering for Macbeth, who is defenseless
to the overbearing tension residing in himself. As the situation escalates,
Lady Macbeth tries to soothe him by explaining that “things without remedy
/ Should be without regard: What’s done is done” (318). She has changed her
technique with Macbeth from shock and intimidation to restraint. She says,
“You must leave this”, which sounds calming and unworried. Her control over
Macbeth has waned, and over herself, her control is dwindling as each second
passes. The fire she once had, which drove Macbeth forward, is now no more
than a minute spark. She is beginning to lose that controlling stiffness
. She asks Macbeth, “what’s to be done” (319), which is a drastic change
in control. She doesn’t voice any opinions or plans of any sort for the rest
of the play. Lady Macbeth is now in awe of Macbeth, a contrast to when Macbeth
was in awe of Lady Macbeth’s infanticide analogy. She, by the end of the
play, has lost self-confidence by realizing that most of this situation is
a result of her impulsiveness and instability. When Lady Macbeth finally
recognizes her incompetence, all else crumbles, including her husband. The
significance of this dramatic flaw secures her role as the foundation and
authority in the beginning of the play, which plants the seed for failure
from beginning to end.
Lady Macbeth’s relationship with the supernatural evolves from confidently
seeking and obtaining the evilness, to being victimized by its power. At
one point, Lady Macbeth demands the assistance of unearthly evil forces:
“Come you spirits/ unsex me here, and fill me, from crown to the toe” (287).
Being totally rash, Lady Macbeth summons the evil as if she can undermine
the power of darkness to her advantage. She asks for the assistance of the
evil, implying that she holds no resident evil in her soul. It must act as
an additive to fulfill a transformation. Lady Macbeth is creating, instead
of magnifying, wickedness that she must manifest in order to propel Macbeth.
She embraces the darkness and welcomes it. By being so crude in her requests,
she must believe that she is far too ‘valorous’ to be negatively affected
by it. It is rather ironic to see the utter reversal of this at the end of
the play. She eventually goes delirious, carrying a lit candle wherever she
wa!
lked. Indeed, this behavior is a pathetic attempt to try and fend off the
true evil darkness with a man-made light. She looks to Lady Macduff with
a countenance of that which would belong to a ghost. She begins to express
a compassion that she had never felt when she utters, “The Thane of Fife
had a wife. Where is she / now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” (352).
Lady Macbeth’s decaying remorse she had chosen to restrain had sunken into
her brain, like a sump, slowly grabbing at her thoughts one by one. The darkness
had stripped her of her ‘mask,’ and she is now engulfed in agony and sorrow.
She is helpless. The thought of the evil, which she once sought after and
accepted, was now an image of terror in her mind.
Lady Macbeth’s character gradually disintegrates through a false portrayal
of unyielding strength, an unsteady control of her husband and shifting
involvement with supernatural powers. Lady Macbeth’s deterioration is not
only a result of unwise decisions and actions; many factors played a role
in this tragedy of this character’s morale: She regarded supernatural forces
with such respect and confidence, she tried to get in touch with her own
only to become overpowered by their evilness; her desire for an intimidating
personality resulted in the destruction of her morals and in the end, the
brutal realization of her true weaknesses. The couple’s ambition, although
obsessive, is a characteristic of human nature; her gift of harsh control
over Macbeth resulted in a perilous journey for a common goal and the demise
of not only herself but also her husband. Possibly as a result of these many
factors, Lady Macbeth ends her life and Macbeth is forced to ponder his own
!
existence as well. Macbeth’s general outlook of life proved to be a brief
meditation on the meaningless of human actions:
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (360)
He realizes everything he strove for in life was in vain; therefore his wife’s
death seems more like an escape from their worthless life. Perhaps if Macbeth
and his lady were happy with who they were, they would not have let power,
ambition, authority, and supernatural forces hinder their chances at happiness.
Shakespeare, William. “Macbeth” Evanston, Illinois: McDougal, Littell
& Company, 1992