Lady Macbeth and Her Evil Spirit

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Macbeth and Lady Macbeth feel as though murder is the quickest and effective way to death without a problem. Macbeth realizes that in order to be a king, he will also have to become an assassin. Whereas, Lady Macbeth realizes this she is okay with become an assassin, only if it will bring her power. “That made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were a man/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place/ Did then adhere, and yet you would make both” (1.7. 49-52). Lady Macbeth plays on the ego of Macbeth, so much so that he feels he is invincible and is all powerful. `However, after the act of murder, Macbeth is filled with dread and weariness because he committed an act of sin that left him uncleansed and dirt on his conscious. The uncleanliness of Macbeth’s conscious led him to fear sleep “Macbeth does murder sleep”-the innocent sleep” (2.2.36). Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the murder of King Duncan was nonexistent until scene 5 when she is seen sleepwalking and trying to wash her hands of his blood, “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him” (5.1.33-34). This cleansing of her hands is significant to Lady Macbeth’s conversation to her husband after he killed Duncan because she advised Macbeth to cleanse his hands of the blood and move on, whereas now, later in her subconscious she desperately wants to cleanse her hands of her wrongdoings, which points to a character change, focused on redemption and kind actions.

Lady Macbeth’s character portrayal is primarily one dimensional because of her corrupt behavior and lack of womanly characteristics. But as time moves on her character portrayal shifts into acts of redemption and sorry. However, for Lady Macbeth, her incentives, even after her shift in attitude, are shown as narrow and straight-forward, and any problem or object put in her way can be dealt with and resolved, regardless of the situation. Lady Macbeth is against moral thinking because she puts herself ahead of others, while giving no concern for others’ pain and distress, which ultimately leads to her suicide.

Works Cited

Thomas, Catherine E. "(Un)sexing Lady Macbeth: gender, power, and visual rhetoric in her graphic afterlives." The Upstart Crow 31 (2012): 81+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.

McElroy, Bernard. "Bloom's Major Literary Characters Macbeth." Macbeth: The Torture of the Mind Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 2005. 27. Print