Pursuit of Power : Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

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Macbeth is a really noble and loyal character in the beginning of the play but later on he turns into such ambitious beast that he does not care about other people just like Lady Macbeth. When Witches tells him the prophecies and tells him that he will be the king, that moment onward, Macbeth’s character starts altering. He starts thinking about killing king Duncan, to become the king himself. Then, Lady Macbeth proposes the idea of killing King Duncan and comes up with the plan, but Macbeth starts having second thoughts. He says, that he does not want to kill king Duncan because people like him as their king and also because Duncan trusts him as he is his cousin and he is his host, who is supposed to keep the king protected rather than killing him himself, but it is his “Vaulting ambition” (1.7.27) that wants him to do this deed, that want his to kill king Duncan just to become king himself. But as people say, that no matter how bad your crime is, guilt will always take over you. Same thing happened with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is a really strong female character from the start. But after committing the crime of killing king Duncan, she starts feeling guilty. But she doesn’t show her guilt totally yet but after she gets to know about Macbeth’s actions, about how he is performing murder after murder without thinking anything guilt totally takes over her. She starts sleepwalking, talking to herself and seems to washing her hands saying, “Out damned spot! Out I say!” (5.1.31). Her guilt is coming to a surface as she sleeps and dreams. In this state, she attempts to clean Duncan’s invisible blood off her hands. Duncan’s blood is symbolic of her guilt. When lady Macbeth says, that she is shocked that the old man has so much blood in him. She means, that she is surprised that she would feel so guilty for having been supportive of the murder. This shows that guilty she is of her acts and in the end she drowns so much in her guilt that she ends up killing herself. The same feeling of guilt after killing king Duncan can be seen in Macbeth too.

Macbeth, overall is a very ambitious character but however, every time in this play he has committed a crime, he has been full of guilt. Earlier in the play, when Macbeth is on his way to kill king Duncan he sees a dagger covered in blood. This dagger symbolizes his guilt of killing king Duncan and after he has done the deadly deed his senses are heightened, immediately after killing King Duncan, Macbeth's senses are heightened, and he is paranoid about being caught, which is why he jumps at every noise and looking at his bloody hands, Macbeth wishes that he could take away the eyes that witnessed his crime. Again, Duncan’s blood is symbolic of his guilt. After that he says that there is not enough water in the ocean that can clean the blood from his hands, “Will all great…. green one red” (2.2.63-66). He feels that he will never get over the guilt from his murderous act. This same feeling of guilt can be seen when he sends the murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Even though, Macbeth did not commit the murder of Banquo himself, he is still full of guilt of killing his ally as he starts seeing the ghost of Banquo at the banquet.

Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are totally different characters when seen them through their gender and masculinity but at the same time they share some similarities like they both are driven by their ambition and both are remorseful of their crimes. Shakespeare, in his play Macbeth, showed a female character, Lady Macbeth, as more masculine at times than the male character, Macbeth. In spite of, the women in his Era, that were as equal as “nothing” in the society. The quote by Patricia Hill Collins, was totally reflected in this play as people don’t see women as masculine as men and in Shakespeare’s era that was totally not possible. However, by showing a woman that fierce, as in Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare, showed that masculinity does not only belongs to men but women are also fully capable of it.