We learned a lot of information about Lady Macbeth as she was introduced in this Act and we started to touch on her so cruel personality. She is very motivated in helping Macbeth become king, as the witches said in their prophecy, to be better than Duncan. She wants to convince Macbeth of what he should do, she tries a lot to convince him to kill Duncan and tells him all the reasons why he should; she is ambitious and is willing to do anything to make this be true. Also, she wants to convince Macbeth to be cruel and not so full of kindness as he always seems, having such a readable face, “Yet do I fear thy nature;/It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness”(I.v). With her strong personality she is convincing Macbeth to be as strong and cruel as she is and kill the king, it is her current objective in Act I; she has more of an ambitious cruelty within her than he does which will help her convince him “Look like th’ innocent flower,/But be the serpent under’t”(I.v).
Her effect on the Act is great, as she is the one who is trying to affect Macbeth’s mind and actions, she is the one who is directing the story from behind, the strongest one from the couple. When she hears about the Witches’ prophecy she has many ideas she shares with Macbeth, she wants to complete it and to do that she has to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. She feels amazed and excited about the prophecy and wants it to become reality. Macbeth is very fond of her, and is very respectful as he addresses her. In his letter to her he directs her as his partner and as an equal, “my dearest partner of greatness”(I.v: 11).
Macbeth is also completely honest with her, he tells her about the witches’ prophecy openly, “these Weïrd Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail, king that shalt be.'”(I.v) A questions she can bring up are why she is so focused on making the prophecy be true and trusts it so easily, and why she is so different from Macbeth and they still are together and as partners.
Natalie, good comments on Lady Macbeth. A bit more on LM’s darker and more evil side is important to include in her characterization (these lines as well?). (Be sure to proof read carefully before posting.)
Lady Macbeth is an undismissable character in Act 2, as her cruel thoughts and evil persona are key in forming the plot and main events. The Act starts with Macbeth preparing to kill the king; he asks Banquo to tell Lady Macbeth to strike the bell when all is ready for the deed to be done, and her role in the murder has begun. With her evil mind, she is able to easily blackout all servants by drugging their drinks and escort Duncan safely to his chamber without breaking a sweat. Evil greatness comes easily to the Lady, she naturally has the keen sense of cruel intelligence needed to go through a plan such as this one, one that goes against the Divine Right and puts much at risk. The clear examples of her cruel mind begin in scene 2 where she is talking to Macbeth after he has done the deed. The first insane thought of the Lady is her affirming she would have killed Duncan with no regret, if he simply did not look like her father as he slept; she did not have any feelings apparent and did not show any guilt for playing an important part in his murder. By confirming that if Macbeth did not want to kill Duncan she would have done it herself shows once more her strong and independent personality. “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept I had done’t.” (II.ii: 16), her ability to kill and speak of death so simply is bizarre and creates a lot of possible future inferring and new understanding of her deep personality.
While organizing the plan, Lady Macbeth displays her planning and intelligent side of personality. Still in scene 2, she keeps asking Macbeth about how he killed the king and how he left the chamber so nothing can go wrong. When Macbeth says he has brought the daggers with him she orders him to take them back, and as he says he won’t she as the strong woman she is says she will return them herself. A typical Lady of this time would not deliberately walk into a scene such as this one and offer to take the bloody daggers with her, it demonstrates how unique and a strong, cruel woman she is. As she wants everything to be perfect she says: “Why did you bring the daggers from the place?/They must lie there. Go carry them and smear/The sleepy grooms with blood” (II.ii: 61); suggesting that Macbeth smear the servants with the blood and leave the daggers shows how cold hearted she truly is and does not even mind the king’s death, she does not carry a smear of guilt. Being the extremely intelligent woman she is, she knows that it has to seem as if the servants did it, and when macbeth chickens out once more she volunteers to take Duncan’s blood if he is still bleeding and pass it on the servants, “If he do bleed,/ I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal/For it must seem their guilt” (II.ii: 71).
Returning from this journey of completing and perfecting the plan to her best ability, Lady Macbeth’s hands are as red as fire, filled with blood. She does not seem bothered at all, neither guilty of what she has done like Macbeth, and simply says that a little water will remove it all. Because of the part she played in this horrible act, she says she no longer can be seen as a good person by heart; “My hands are of your color, but I shame/To wear a heart so white.”(II.ii: 82). A white heart symbolizes goodness of the person, and she understands at least, behind all her evil, that she will never be a good person. As she is filled with interesting characteristics such as intelligence, bravery, strength, indifference, and cruelty, she is always attentive to what is going on and knows exactly what to say.
When confusion begins in scene 3 and the others find out about Duncan’s death, she seems shocked as she is summoned, she enters the scene questioning the events and looking confused. Faking her shock she is lying and is as good as the best at it, her evil persona believes it always feels like war. “What’s the business,/That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley” (II.iii: 93), and she uses the world parley to describe the meeting of the people in the castle in the morning because of Duncan’s death. A parley is a meeting usually in a battle or during a war, and this is what she calls this casual encounter with everyone. The strength shown in her is impressive, a woman talking about being in a parley is a huge step, it depicts her intelligence. In this same scene she displays careful attentiveness and intelligence as she fakes fainting to distract others’ attention; “Help me hence, ho!” (II.iii: 138). Lady Macbeth is an incredibly unique character who without, the plot would not exist. Her strength is amazing for a woman in her time, and her intelligence is more abundant than that of any man in the play. The cruelty and evil are the reason for Macbeth to have gained courage to kill Duncan in this act, she is the reason he has now become king.
Final Thoughts:
-Lady Macbeth’s evil nature played a key part in Duncan’s death
-Her intelligence is exhuberating and she perfects the plan and manipulates situations
-Her emotions are muted and it seems as if she does not feel anything, from sorrow to guilt, and death is normal for her
Very good use and analysis, as this quote “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept I had done’t.” (II.ii: 16). It shows the true nature of Lady Macbeth, your analysis of this quote is also very detailed and strait to the point. Something very helpful is your final thoughts which gives the key points we need to know about this Act.
Natalie, good comments and evidence related to LM. Do you think the fact that she would have killed Duncan if he did not look like her father shows any feeling or “weakness” in LM? Could you point out how Shakespeare uses language in your analysis? (Check: does Macbeth tell Banquo to tell LM to ring the bell?? “Character” is better word choice than “personality” in this context.)
Lady Macbeth has been once more incredibly present in the plot of the play; although she has had some slight changes in personality her strong attitudes still shine. We have seen Lady Macbeth as a strong and independent woman with a very brave personality, but in some occasion in this act she has had some hints of insecurity. At first, in scene 2 when we first can notice this strange happening, she is speaking and says: “Naught’s had, all’s spent,/Where our desire is got without content./’Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”(III.ii.6-9). This is a perplexing state to see her in, she has gotten what she desires, she is queen, but all this has not brought her happiness as she believed would, she is not joyful. She is insecure about her current situation, and even says it is better to be as dead as Duncan than have all this power but unhappiness. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have switched roles in this part of the play, Macbeth is now playing the strong manhood part by convincing the murderers to kill Banquo and challenging them, while the Lady is insecure about her situation of having plotted tp killed Duncan to be queen. Right after she says this, still in scene 2, she tells Macbeth: “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.”(III.ii.12-14); she puts a strong face for Macbeth and does not follow her own advice. She also should not think of thoughts of the past that should have died, but she does not do that. After all her feelings of unhappiness, she still wants to appear as a strong decided woman who inputs her beliefs on her man.
Continuing the strength of her speech she says to Macbeth: “Sleek o’er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial/Among your guests tonight.”(III.ii.31-32). She is telling him to keep up the appearances for the guests and look like nothing is bothering him; all these sayings start to sound like the previously strong Lady Macbeth, but is she only putting on a strong face for her man? Another example of the same phenomenon that happens in scene 4 is “You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold/That is not often vouched, while ’tis a-making,/’Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home; From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;/Meeting were bare without it”; she is telling him to have a good party and please his guests or else they will be better off eating in their own homes. As she is stressing this so much on him maybe she is trying to convince her own self to act like she is saying.
When Macbeth starts to go mad at the banquet and see the ghost of Banquo she wants to control the situation as always: “Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus/And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat./The fit is momentary; upon a thought/He will be again well.”(III.iv.64-67). She wants to keep the situation calm and not raise suspicion; after saying this to her guests she says to Macbeth: “[Drawing Macbeth aside.]/Are you a man?”(III.iv.69-70). Once more she challenges his manhood as she commonly does and goes back to her roots from the beginning of the play. She keeps wanting to distract others from the chaos Macbeth is causing as she says: “Think of this, good/peers,/But as a thing of custom. ‘Tis no other;/Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.”(III.iv.117-120), she is so smart and continues not wanting to raise suspicion. She is so afraid in this scene that Macbeth will go crazy and tell the whole truth that she tells everybody to leave: “At once, good night./Stand not upon the order of your going,/But go at once.”(III.iv.145-147), if she let Macbeth keep on going with this madness he is causing people would start to be suspicious of him and what he is seeing that is making him speak alone.
Lady Macbeth was very present in this act and even though doubted herself in the beginning continued to have the strong character she normally gives off and we are used to seeing. All her actions in this act towards Macbeth have been seen before, her challenging of his manhood, her controlling of the situation, and her manipulating of his actions. Her intelligence and plotting abilities continue to increase as she is always a step ahead of the game and knows how to influence people and a situation always.
Final Thoughts
-This is the first time we see Lady Macbeth insecure and doubting herself, she says she is not happy even though she is queen, first time we see her without any confidence
-She continues on to show us the strong character she had in the start of the play
–controls situations
–challenges Macbeth’s manhood
–manipulates and calms down what is going wrong
Act 5
Act 5 is the Final act of the play, and in which Lady Macbeth’s role comes to a sad end. Her importance to the play as a whole is abundant, but in every act we see her differently, having a different purpose and displaying a different message. She is Macbeth’s wife, and so helps the reader characterize Macbeth and understand what is happening to him in the play because of his so strong relationship with the Lady. In this Act she is incredibly psychologically damaged and is so disturbed by the events that have occurred that she chooses to end her own life.
In scene one, she makes her last appearance in the play and speaks her last words. This mirrors the final image we have of her and the depiction we take in of her character. These can be said to be her most important lines, as they show how mad she has gone and how every choice she made together with Macbeth had severe consequences. In this scene, even though they are her most important lines, she is not even awake. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and speaking what she shouldn’t have as her eyes are open “but their senses are shut.”(V.i.27). A doctor is in the scene with a gentlewoman observing Lady Macbeth to try and diagnose and cure her of this sickness, but obviously this is a sickness of the mind and all the devils in her psychological self are affecting her to the point of her subconscious speaking for her. She ironically enters the room with a candle, “Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper”(V.i.Stage Directions), as Shakespeare uses the motif of light to display good. Lady Macbeth is a character of everything but good in the play, so her holding the candle is a depiction of her holding the goodness in her hands and not being it.
To enforce the fact that she has not done good choices and not been a good person she is filled with guilt and regret now in the end of the play. Thinking of Duncan’s death that was mainly her fault and remembering that her hands were full of blood right after the murder she appears “to seem thus washing her hands.”(V.i.31), when she is sleepwalking. She is extremely worried and washing her hands like the blood is still on them and this is Shakespeare trying to show us in her last lines all the horror that being part of these murders brought her. He is showing all the guilt she felt because she made horrible choices, and the contrast with how she was in the beginning of the play. In Act one and two she was this strong woman, who was convincing Macbeth of murdering the king and following the prophecy, who was challenging his manhood, and saying she would kill the king herself. Now she has completely changed, she is a completely new person; the horrors have gone up to her head and she cannot think straight anymore.
Continuing the streak of her feelings of guilt Lady Macbeth goes on to talk about Duncan and say: “Yet who would have thought the old man/to have had so much blood in him?”(V.i.41). She is so full of regret that her subconscious does not stop thinking of Duncan’s, Banquo’s, and Lady Macduff’s murder, she is worried and questions that “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?”(V.i.44). Being the end of her role in the play Shakespeare is showing how the whole play affected her character and changed her. We have to notice and be aware of her change of character throughout the play and how her mind is going mad after each situation. Her mind is so sick and full of worry that she is not herself speaking, and the gentlewoman even says, “She has spoke what she should not,”(V.i.50). She is completely losing control of the situation like she never had before; previously she was always the one controlling the situation for nothing to be suspicious or off place, and ordering Macbeth around so everything could be perfect, but now she has lost it, she has cracked, and all her fears and doubts came to the surface. Her madness is inevitable and the figurative blood on her hands as well, as she sees it she cries “Out, damned spot, out, I say!”(V.i.37), as she sees that this blood and guilt will never wash off her.
Feeling all this guilt that she was hiding before she is now wondering about her afterlife, she says that the perfumes of Arabia will never wash off the smell in her hands and that “Hell is murky.”(V.i.38). She will never be forgiven and die guilty because of her life choices and all murders. Her final lines are: “What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.”(V.i.71), which show her giving up on the last shred of hope, what is done is done and she is not guilty forever, she will never forgive herself and now the only thing left to do is go ‘to bed’ and give up, as she later did when she killed herself. Her whole final passage is written in prose, and Shakespeare uses prose in so many different manners in the play we have to depict what is its significance here. This is not a comical passage that is how he previously has used prose, like in the scene of the Porter, but it is a very deep scene that moves the mind. He may be using prose because Lady Macbeth is not herself in this scene and this shows how she has lost her mind to the point where she cannot even speak in poetry anymore. She is not even speaking as a noble woman in poetry because of the point she has descended to.
Finally, in scene five it is announced, “The Queen, my lord, is dead.”(V.v.19), and it is incredibly important to analyze how this death affects Macbeth and learn about their relationship. The first thing he says after the news in that “She should have died hereafter”(V.i.20), and this can be interpreted as if she would have died anyway if she had not killed herself how, so her reaction seems almost one of indifference. He starts to reflect on the passage of life and its importance, he says that “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage”(V.v.27). Her death has made him reflect on his own life and its significance, what is life? He says life is like an actor on a stage that moves around trying to form a story out of it, and he says that life passes by and takes on a kind of nihilistic view. Thinking as if nothing matters because all will come to an end, Macbeth is clearly affected by Lady Macbeth’s death. Concluding, even Malcolm in his final words and the final phrases of the whole play mentions Lady Macbeth’s death and we can see how important it is and why Shakespeare made it to be that way. He is speaking “Of the dead butcher and his fiend-like queen (Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands, took off her life)”, and this shows how even Malcolm understands how the madness got to her head and messed with it to the point of taking one’s own life.
Final Thoughts:
-Last words
-Has gone mad
-Is feeling guilt and regret
-Suicide
-Could not handle it anymore
-Significant change of character
-Contrasting with beginning of play
-Not strong and challenging anymore
Macbeth Characters and Motifs 
We learned a lot of information about Lady Macbeth as she was introduced in this Act and we started to touch on her so cruel personality. She is very motivated in helping Macbeth become king, as the witches said in their prophecy, to be better than Duncan. She wants to convince Macbeth of what he should do, she tries a lot to convince him to kill Duncan and tells him all the reasons why he should; she is ambitious and is willing to do anything to make this be true. Also, she wants to convince Macbeth to be cruel and not so full of kindness as he always seems, having such a readable face, “Yet do I fear thy nature;/It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness”(I.v). With her strong personality she is convincing Macbeth to be as strong and cruel as she is and kill the king, it is her current objective in Act I; she has more of an ambitious cruelty within her than he does which will help her convince him “Look like th’ innocent flower,/But be the serpent under’t”(I.v).
Her effect on the Act is great, as she is the one who is trying to affect Macbeth’s mind and actions, she is the one who is directing the story from behind, the strongest one from the couple. When she hears about the Witches’ prophecy she has many ideas she shares with Macbeth, she wants to complete it and to do that she has to convince Macbeth to kill Duncan. She feels amazed and excited about the prophecy and wants it to become reality. Macbeth is very fond of her, and is very respectful as he addresses her. In his letter to her he directs her as his partner and as an equal, “my dearest partner of greatness”(I.v: 11).
Macbeth is also completely honest with her, he tells her about the witches’ prophecy openly, “these Weïrd Sisters saluted me and referred me to the coming on of time with ‘Hail, king that shalt be.'”(I.v) A questions she can bring up are why she is so focused on making the prophecy be true and trusts it so easily, and why she is so different from Macbeth and they still are together and as partners.
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Natalie, good comments on Lady Macbeth. A bit more on LM’s darker and more evil side is important to include in her characterization (these lines as well?). (Be sure to proof read carefully before posting.)
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Lady Macbeth is an undismissable character in Act 2, as her cruel thoughts and evil persona are key in forming the plot and main events. The Act starts with Macbeth preparing to kill the king; he asks Banquo to tell Lady Macbeth to strike the bell when all is ready for the deed to be done, and her role in the murder has begun. With her evil mind, she is able to easily blackout all servants by drugging their drinks and escort Duncan safely to his chamber without breaking a sweat. Evil greatness comes easily to the Lady, she naturally has the keen sense of cruel intelligence needed to go through a plan such as this one, one that goes against the Divine Right and puts much at risk. The clear examples of her cruel mind begin in scene 2 where she is talking to Macbeth after he has done the deed. The first insane thought of the Lady is her affirming she would have killed Duncan with no regret, if he simply did not look like her father as he slept; she did not have any feelings apparent and did not show any guilt for playing an important part in his murder. By confirming that if Macbeth did not want to kill Duncan she would have done it herself shows once more her strong and independent personality. “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept I had done’t.” (II.ii: 16), her ability to kill and speak of death so simply is bizarre and creates a lot of possible future inferring and new understanding of her deep personality.
While organizing the plan, Lady Macbeth displays her planning and intelligent side of personality. Still in scene 2, she keeps asking Macbeth about how he killed the king and how he left the chamber so nothing can go wrong. When Macbeth says he has brought the daggers with him she orders him to take them back, and as he says he won’t she as the strong woman she is says she will return them herself. A typical Lady of this time would not deliberately walk into a scene such as this one and offer to take the bloody daggers with her, it demonstrates how unique and a strong, cruel woman she is. As she wants everything to be perfect she says: “Why did you bring the daggers from the place?/They must lie there. Go carry them and smear/The sleepy grooms with blood” (II.ii: 61); suggesting that Macbeth smear the servants with the blood and leave the daggers shows how cold hearted she truly is and does not even mind the king’s death, she does not carry a smear of guilt. Being the extremely intelligent woman she is, she knows that it has to seem as if the servants did it, and when macbeth chickens out once more she volunteers to take Duncan’s blood if he is still bleeding and pass it on the servants, “If he do bleed,/ I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal/For it must seem their guilt” (II.ii: 71).
Returning from this journey of completing and perfecting the plan to her best ability, Lady Macbeth’s hands are as red as fire, filled with blood. She does not seem bothered at all, neither guilty of what she has done like Macbeth, and simply says that a little water will remove it all. Because of the part she played in this horrible act, she says she no longer can be seen as a good person by heart; “My hands are of your color, but I shame/To wear a heart so white.”(II.ii: 82). A white heart symbolizes goodness of the person, and she understands at least, behind all her evil, that she will never be a good person. As she is filled with interesting characteristics such as intelligence, bravery, strength, indifference, and cruelty, she is always attentive to what is going on and knows exactly what to say.
When confusion begins in scene 3 and the others find out about Duncan’s death, she seems shocked as she is summoned, she enters the scene questioning the events and looking confused. Faking her shock she is lying and is as good as the best at it, her evil persona believes it always feels like war. “What’s the business,/That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley” (II.iii: 93), and she uses the world parley to describe the meeting of the people in the castle in the morning because of Duncan’s death. A parley is a meeting usually in a battle or during a war, and this is what she calls this casual encounter with everyone. The strength shown in her is impressive, a woman talking about being in a parley is a huge step, it depicts her intelligence. In this same scene she displays careful attentiveness and intelligence as she fakes fainting to distract others’ attention; “Help me hence, ho!” (II.iii: 138). Lady Macbeth is an incredibly unique character who without, the plot would not exist. Her strength is amazing for a woman in her time, and her intelligence is more abundant than that of any man in the play. The cruelty and evil are the reason for Macbeth to have gained courage to kill Duncan in this act, she is the reason he has now become king.
Final Thoughts:
-Lady Macbeth’s evil nature played a key part in Duncan’s death
-Her intelligence is exhuberating and she perfects the plan and manipulates situations
-Her emotions are muted and it seems as if she does not feel anything, from sorrow to guilt, and death is normal for her
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Very good use and analysis, as this quote “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept I had done’t.” (II.ii: 16). It shows the true nature of Lady Macbeth, your analysis of this quote is also very detailed and strait to the point. Something very helpful is your final thoughts which gives the key points we need to know about this Act.
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Natalie, good comments and evidence related to LM. Do you think the fact that she would have killed Duncan if he did not look like her father shows any feeling or “weakness” in LM? Could you point out how Shakespeare uses language in your analysis? (Check: does Macbeth tell Banquo to tell LM to ring the bell?? “Character” is better word choice than “personality” in this context.)
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Lady Macbeth has been once more incredibly present in the plot of the play; although she has had some slight changes in personality her strong attitudes still shine. We have seen Lady Macbeth as a strong and independent woman with a very brave personality, but in some occasion in this act she has had some hints of insecurity. At first, in scene 2 when we first can notice this strange happening, she is speaking and says: “Naught’s had, all’s spent,/Where our desire is got without content./’Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”(III.ii.6-9). This is a perplexing state to see her in, she has gotten what she desires, she is queen, but all this has not brought her happiness as she believed would, she is not joyful. She is insecure about her current situation, and even says it is better to be as dead as Duncan than have all this power but unhappiness. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have switched roles in this part of the play, Macbeth is now playing the strong manhood part by convincing the murderers to kill Banquo and challenging them, while the Lady is insecure about her situation of having plotted tp killed Duncan to be queen. Right after she says this, still in scene 2, she tells Macbeth: “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.”(III.ii.12-14); she puts a strong face for Macbeth and does not follow her own advice. She also should not think of thoughts of the past that should have died, but she does not do that. After all her feelings of unhappiness, she still wants to appear as a strong decided woman who inputs her beliefs on her man.
Continuing the strength of her speech she says to Macbeth: “Sleek o’er your rugged looks. Be bright and jovial/Among your guests tonight.”(III.ii.31-32). She is telling him to keep up the appearances for the guests and look like nothing is bothering him; all these sayings start to sound like the previously strong Lady Macbeth, but is she only putting on a strong face for her man? Another example of the same phenomenon that happens in scene 4 is “You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold/That is not often vouched, while ’tis a-making,/’Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home; From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;/Meeting were bare without it”; she is telling him to have a good party and please his guests or else they will be better off eating in their own homes. As she is stressing this so much on him maybe she is trying to convince her own self to act like she is saying.
When Macbeth starts to go mad at the banquet and see the ghost of Banquo she wants to control the situation as always: “Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often thus/And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat./The fit is momentary; upon a thought/He will be again well.”(III.iv.64-67). She wants to keep the situation calm and not raise suspicion; after saying this to her guests she says to Macbeth: “[Drawing Macbeth aside.]/Are you a man?”(III.iv.69-70). Once more she challenges his manhood as she commonly does and goes back to her roots from the beginning of the play. She keeps wanting to distract others from the chaos Macbeth is causing as she says: “Think of this, good/peers,/But as a thing of custom. ‘Tis no other;/Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.”(III.iv.117-120), she is so smart and continues not wanting to raise suspicion. She is so afraid in this scene that Macbeth will go crazy and tell the whole truth that she tells everybody to leave: “At once, good night./Stand not upon the order of your going,/But go at once.”(III.iv.145-147), if she let Macbeth keep on going with this madness he is causing people would start to be suspicious of him and what he is seeing that is making him speak alone.
Lady Macbeth was very present in this act and even though doubted herself in the beginning continued to have the strong character she normally gives off and we are used to seeing. All her actions in this act towards Macbeth have been seen before, her challenging of his manhood, her controlling of the situation, and her manipulating of his actions. Her intelligence and plotting abilities continue to increase as she is always a step ahead of the game and knows how to influence people and a situation always.
Final Thoughts
-This is the first time we see Lady Macbeth insecure and doubting herself, she says she is not happy even though she is queen, first time we see her without any confidence
-She continues on to show us the strong character she had in the start of the play
–controls situations
–challenges Macbeth’s manhood
–manipulates and calms down what is going wrong
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Natalie, good comments on LM’s changing character here. Do you think that she will continue to evolve through the end of the play?
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Lady Macbeth does not appear in Act 4 therefore I will comment on another character(Malcolm) in my tracing document in Google Drive.
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Act 5
Act 5 is the Final act of the play, and in which Lady Macbeth’s role comes to a sad end. Her importance to the play as a whole is abundant, but in every act we see her differently, having a different purpose and displaying a different message. She is Macbeth’s wife, and so helps the reader characterize Macbeth and understand what is happening to him in the play because of his so strong relationship with the Lady. In this Act she is incredibly psychologically damaged and is so disturbed by the events that have occurred that she chooses to end her own life.
In scene one, she makes her last appearance in the play and speaks her last words. This mirrors the final image we have of her and the depiction we take in of her character. These can be said to be her most important lines, as they show how mad she has gone and how every choice she made together with Macbeth had severe consequences. In this scene, even though they are her most important lines, she is not even awake. Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking and speaking what she shouldn’t have as her eyes are open “but their senses are shut.”(V.i.27). A doctor is in the scene with a gentlewoman observing Lady Macbeth to try and diagnose and cure her of this sickness, but obviously this is a sickness of the mind and all the devils in her psychological self are affecting her to the point of her subconscious speaking for her. She ironically enters the room with a candle, “Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper”(V.i.Stage Directions), as Shakespeare uses the motif of light to display good. Lady Macbeth is a character of everything but good in the play, so her holding the candle is a depiction of her holding the goodness in her hands and not being it.
To enforce the fact that she has not done good choices and not been a good person she is filled with guilt and regret now in the end of the play. Thinking of Duncan’s death that was mainly her fault and remembering that her hands were full of blood right after the murder she appears “to seem thus washing her hands.”(V.i.31), when she is sleepwalking. She is extremely worried and washing her hands like the blood is still on them and this is Shakespeare trying to show us in her last lines all the horror that being part of these murders brought her. He is showing all the guilt she felt because she made horrible choices, and the contrast with how she was in the beginning of the play. In Act one and two she was this strong woman, who was convincing Macbeth of murdering the king and following the prophecy, who was challenging his manhood, and saying she would kill the king herself. Now she has completely changed, she is a completely new person; the horrors have gone up to her head and she cannot think straight anymore.
Continuing the streak of her feelings of guilt Lady Macbeth goes on to talk about Duncan and say: “Yet who would have thought the old man/to have had so much blood in him?”(V.i.41). She is so full of regret that her subconscious does not stop thinking of Duncan’s, Banquo’s, and Lady Macduff’s murder, she is worried and questions that “The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?”(V.i.44). Being the end of her role in the play Shakespeare is showing how the whole play affected her character and changed her. We have to notice and be aware of her change of character throughout the play and how her mind is going mad after each situation. Her mind is so sick and full of worry that she is not herself speaking, and the gentlewoman even says, “She has spoke what she should not,”(V.i.50). She is completely losing control of the situation like she never had before; previously she was always the one controlling the situation for nothing to be suspicious or off place, and ordering Macbeth around so everything could be perfect, but now she has lost it, she has cracked, and all her fears and doubts came to the surface. Her madness is inevitable and the figurative blood on her hands as well, as she sees it she cries “Out, damned spot, out, I say!”(V.i.37), as she sees that this blood and guilt will never wash off her.
Feeling all this guilt that she was hiding before she is now wondering about her afterlife, she says that the perfumes of Arabia will never wash off the smell in her hands and that “Hell is murky.”(V.i.38). She will never be forgiven and die guilty because of her life choices and all murders. Her final lines are: “What’s done cannot be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed.”(V.i.71), which show her giving up on the last shred of hope, what is done is done and she is not guilty forever, she will never forgive herself and now the only thing left to do is go ‘to bed’ and give up, as she later did when she killed herself. Her whole final passage is written in prose, and Shakespeare uses prose in so many different manners in the play we have to depict what is its significance here. This is not a comical passage that is how he previously has used prose, like in the scene of the Porter, but it is a very deep scene that moves the mind. He may be using prose because Lady Macbeth is not herself in this scene and this shows how she has lost her mind to the point where she cannot even speak in poetry anymore. She is not even speaking as a noble woman in poetry because of the point she has descended to.
Finally, in scene five it is announced, “The Queen, my lord, is dead.”(V.v.19), and it is incredibly important to analyze how this death affects Macbeth and learn about their relationship. The first thing he says after the news in that “She should have died hereafter”(V.i.20), and this can be interpreted as if she would have died anyway if she had not killed herself how, so her reaction seems almost one of indifference. He starts to reflect on the passage of life and its importance, he says that “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/That struts and frets his hour upon the stage”(V.v.27). Her death has made him reflect on his own life and its significance, what is life? He says life is like an actor on a stage that moves around trying to form a story out of it, and he says that life passes by and takes on a kind of nihilistic view. Thinking as if nothing matters because all will come to an end, Macbeth is clearly affected by Lady Macbeth’s death. Concluding, even Malcolm in his final words and the final phrases of the whole play mentions Lady Macbeth’s death and we can see how important it is and why Shakespeare made it to be that way. He is speaking “Of the dead butcher and his fiend-like queen (Who, as ’tis thought, by self and violent hands, took off her life)”, and this shows how even Malcolm understands how the madness got to her head and messed with it to the point of taking one’s own life.
Final Thoughts:
-Last words
-Has gone mad
-Is feeling guilt and regret
-Suicide
-Could not handle it anymore
-Significant change of character
-Contrasting with beginning of play
-Not strong and challenging anymore
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