How Did Shakespeare Present Lady Macbeth in This Scene?

How did Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth in this scene?

Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's ‘’Macbeth’’ is portrayed interestingly throughout the scene due to all her previous actions coming against her. From her desire to be in a higher rank leading her to plot against the king her using force and manipulating her husband to murder the king which leads her on to her guilt depicting her having an invisible husband and blood on her hands to how she reacts with all the guilt that she has felt.

Firstly, Lady Macbeth is desiring for more power extremely early on in the play. Once she received a letter that Macbeth had sent from the battlefield that he was now the Thane of Cawdor, she begins to want for more and aspire for more good news. Once Macbeth arrives at their palace she begins to propose to kill Duncan, the king. Macbeth refuses and Lady Macbeth says he ‘’is too full of the milk of human kindness’’. After swaying Macbeth for a while, he agrees. This guilt comes back to her in act 5 scene 1 as the gentlewoman on duty tells a doctor that she has called that Lady Macbeth would, every ‘’quarter of an hour’’, rise and read and then fold a piece of paper. The gentlewoman says it has happened ‘’since his majesty wet into the field’’. This shows that Lady Macbeth begins to be concerned about her husband because he might get killed by people who believe Macbeth killed the king as line sixty five says ‘’Foul whisperings are abroad;unnatural deeds breathe unnatural troubles’’. These events make the scene interesting by showing that even right after the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth isn’t vexed, but the stress and guilt all come against her in this scene turning her from a composed woman to one which has gone insane just for the purpose of rising in the ranking system. In contrast, many other Shakespearean play murders occur out of jealousy such as ‘’Julius Caesar’’ where Cassius and the other perpetrators disagreed to Caesar’s policies rather than having a rise of rank as the main objective of the murder.

Secondly, Lady Macbeth decides to manipulate her husband and kill Duncan through him. After Macbeth refuse to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth starts to question Macbeth's masculinity until he has to do it to prove himself even though he doesn’t fully agree what she wants to do is correct. We learn that Macbeth is an easily swayed man by his wife and most likely many others. He is also ambitious but cautious when wanting to achieve his goals. Macbeth is advised by his wife to use a dagger which is a recurring symbol through the play. The dagger could represent evil forces as when daggers are seen during the lay, something bad is linked to it. After Duncan is killed by Macbeth, Macbeth says ‘’Will all Great Neptune’s ocean wash the blood clean from my hand?’’ which shows Macbeth deeply regretting what he did. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, isn’t vexed at all and tells Macbeth to wash his hands. In act 5 scene 1, Lady Macbeth believes there is the smell blood on her hands and there is a spot of blood as well. This shows that Lady Macbeth has now felt what her husband would have felt after killing Duncan. She exclaimed ‘’all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand’’. The perfumes symbolise all the riches of Scotland and the smell of blood on Lady Macbeth’s hand symbolises the guilt that Lady Macbeth has. Shakespeare has portrayed Lady Macbeth as a woman who doesn’t think about her actions a lot until they have already occured which shows that she is a slightly