"Lady Macbeth is one of the most famous dramatic characters of all time. Shakespeare has created her so vividly that she is the archetype"
"* fiend-like Queen."
" "
"There is nothing half-hearted about her. When we first see her, we are immediately struck by the violence of her determination, and her ambition."
"She appeals to the spirits to make her pitiless, to take away her femininity, to fill her with cruelty, so she can achieve her 'fell purpose'."
"*(See I,v)"
" "
"She seems even stronger than the great warrior Macbeth."
9
"It is Lady Macbeth who is the driving force behind the murder of Duncan. She makes the plan;she gets the grooms drunk; she prepares the daggers."
"When Macbeth wavers in his purpose, it is his wife who propels him onwards with her scorn and savage sarcasm."
"*(See I,vii,35-45)"
" "
"In a play full of violent images, Lady Macbeth produces one of the most dreadful."
"The idea of dashing her own baby's brains out, shows the fierceness of her nature and her total lack of compunction."
" "
"Even Macbeth is so struck by her words that he cries"
"*Bring forth men children only.... I,vii,72"
7
"Perhaps Lady Macbeth is so unworried by the murder beforehand because she lacks her husband's vivid imagination."
"She seems not to have pictured the consequences of the deed."
" "
"Later, however, her guilt begins to overcome her. We see the first signs of it in III,ii when she sighs"
"*Nought's had, all's spent, / Where our desire is got without content."
" "
"By the time of the Banquet scene (III,iv), her drive seems to have left her, and although she still scolds her husband for revealing his guilt, it is not with the same venom as previously."
9
"The sleep-walking scene reveals her to be completely overcome by her guilt."
"*(See V,i)"
" "
"After the murder, she declared contemptuously"
"*A little water clears us of this deed. II,ii,66"
"Now how differently she sighs"
"*...all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."
" "
"This is the last time we see her, and her failing health from this point on, and death or possibly suicide, come as little surprise."
5
"Exam questions on Lady Macbeth focus on the breakdown of her character as mentioned in these notes."
" "
"Particular areas of interest are the sleep-walking scene (as it reveals her guilty knowledge), and whether or not she is as much to blame for what happens as Macbeth himself."
" "
"The student should pick out quotations to learn that show her strength at the beginning of the play, her resigned nature when she realises that the murder has not brought happiness, and her final breakdown."
