Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is respected by Macbeth, and the rest of the kingdom. King Duncan calls her "our honored hostess." She is very loving to her husband, this is shown by her ambition for Macbeth to be king. Lady Macbeth says that "the fastest way" for Macbeth to become king is by murdering King Duncan. His death will benefit both her and her husband

Lady Macbeth's may make her seem cold and ambitious, but this isn't true. To prepare for what she feels must be done she calls on evil spirits to "stop up th' access and passage to remorse" in order to have a heart like a man. Without the heart of a man, she couldn't kill anyone.

Lady Macbeth knows her husband well. She thinks he may be too weak to murder King Duncan. This is why she needs a male heart, so she can later talk Macbeth into killing the king. At first Macbeth agrees, but later he has second thoughts about his decision. Lady Macbeth convinces him that being king is what he really wants, and that it is the best for both of them. After Macbeth talks of his uncertainty, Lady Macbeth manipulates him by questioning his manhood and his love for her. She is successful because regardless of his own conscience Macbeth carries out their plan of murder.

The almost superhuman strength Lady Macbeth gains for the occasion is shown through her attention to detail with the murder. When Macbeth returns to their chamber she goes back to the murder scene and smears the guards with blood. Her conscience got the best of her just a while before when she said that she would have killed Duncan herself if he didn't "resembled [her] father as he slept."

Lady Macbeth may have felt that losing her conscience for the deed was enough and that later the thought of the murder would just go away. That is not the result, though, because Macbeth and Lady Macbeth often cannot go to sleep,