Lady Macbeth

At the end of the play, Malcolm refers to Lady Macbeth as a "fiend like queen". Do you agree with Malcolm's view on Lady Macbeth?

"A cruel, brutal or spiteful person" is the definition of Ð''fiend' in the Collins dictionary, there are however many different definitions of the word some making the person more, or less evil. Lady Macbeth does several fiendlike things throughout the play which may have been why Malcolm referred to her as such. I think that Malcolm's reference of Lady Macbeth as a "fiend-like queen" is quite subjective; I cannot fully embrace or object it. However, there is evidence throughout the play that shifts the balance towards evil and occasionally towards good.

Lady Macbeth enters the play in Act1 Scene 5 after receiving a letter from her husband, the letter is informing her of an encounter he experienced with three witches who made several predictions, one of which claiming that he will become the next king. We first acknowledge her determination in her speech "and shalt be what thou art promised", she is determined that he will become king like the witches foretold. When Lady Macbeth receives the letter from her husband, she too realises that for this prophecy to become a reality as quickly as possible, they must first get rid of Duncan. This is a sign of that "fiend-like queen" becoming prominent in her character. She again thinks that Macbeth deserves to be a great person, but she also thinks that he is too nice a person and he wouldn't do something so immoral:

"Yet do I fear thy nature:

It is too full o' the milk of human kindness"

Macbeth is too kind and gentle to be able to "catch the nearest way" meaning to murder King Duncan. She plans to "pour" her spirits into his ears to try to overcome his good nature; she desperately wants to take control over both him and the situation, and force him with her determination.

Early on in the play we see her determination and possible Ð''fiendlike' qualities, in Act1 Scene 5 in her soliloquy she says, "That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan" it's fatal because Lady Macbeth is going to make sure Macbeth kills him. The fact that this is all her idea makes her appear to be very Ð''fiend like'. To support this point she then calls on the spirits to unsex her:

"Unsex me here,

And fill me from the crown to the toe topfully

Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,"

Calling on spirits in Elizabethan times would be seen as evil as they believed in witchcraft, it would have shocked the audience that a women would call on them, therefore encouraging the term Ð''fiend' to be placed on her; by unsexing herself she would be removing her gentler feelings . She wants to be filled with "direst cruelty" so she doesn't show any remorse or weakness of character and wants to "make thick my blood" so she does not show any signs of weakness or frailness. However the fact that she has to be unsexed to go through with the murder of Duncan suggests that she is not all evil and would not be able to commit this murder without the help of evil spirits.

In the first meeting between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth the audience sees her manipulating him already, convincing him to take part in the murder of Duncan, "Look like th'innocent flower,/ But be the serpent under't." Meaning on the outside look innocent but evil on the inside, Lady Macbeth tells him to leave it "into my dispatch" this could mean the killing or the welcoming of Duncan.

Throughout the play Shakespeare uses puns as the characters were always afraid of being overheard and therefore could not outright say what they meant "I have done the deed" they do not use the word Ð''kill' . The euphemism may also have been used so that they didn't have to admit to themselves what they were planning.

In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth starts to have doubts about killing Duncan telling Lady Macbeth "we will speak no further in this business" this is where we again see her goading and manipulating him. She accuses him of being "a coward" he would not be a coward if he kills the king "you would/ be so much more the man" only after killing the king would he be a man in her eyes. Lady Macbeth goads him saying that he promised to do this for her and she would never break a promise,

"I would, while it was smiling in my face,

Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums

And dashed the brains out"

she would have killed her own child before she broke a promise to Macbeth; This speech reflects her first soliloquy as she uses harsh brutal words, this makes the audience ask the question has she been unsexed? As the child in question is their child she may be trying to manipulate him by saying that, she would have killed her own child for him. This speech is violent, evil and it would have shocked the audience that she would talk about doing something so horrible. A woman at the time of this production would have been shocked as women were meant to be gentle, docile creatures unlike Lady Macbeth. After this speech we are left in no doubt that she is a fiend as she has talked about killing her own child, which is an unthinkable thing to do, also the way she manipulates Macbeth suggests a fiend. Echoing the words of the supernatural forces, she diverts the courage of her husband to the courage of evil. Inspiring in him the spirit of self-assertiveness, she pours Ð''her evil spirits' in his ear to crush Ð''the compunctious visitings' of his human nature, compelling him to commit the terrible deeds. She appears the outward symbol of evil, the devious, cruel, Ð''fiend-like queen' who suppresses humanity and unleashes darkness and chaos upon the world.

The fact that Lady Macbeth is the person that plans Duncan's death shows that she is Ð''fiend like'. A normal person would not be able to do that without any hesitation as she does, Lady Macbeth relies on lies and deception for her plan to work.

We next meet lady Macbeth when she is waiting for Macbeth to return from the killing of Duncan, her soliloquy is made up of lots of short sentences building up the tension showing that she is nervous about it. She exclaims

"had he not resembles