Macbeth

Interior Monologue

Introduction

This monologue of Lady Macbeth, which takes place in Act 5, Scene 1, (the events leading up to her suicide.) Lady Macbeth while sleep walking and speaking to herself, reveals the guilt and remorse she has over the murder of King Duncan. The ideologies foregrounded are that power must be taken at all costs, and the resistance to the ideology of femininity. The discourses lady Macbeth operates under were those of power, femininity and morality. The following text is an alternate reading.

Monologue

[Lady Macbeth enters the room carrying a candle]

My thoughts of pride and an overwhelming sense of achievement, an accomplishment due to great ambition, are slowly becoming those of guilt and confusion. My conscience, which I once thought clear, begins to fill with thoughts of guilt and remorse. Slowly the unforgotten memories from that merciless night overcome me and I succumb to the horrific images, the bloody daggers, and a lifeless corpse of the King. [Lady Macbeth walks over to a table and puts the candle down] I wash, I scrub, and I tear at the flesh on my hands, trying desperately to cleanse myself of this blood. But alas, the smell of the blood remains, all the perfume in Arabia could never sweeten the scent of these hands again. [She rubs her hands together as if washing them]

[Lady Macbeth reminisces over past events]

So I ask myself, was it such a crime to have wanted the best for your husband? Is it such a terrible deed, to lust after power and status? The victory, my status, my position, my power has fast become a reality, a reality which was being threatened by the existence of Banquo. It had to be done, a knife to his throat; it seemed the only way, his murder being the saviour of my triumph. But I now see the error in my ways, the corruption of my mind. The guilt of Duncan's blood was almost unbearable, the guilt of Banquo's is inescapable, growing, and it is becoming vicious like a wolf tearing into the flesh of a deer. I am forced to endure it while it tears at me within.

[Lady Macbeth walks around the table]

I am a victim of my own deceitful plan. I am simply a player, in a game which is now out of my control, the game of life and death; I was controlled by my very own selfish ambition. What made me believe that I could play the role of the almighty? Upon hearing news from Macbeth of the witches' prophecies I found myself plagued by desire, by greed. I knew that Macbeth, with his pure and noble disposition would never posses the ambition, the drive, to make the necessary sacrifices in order to fulfil the glory-promising prophecies of those wretched hags. And so, I convinced my naive husband to commit a crime which I and not he, deserve to pay the price for. I have sealed our fate, stuck my own head in a noose. [She turns around and walks towards her bedroom]

I am the real murderer. The crime may not have been committed by my hands, but it was my influence which made it so. It was my determination that worked through Macbeth when he drew the treacherous blade and plunged it through the heart of the unsuspecting King, robbing him of his life. I, his companion, his soul