Character of Lady Macbeth

Only a few female characters in Shakespeare plays could exercise greater power than their male counter parts in manipulating the events of the play, and inspire audience’s awe and amazement by their capacity for non-womanly enterprise .One such character is the Lady Macbeth in Macbeth without whom the plot of the play would not proceed forward. Her assumption of unwomanliness , her exercise of unnatural energy, her violent oratory ,her cunningness in instigating her husband to the horrid murder, and her earnest invocation to the evil forces shock the readers and impel them to consider her as the “Forth witch”. But a judicious critic finds these only as the manifestation of an enigmatic mind which is controlled by  obsession  , and which is naturally fickly and prone to collapse . The last half of the play justifies this view since at the end she becomes mentally unhinged as a natural consequence of the murder which she supported against her nature .

            The very first appearance of the Lady is  shocking . The moment she is informed of the prophecies of the witches which promised Macbeth as a future king, she is immediately transported to the golden future , and makes a layout of the future course of action taking the entire situation under her disposal . Indeed , until the performance of the murder , she is the major dominating force in the play .She is endowed with a deep insight of human nature, and makes  a right assessment of her husband . She  is aware that the noble , righteous and judicious character that her husband’s , he would never venture to commit any base deed even if it costs the opportunity of becoming the king:

“Yet, do I fear thy nature

It is too full of the milk of human kindness

To catch the nearest way.”

She , therefore , needs to “chastise”him with the valour of her tongue so that no weakness impedes him from the “golden round”.

At the same time she herself claims a “chastisement” from the evil powers , for , as we understand later on , she herself is agitated by the “compunctious visitings of nature”.

“come, you spirits

That  tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here

And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full

Of direst cruelty”.

            Her appeal to strip herself of any feminine weakness amply hints that  she  harbours a strong sense of conscience within her which will disturb her sanity later on. She skillfully arranges to entertain the guests in her house, and with the same skill she completes the preparation for Duncun’s murder. She chides her husband’s nervousness and even volunteers to put the bloody dagger in right place after the murder . She indeed startles the readers with her masculine energy .

   But the excitement of the deed having been passed away , when she comes back to her normal sense, she finds herself incapable of combating against her conscience . while Macbeth realized the consequence of the bloody deed much before the deed, she realizes it after it is performed . It becomes very clear that her manliness is only assumed , and that she is as weak at heart as any woman should be. That is why , when her husband becomes resolute to fight against any consequence, she succumbs to “thick coming fancies” that continually haunts her and reduces her into a mere pitiful creature. The extent of her suffering is revealed in the Sleep Walking scene where we see the Lady getting haunted by the memories of crime .She can neither sleep, nor can she shake off the smell of blood from her hand. It is greatly ironical since it is she who earlier rebuked her husband when he was terrified by the vision of blood and declared “Macbeth has murdered sleep”.

             Thus , Lady Macbeth is a study of a pitiful creature who despite being a good character, suffers consequence due to her lack of practicality and farsightedness.