William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth would be considered a woman with very few scruples. However, I see her as a woman who is a lot like her husband, Macbeth. She was the same as Macbeth. They were both fiendish people with an overwhelming sense of vaulting ambition. I would even go as far as saying that Lady Macbeth was the one with a greater sense of ambition than Macbeth because she lacked what Macbeth did not. She lacked scruples. It was Lady Macbeth’s scrupulous ambition that led Macbeth to his seat upon the royal throne of Scotland.

After hearing about the prophecies that had been dealt to Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, concerned that her husband was too weak and/or kind to seize this opportunity that had been apportioned to him, began to devise a plan of her own which she would make Macbeth, the newly appointed Thane of Cawdor, carry out. I would think that a regular human being, male or female, would be more concerned about how the event in question would come into play. However, Lady Macbeth (and Macbeth) seems quite impatient and instead starts to think of ways that she could bring this event out herself. At about this time Macbeth is also thinking of killing Duncan in order to become the king. This is an example of the similarity between Macbeth and his wife. Its like they say, “great minds think alike”. It’s scary when the great minds belong to devious people.

When Macbeth arrives at his castle Lady Macbeth tells him to wear a friendly face and leave the plotting up to her. However, when Macbeth decides against killing the king, Lady Macbeth is outraged. She appeals to his ambition and pride while at the same time mocking his masculinity until she persuades him to persevere in her plot to kill the king. She even says that she would kill her own child had she promised to do so. This is where I think it becomes apparent that Lady Macbeth has a higher sense of ambitions and far less scruples than the future king. Its as if Lady Macbeth is actually Macbeth’s darker, more sinister side. She is the one that encourages him to do such sinister deeds even after he has decided to oppose the notion. She seems quite proud of herself for initiating the deed and says that she would have committed the act herself had Duncan not resembled her father as he lay their sleeping.