How Does Lady Macbeth Change Throughout The Play

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Throughout scenes one and two, the character of Lady Macbeth saw small yet meaningful changes in terms of her mindset and ambition. When she called upon the spirits that “tend on mortal thoughts” to “unsex” her and fill her “top-full of direst cruelty” (1.5.44-46), she illustrated that in order for her to ensure Duncan’s death, she would need to be relieved of all her caring feminine qualities and be filled instead with ominous brutality from the spirits of murderous thoughts. Her ambition began to show when she told Macbeth that her thoughts made the future seem a reality. She said, “Thy letters have transported me beyond / This ignorant present, and I feel now / The future in the instant.” (1.5.60-62). Showing her manipulative ruthlessness through the lines, “From this time / Such I account thy love” (1.7.41-42), Lady Macbeth expressed to her husband their love would be no more dependable and lasting than his earlier desire. …show more content…

Furthermore, she proclaimed to him that she would have taken her infant “And dash’d the brains out, had [she] so sworn / As [he did] to this.” (1.7.63-64). This emphasized that she would make the ultimate sacrifice before going back on her word. Similarly, Lady Macbeth, again demonstrating her fervent determination to making Macbeth king, maintained, “Had [Duncan] not resembled / My father as he slept, I [would have] done’t.” (2.2.16-17). However, at the beginning of this scene, she confessed that she needed help from alcohol to be able to drug the guards and lay the daggers ready; this showed that she was very tense, and weak when people whom she cared about were

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