Lady Macbeth: A True Villain

One of the most significant characters in Macbeth, and one of Shakespeare's most famous villains, is Lady Macbeth. People generally gravitate towards the idea that the antagonist in Macbeth is Macbeth himself, when in fact, the true villain and the one who made Macbeth into the villain he could be perceived as, is none other than Lady Macbeth. Through her dialogue and actions, she is a bold and relentless woman and even more ambitious than her husband. Nevertheless, she still has a concious and in the end it is her undoing. It is her cunning and manipulative nature that convinces Macbeth to murder Duncan and sets the play into action.

In Act I, after Macbeth and Banquo are met by the witches and given their prophecies, Macbeth writes a letter to his wife and tells her that he will become Thane of Cawdor and the King of Scotland. Lady Macbeth immediately reacts to this news by saying, "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promised" (1.5 359-60). By saying this, it's evident that she's aware of the impact that she is capable of having over Macbeth and his weak will. It's clear that she is willing to do whatever it takes to get what she desires and receive the benefits that would come hand in hand with Macbeth being

King. Continuing in her famous soliloquy, she admits that she is fearful of Macbeth being too meek and kind to do what it takes to get the throne (Canning and Stratford).
Lady Macbeth also says, "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!" (1.5 390-4). From this revelation, she is requesting that the "spirits" take away her feminine qualities and replace them with male ones, qualities that will enable her to be ruthless and cruel enough to kill Duncan herself. This shows that while her ambition is strong, she also is aware of limitations placed on her by her gender.
In Act II, Lady Macbeth drugs the guards and after, she proclaims that what weakens others, causes her to get stronger. After Macbeth proves his manhood to her and kills Duncan, she reassures him and while Macbeth is washing the blood off his hands, she smears Duncan's blood on the drugged guards. This scene really puts it into perspective exactly how evil Lady Macbeth has the capacity to be. It makes a point of her cleverness and this only continues when Duncan's body is discovered and she wakes up, feigning innocence.
Soon after, her strong willed and ambitious persona starts to crumble after Macbeth kills the guards.

After learning this, she feels faint and has to be physically carried from the room. When Macbeth suggests killing Banquo, Lady Macbeth protests because she doesn't find it neccessary and is uncomfortable with the idea. After the murders of Banquo and Lady Macduff and her children, Lady Macbeth's mental health is on a downward sprial. She is so consumed by guilt and has gotten so sick that the doctor treating her says that the only thing that could help her now is "the divine" (5.1 2197). Unable to cope with her guilt, Lady Macbeth eventually loses her mind. This ultimately is her undoing and at the end of Act V, she commits

suicide.
How Lady Macbeth is viewed by other characters is relatively ambiguous, considering that for the majority of the play she only overtly has a relationship with her husband. In Act II, Banquo makes reference to a diamond that Duncan had given to her. Whether this means he gave her an actual diamond or a metaphorical one is open to interpretation, but this shows that Duncan hadn't disliked Lady Macbeth. Although, by the end of the play, it seems evident that all the characters were aware of Lady Macbeth's true nature. This was shown by Malcolm in the last act of the play when he called her a "fiendlike queen" (5.8 2559), insinuating she was not on good terms with any of the surviving characters.
Lady Macbeth is the true villain of Macbeth. Her cunning and inner ruthlessness ultimately drove her to madness. She effectively manipulates Macbeth and overrides all his objections. She repeatedly questions his manhood until he feels that he must commit murder to prove himself. Eventually her guilt finally catches up and consumes her, leaving her a rambling mess, sleepwalking through the castle and trying to wash imaginary blood off her hands. Ultimately, she is unable to cope and commits suicide. In the end, Lady Macbeth's true character was exposed and her final mention in the play she is called Macbeth's "fiendlike queen" which may have been her goal all along.