Lady Macbeth Murder Quotes

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a prophecy foretells that Macbeth will one day be king. But instead of leaving it to fate, Lady Macbeth cunningly manipulates him into killing the king. However, killing King Duncan creates more problems than it resolves. Macbeth’s mind deteriorates after this murder, and he finds himself killing for no reason because life is now meaningless to him. This continuation of his failing sanity also presents itself during and following the later murder scenes of Banquo, his friend, and Macduff’s family. Lady Macbeth, however, is able to conceal the inner turmoil she is feeling, and initially appears unaffected by the crimes. But as the play progresses, Lady Macbeth feels distressed that MacBeth continues to kill,

and her subconscious becomes wracked with guilt. With each murder, she regrets more and more the monster she has created in her own husband, and she sleepwalks and obsessively washes her hands. Eventually she is not able to handle it anymore, and ends her own life. Through the direct comparison and analysis of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s reactions to murder scenes, like that of Duncan, Banquo, and MacDuff’s family, Shakespeare is able provide depth to both characters, showing that neither one is truly evil in nature, while also making points about gender that can applied to many situations.
Though Lady Macbeth’s manipulations are the catalyst for Duncan’s murder, she refuses to commit the “deed” herself, and so, is removed from the murder by a degree. Macbeth, after violently killing Duncan and the two guards himself, claims that “[he] could not say ‘Amen’/ when they said ‘God bless us’” (II. ii. 39-40), illustrating how Macbeth no longer feels worthy of God, and showing the unholiness of human crime and sin. In response, his wife merely requests that he “consider it not so deeply” (II. ii. 41). She takes the “man’s role” by justifying what they have have done and seizing control of the situation. Since Macbeth freezes in the shock and guilt of what he has done, she rushes to attack his manhood and plant the daggers on the guards, thus shifting the blame from themselves. “Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers./The sleeping and the dead/Are but as pictures. ‘Tis the eye of childhood/ That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed, I’ll glid the faces of the grooms withal/ For it must seem their guilt” (II. ii. 68- 71) While Macbeth immediately appears confused and horrified, Lady Macbeth acts logically, compartmentalizes, and seeks to ensure that the guards are blamed for the murder. This highlights their gender differences, as Lady Macbeth attacks his manhood, while she confidently takes care of business. She appears to feel no compunction, unlike her husband. He worries if he can be forgiven, to which she replies that he should wash his hands clean of the blood, and with it, wash away his sin. Macbeth asks in response “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine/ Making the green one red. (II. ii. 77-81). Lady Macbeth internalizes any remorse she feels, while Macbeth’s shows itself publicly in the way it eats away at his sanity. While their rationalizations corrupt them, their remorse is what makes them both human.These two differing reactions to the murders illustrate those key differences in human nature, as well as depicting gender differences, as the traditional power roles of men and women reverse themselves at this point in the play.

As the play progresses, Macbeth insists to his wife that “[they] have scorched the snake, not killed it./She’ll close and be herself whilst our poor malice/Remains in danger of her former tooth” (III.

ii. 15-17). At this time, Macbeth fears Banquo and Banquo’s sons because they may one day reveal him for who he is or succeed him in power, and in his mind, he needs to kill them to feel secure. The metaphor of the snake allows Macbeth to separate Banquo and Fleance from their humanity, making killing a more logical option. Then Macbeth declares that “all is but toys,” and he begins to believe that since he has done the unforgivable, all life is meaningless. Though he states this so definitively, he retains some of his humanity, until he actually goes through with the brutal killing of his once dear friend, and later MacDuff’s family. (II.iii. 70). He is gaining the ability to rationalize murder, which Lady Macbeth seems to have lost. In this same scene, Lady Macbeth appears not quite satisfied with what they have, but she seems unwilling or not ambitious enough to kill for it. And thus the power has changed hands; by allowing his paranoia to control him, Macbeth now kills of his own accord, while before he was merely his wife’s puppet. Instead of Lady Macbeth ruling in “manly” power, Macbeth himself now rules his brutal actions. Shakespeare shows that power naturally corrupts humans, while guilt, sorrow, and reason make them human. In an earlier scene in the play, Macbeth mentioned that his only motive to kill Duncan would be ambition, and this same ambition is now controlling him: he will not rest until all potential threats are eliminated. The reason that was present when he originally decided not to kill Duncan has since fled, and with it his humanity. He tells Lady Macbeth to “let [her] remembrance/apply to Banquo; present him eminence/both with eye and tongue: unsafe the while that we/must lave our honors in these flattering streams/and make our faces vizards

to our hearts/disguising what they are” (III. ii. 34-9). Lady Macbeth feebly tries to dissuade him by telling him that “[he] must leave this,” but he can’t see her logic, and does not respect her as a superior or as an equal. (III. ii. 40). Macbeth’s mind is set. The only way for him to be satisfied is if Banquo and Fleance are dead.
By the time Macbeth decides to hires murderers to kill MacDuff’s family, he declares that “the firstlings of my heart shall be/The firstlings of my hand./And even now/To crown my thoughts with acts” (IV. i.167-169). Instead of thinking before he acts, he must kill immediately. Even though the witches’ prophecies have made him confident in his own invincibility, he decides he must kill innocents merely to prove a point to his enemy. Reason is not required for him to act, so he chooses to act without reason. Lady Macbeth appears to have no role whatsoever in this, and may not even find out until after the “deed” is done. No longer does she manipulate Macbeth to kill, now he kills against her will. Later, when she sleepwalks, she recounts her regret with rhetorical questions and by obsessively cleaning her hands, seeking to cleanse herself of the sin that she once believed her husband could wash away so easily.
“The thane of Fife had a wife. Where is/she now? What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ (V. i. 44-45). Lady Macbeth eventually feels so remorseful that she takes her own life, while Macbeth, corrupted by power and evil, continues to kill without thought until his own life ends at the hands of Macduff. The dramatic shift in Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s minds alters their characterization from the original depictions of Macbeth as the rational character and Lady Macbeth as a woman crazed with bloodlust and suggests that the “masculine” power and control associated with murder is the true evil. Both Macbeth and his wife at points feel remorse for what they have done, but Macbeth’s initially human reaction twists until he believes that all life is meaningless, and that reason and action do not have to go together, while Lady MacBeth’s rationalizations crumble as her subconscious guilt eats away at her state of mind, ultimately resulting in her downfall.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth uses its two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, to illustrate the importance of gender roles, as well as to reveal the ways in which power corrupts, and the ways remorse makes people human.