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Schule > Englisch > William Shakespeare - Importance of Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth – the driving force in the drama?

Lady Macbeth lusts for power and position.
She is also determined to kill the king.

Therefore she wants to become ruthless and calls on evil spirits:
“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” (Act 1, scene 4)
Lady Macbeth knows her husband very well and is sure that he wants to be the king.
Her fear is however, that Macbeth might be to kind to commit the deed.
She is the one, who urges his husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown by means of manipulating him (questions his manhood and his love for her).

In the following quote one can see how Lady Macbeth ridicules Macbeth for not being able to kill the king:
“I have given suck, and knowHow tender `tis to love the babe that milks me;I would, while it was smiling in my face,Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as youHave done to this” (Act 1, scene 7)
Furthermore, she works out the details of the plan to kill the king.

At night after the murder Lady Macbeth is indeed overcome with uneasy feelings:
“Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done 't.” (Act 2, scene 2)
When Macbeth cannot return the blood-stained daggers to Duncan’s room she takes command of the situation and returns the daggers herself.

Thus, one sees that she is still very determined:
“Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers.“(Act 2, scene 2)
Lady Macbeth and her husband begin to experience terryfying dreams.
The woman however is able to maintain her sanity during the day and even rescues her husband from the delusion of his bad conscience a few times.
As time advances, her conscience and soul are also troubled by what happened and her attempts suppress her memories fail.
That is why the woman commits suicide shortly before the end of the drama.
Only after she has chosen death her husband seems to run into his own destruction, too.
Summarizing all these points one can say that Macbeth is introduced as an admirable individual and a hero to Scotland
Lady Macbeth’s primary role is to urge her husband and then sustain him until he can control his own conscience and actions.
Thus it is clear that his determined ambition that keeps him focused on beoming king is released by the driving force of the play, namely Lady Macbeth

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