11 Literary Analysis Points On Lady Macbeth

Between an individual analysis on her character, her relationship with Macbeth, and her double character twist in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth leaves a lot of room for interpretation and analysis. Read here to learn more about Lady Macbeth!

1. The Big Soliloquy

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Lady Macbeth hears news of Duncan's visit through the messenger and after he leaves, Act I, scene 5, lines 36-52, she begins her infamous soliloquy. As the reader, the only thing we have seen yet is Macbeth analyzing the prophesies of the witches. The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth has not yet been established as it is merely the beginning of the play however the assumption is that, as his wife, Lady Macbeth strives for her husband's success. Perhaps because it brings her to a higher standing as well. She begins by saying "that croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements" meaning that Duncan's death, which will be triggered by his entrance to the Macbeth household (where Lady Macbeth is 'the boss') is near. Her plan does not come off doubtful, suggesting she is a strong women whose plans and ambitions are clear.

2. "Unsex me here"

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Lady Macbeth's plan to execute Duncan, secretly of course, is bold and full of her confidence; however, Lady Macbeth fears that there isn't enough manhood in her to complete the deed (or at least convince her husband to). This is her vivid way of asking to be stripped of any feminine weaknesses so that she can invest in a masculinity which will solve her problem. A women, stereotypically, is nurturing, kind, warm-hearted, and sweet...not vicious, violent, ambitious, or strong. Because of this she needs to ask the "spirits, that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here". The prefix un- is rather frequent in Macbeth. The protagonists of the story continuously try to undo what is done, take back what is given, or cancel a reality by adding negatives. All of Shakespeare's language and the power it carries will not be able to cancel their unconscious conflicts that are a result of their cruel deeds.

3. Femininity

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Lady Macbeth's use of feminine language touches upon the theme of masculinity carried out throughout the play. "Come to my woman's breasts...and take my milk for gall" are all natural traits of a women. She also uses the words nature repeatedly - all of these words and phrases tie into the fact that the natural forces of her femininity impede her from performing acts of violence and cruelty, which she (and the rest of society at the time) associate with manliness. Her language, however also, already suggests that psychologically she is attempting on changing her sexuality by herself. Lady Macbeth uses the words "murdering", "blood", and "knife" to express her 'manly' violence ability. She is willing to kill and murder but because that would be considered confining in taboo subjects, Lady Macbeth needs the help of the spirits to let her follow through with her plan.

4. Dark vs. Light

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What shows Lady Macbeth's instability and inner distraught is the consistent contradictions between the meaning of light and dark. Firstly her call to the 'spirits' suggest a touch of witchcraft and evil, which to a more traditional audience would suggest that she is calling upon hell or at least darker spirits to help with her goal. Phrases such as "make thick my blood" and "stop up the access and passage to remorse" are creating an atmosphere of darkness. Blood thickening, or making it harder to see through, and stopping the access and passage to remorse are Lady Macbeth's way of asking the spirits to let her conscious be free of guilt after killing Duncan. This is ironic because we know that the death will drive her crazy. In continuation, Lady Macbeth uses the words "thick", "smoke", "dark", and even "hell" throughout her soliloquy. For a reader this suggests that Lady Macbeth is trying to cover up her deeds and hide her cruelty from the light. To oppose this she says "nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark". This line is crucial to the analysis of the soliloquy as it shows a touch of fear in Lady Macbeth's language. The fear that heaven will see through the dark of her 'hell-like' deed not only shows antithesis but also that because Lady Macbeth is a women and her character's personality challenge her ability to request an undo in gender.

5. A Strong Husband by Her Side

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In Act 1, scene 2, Macbeth is describes as a brave warrior and well respected by others (including Duncan). This is a result of his vicious acts on the battlefields, however the audience is show that when he is around Lady Macbeth, a weaker man appears. Though Lady Macbeth is a women, she is very powerful in manipulation and control. Macbeth is easily controlled by Lady Macbeth because of this. The first example of this is when Lady Macbeth learns of the witches' prophecies she, almost by command, comes up with the idea of usurping the crown to Scotland as proven in her soliloquy with the line "and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull". Unlike Lady Macbeth, Macbeth doesn't verbally consider the possibility of murdering Duncan. Although it is proven that he has considered the possibility in his mind, many say that it is Lady Macbeth who triggers his thoughts to actions. Lady Macbeth tells her husband to leave the planning to her and all he has to do is "look like th' innocent flower, But be the serpent under't". This shows how Lady Macbeth plays the role behind the scenes however 'throws Macbeth to the lions' meaning that if they get caught - it is his head that is on the line because society would only believe that a man could come up with such a disturbing idea. Perhaps Lady Macbeth is already so insane that, much like many psychopathic murders, she wants the credit for Duncan's death and that's why she asks to be unsexed...

6. Is It About Love or Power?

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In Act 1, scene 5, when the audience first meets Macbeth and Lady Macbeth together, their individual greetings tell us a lot about their relationship. Lady Macbeth says "Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor." praising Macbeth upon his entrance through his titles rather than name. This suggests that she is more interested in the idea of being with a powerful man rather than being with Macbeth himself. Although Lady Macbeth's comes off as very caring for her husband, which she may very well be, it appears as though she is more concerned about his rankings and reputation because they affect hers just as much. When Macbeth greets Lady Macbeth he says "My dearest love." using affectionate and loving language. There is a clear imbalance in terms of dependence within their relationship, proven above.

7. The Female in the Relationship

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At the beginning of the play, especially around the time Lady Macbeth tries to convince her husband to murder Duncan, many audiences view Lady Macbeth as the 'man' in the relationship. This is because she is bold, determined, powerful, and controlling. Furthermore she degrades her husband due to his personal anxiety and fears about killing Duncan. She threatens him and forces him into action; "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be, what though art promised; yet do I fear thy nature it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness." She criticizes him for being unmanly due to his unwilling to take action and make his predicted fate a reality. She makes Macbeth feel unworthy as a man and strips him of his masculinity by saying "And live a coward in thine own esteem...when durst do it, then you were a man". This turns over, however, around the night of the killing. Lady Macbeth said "had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done't". This shows her weakness in killing Duncan because although she had a reasonable reason for why she didn't, fate (which plays a very big role in this play) drove her down the path in which she does not. Does that make her less of a man like she had hoped and more the women in the relationship? Even though she may of driven Macbeth to murdering Duncan, she would have rather done it herself yet at the end of the day Macbeth came out the man and she the women.

8. Post Death Couple Therapy

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Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's relationship basically falls apart after Duncan's death. This is because they are both driven mad by their ambitions. Before Duncan's murder, Macbeth is affectionate and caring towards Lady Macbeth; however, towards the end of the play he transforms into a callous tyrant who shows no remorse or grief for her death, even though he is aware she had become an anxious, nervous childlike wreck. He says that the death is 'untimely' as if it would have been better had she died during a time that he could focus on her rather than his throne. Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth's lack of support for her husband, before, as white, which is traditionally a pure color, associated with innocence. The color associations portray Macbeth as an image of weakness, dependence and cowardice. The concept of guilt is symbolized through the blood on Macbeth's hands and despite his wife's protestations he believes his hands and soul are forever stained with the guilt of Duncan's murder: "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." The audience soon finds out that Lady Macbeth is in just as bad of a state. Yet the two rarely communicate after the deed is done, although Lady Macbeth was confident that the two would be celebrating.

9. Yet Here's a Spot...

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To start the final Act of the play, Act 5, Shakespeare decided to go back to the initial investor of the idea - Lady Macbeth. Despite her confidence that they will not feel grief not guilt, this rather disturbing scene shows the consequences of cruel doings that go against natures belief. Firstly the idea of going against what nature will depict is key to this play as it determines many major events. The first lies in the beginning of the play, Act 1, scene 1, the scene with the three witches. In this scene they tell Macbeth of a prophecy. The way that he responds to the prophecy, by going alongside his wife's plan to murder Duncan is against the nature of what the witches prophecies told. Furthermore Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to 'unsex' her. That act alone of undoing nature follows through with the theme of going against nature. Born a women but wanting to be a man is far more accepted in today's society however back then is scene as testing 'god' himself. Next, Duncan's death was not a natural death, it was a planned one that cut natures course for Duncan. The result of this for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth was that they were crowned as King and Queen however it wasn't because of a natural line of royals, it was because of the evil ambitions within them. The 'sleeping walking scene' is most disturbing yet somehow has a touch of relief. This is because the audience is proven right that bad deeds will always have a punishment behind them.

10. The Change

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Lady Macbeth's speech has become fragmented and broken by an enormous emotional pressure: the hostess and powerful, domineering wife has been reduced to a gibbering creature whose inner self is impaired by her fatal flaw of greed. There are no logical connections between her memories or her sentences, and indeed, the devastation of her mind is so complete that she cannot recall events in their correct order. For example, "Out damned spot" is followed by "The Thane of Fife had a wife," referring to Lady Macduff. Later we hear the line "Banquo's buried: he cannot come out on's grave," and finally she believes she hears Macduff knocking at the gate. It is as though all the individual murders have coalesced into one large spill of blood. Perhaps the most ironic line is the one which near-perfectly echoes an earlier line of Macbeth's. When Lady Macbeth cries "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand," it is almost a mirror of her husband line "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?" (Act II, Scene 2). It is undeniable that the effect of the murder has made her mad and that her existence is crippling into nothing.

11. A Dirty Soul and Hand

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Lady Macbeth's line "What's done cannot be undone" not only reverses her earlier argument to her husband "what's done is done" (Act III, Scene 2) it also goes back to the consistent use of the prefix un-. At the beginning of this story the prefix was tied to a phrase 'unsex me here' that would benefit her goals yet now it is used to undo the mess her and her husband have created. Furthermore the Doctor understandsLady Macbeth needs a "divine," - a priest - more than a doctor, to save her. This is a crucial understanding because not only does it suggest that no medicine, treatment, or form of recovery will be able to treat the guilt within every human being, especially with a deed as gruesome as this, but it also reminds the audience of Macbeth's earliest doubts when he argues with himself before the murder of Duncan, "If it were done when 'tis done . . . we'd jump the life to come" (I:7,1-6). The idea of playing with the spirits and testing the gates of heaven and hell are tested by Lady Macbeth and results in Duncan's death and her insanity. Lady Macbeth may be sleepless, but it is her soul's rest that really concerns her. She says that "Hell's murky" as though she has already seen it. So, although she believed that the heavenly spirits would not see her dark desires - it was her own consciousness that punishes her for her actions.