Lady Macbeth’s character in the play ‘Macbeth’ has a view, which we can either pity her or condemn her. My view of Lady Macbeth is that she is only a woman and we must pity her. And also throughout the play she helps her husband and her relationship doesn’t even go well. She loves her husband but at the same time very ambitious, as shown by her immediate determination for Macbeth to be king. Lady Macbeth knows her husband well. She thinks he may be too kind in order to murder King Duncan.
This is why she represses her conscience so she can later push Macbeth into committing the murder. Which is why we must condemn her. We must also condemn her as she has a part in the death of Duncan. She immediately concludes that “the fastest way” for Macbeth to become king is by murdering King Duncan. Although Lady Macbeth doesn’t kill Duncan as he looks like her father. This means that she hasn’t received what she had asked for with the prayer to the witches, which was to ‘unsex’ her so she hasn’t got rid of her feminine qualities.
Lady Macbeth also uses Euphemism as she has difficulty coping and facing reality for example she calls the murder of Duncan ‘the deed’. Lady Macbeth in the first Act is immediately connected to the witches as the scenes alternates, Witches, Battlefield, Witches, Battlefield and then Lady Macbeth so she is immediately connected to the supernatural. During the Murder of Duncan Lady Macbeth she forces Macbeth to kill Duncan as she insults his manhood. She also finishes the job of by making the guards look guilty of the murder.
The big question here is how she can’t kill Duncan as he looks like her father but she can finish it of and takes a huge part in it; we must condemn her at this stage. When Lady Macbeth faints as she sees the dead guards we are not sure if she faints as a result of the violence or that she is covering up Macbeth. In Polanski’s video he includes an additional scene, which shows us that she faints as a result of seeing the violence, as she did not know that Macbeth would slaughter them. Murdering the guard was not part of the plan.
Neither was the murder of Banquo of Macduff’s family. So we must pity her here as she is overwhelmed and the faint is real. On the other hand in Shakespeare’s version she just collapses and we don’t know why. Probably because she is covering up for her husband, so we must condemn her here. In Act three scene two Macbeth and lady Macbeth are becoming a couple who are dividing. Macbeth is suffering paranoia and the balance of power is in her favour. But in Act three scene three Macbeth starts to take control of the plan and he leaves Lady Macbeth out of it.
They spend time alone, which represents their relationship tearing apart so we must pity Lady Macbeth at this stage. Though in the banquet scene Lady Macbeth starts to take the royal power as Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo she covers up for him and sets him straight and sends the Lords to leave. We must condemn her here as she is covering up a murder but on the other hand she didn’t want Banquo dead and it was all Macbeth’s fault that he died and yet Lady Macbeth covers him up as she loves him so we must pity her here.
The whole of Act 4 Lady Macbeth is not present but only in Polanski’s version you see a snap shot of her with blood on her hands and then the blood disappearing which shows you that she is going through the same thing that Macbeth did. She is now completely paranoid. The last word of Lady Macbeth in act three scene four was ‘you lack the seasons of all natures, sleep’. She says this to Macbeth and now she is going through the same thing. She is now sleepwalking in act five scenes one. She confesses to what has happened and a doctor and Gentlewoman hear her. The Doctor says that ‘more need she the divine than the physician’.
Which means that a great sin is bringing her down so we must certainly pity her here. After this we find out that she is dead, that she committed suicide. Macbeth’s response to this is clearly different than Macduff’s reaction to the death of his wife and kids. All he says is that ‘she should have died hereafter’ which I think is unfair after all she has done for him so we must pity her here. To conclude I think both is true in equal. That we must both pity and condemn her. Shakespeare wants us to condemn her for being a strong willed women but for me anyone who takes their own life must be pitied.
