Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lady Macbeth is one of the perfect examples of the total corruption power and ambition can cause. She starts out confident, sure of her ambition and how to gain it. She believed that by becoming a man, becoming what she thought was a creature who would stop at nothing to attain power and it’s privileges, she could gain what she needed without being impeded by emotions such as remorse, or pity. She calls upon the witches to give her these things and so creates an interesting relationship with them despite never actually meeting them. Finally, however, Lady Macbeth appears not to be able to hold her cool and collected self together. She begins sleep-walking and it is here that we see her fear truly appear.
She becomes corrupted not only in body and soul, but fully in the mind as well. Lady Macbeth from the very beginning talks about how she wishes to be a man: And fill me from the crown to the toe top full Of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood. Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse . . .
(1. 5. 49-51) She seems to believe that manhood is the ability to perform acts of “direst cruelty” without remorse. Throughout the play we see that she worries her husband will not be man enough to do what she and him deem necessary to attain the throne. “Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness .
. . ” She says. Constantly we see her telling her husband to “man up” – to stop feeling remorse or guilt or fear and to start behaving like she believes a man should; like a being with no guilt or remorse. However, it is this wish for her to lose all “passage to remorse” that eventuates in her death – her corruption – from the madness that comes upon her i. .
etimes the knowledge can drive you insane, as we see in the case of Lord and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth turns into a woman filled with evil and no escape. She eventually dies from the pain of it. Lady Macbeth and her husbands downward spiral towards dark destruction is one the most famous of all time.
We watch with pleasure as their horrible actions lead to their ultimate destruction. Lady Macbeth makes the choice to, as one source put it, lose her womanly virtues and become what she thinks is a man. It is this choice that leads to her unknowingly helping the witches in their desire to destroy Macbeth and ultimately her as well. She changes from a woman sure of these decisions to woman riddled with fear, corrupted in all possible manner – mind body and soul. Her ambition and power lead to her destruction. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
