What do you think brought about the downfall of Lady Macbeth?There were several aspects of Shakespeare’s novel Macbeth’ that led to the downfall of Lady Macbeth. The mentality of Lady Macbeth in the play changes dramatically from the wife a Noble General, to an evil aggressive murderer (brought upon by the witches predictions), and finally a woman who had de-graded to such an extent that she took her own life. We are not told an awful amount about Lady Macbeth at the start of the play prior to her letter from Macbeth about the witches prophecies I.
iv, but I thought that Lady Macbeth seemed: as good of a wife as any nobleman’s or officer’s. We see how a vigorous Lady Macbeth; initially in association with the witches’ predictions, at-tempts to mirror their disturbance of gender in psychological terms by desiring to “unsex” herself in order to carry out such a powerful action murder, otherwise, being impossible for a woman to carry out (no offence or sexism is intended when I state this).Lady Macbeth continues to be a frightening and vicious figure as she becomes full of evil thoughts. This is evident by the context in which she states that she would sacrifice the life of her own infant, if it were her wish or order to do so: “Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done this” I.
vii.57-59. So enraged and overpowered by evil, that her purity and innocence (which is part of a woman) had all but depleted, and consequently she also lost her will to control herself and her sanity (sanity-later on in the deterioration of Lady Macbeth’s character). She came to a point where evil pushed her to certain lengths such as committing the heinous act of regicide; killing her loyal and innocent king, king Duncan.
At one stage I believed that it was as if she was given the supernatural strength of a warrior or a Knight to commit such an act. Her feminisms had all but been ripped out, being replaced with a heart of stone. She could only have acquired such forces when she wished for them via evil forces: “Come, you Spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown (crown-she already pic-tures herself with a crown alofted on her royal head, crown also means head) to the toe, topfull Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood, Stop up th’access and passage to remorse; That no compunctions visitings of Nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between Th’effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murth’ring ministers being able to give birth and have a child is the greatest act of feminism, and to ask to have her breasts emptied of their’ milk, is to suggest that she wants to be a man.” I.
v.40-8The constant panic, or what we would associate to as stress’, and also the regret from what un-folded after the death of Duncan, hit Lady Macbeth’s conscience. Blood brought more and more blood to hold their (Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeth’s) position as successors of the King and Queen of Scotland. As if she were in a hypnotic haze during the atrocities and carnage (in which she was the commander of), then to have a hand click’ it’s fingers together to awaken her.
Towards the end of the play, we see how a sea of guilt awoke Lady Macbeth from her trans’. The assassination of King Duncan, a noble man, whose trust in the people around him was unsurpassable. Duncan believed that the people he trusted most: (trusted with his kingdom, his life and his throne) thought like himself, noble and kind, but never evil. His judgment was a false one.
Lady Macbeth knew that she had killed not an enemy, but a friend; and because of this she felt guilt. The death of Banquo had also come back to haunt her conscience; because his death was an un-necessary one. The fact that Banquo knew that Macbeth was to blame for the death of Duncan wasn’t a plausible enough excuse to murder him. The guilt she felt is indescribable, for the feeling of commit-ting murder cannot be described unless experienced.
We see how far her guilt had surpassed to the point, where whilst sleep walking IV.i.1-80, she re-enacted the murder scene trying to rid the corrupted stains of death from her hands note that she is scared of being caught and regretful of what she has done. “Yet here’s a spot Out, damned spot! Out, I say! – One; two; why, then tis time to dot.
-Hell is murky.- Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when nonecane call our power to account? In simpler text this means that who can judge a king, when a king is the judge – Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him’she’s re-enacting the scene of Duncan’s deathThe Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? – What, will these hands ne’er be clean? -No more o’ that, my lord, no more o’that. You mar all with this starting Here’s the smell of the blood still: all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale- I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave To bed, to bed; there’s knocking at the gate.
Come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What’s done can-not be undone regret. To bed, to bed, to bed. IV.
i.31-69All of this guilt and stress mounted up so high, that it was eventually too much for her. She found the pressure overwhelming and much too painful that she couldn’t manage it. The easy way out was to commit suicide, not facing the music.
She committed suicide, not because she was weak, but because she was guilty and piteous. All of these aspects that lead to her suicide were responsible for her downfall.
