Essay: An overview of Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Shakespeare’s Macbeth recounts the tale of a man and how ambition for greater things drives him to his end. As the story progresses, the reader is introduced to the character’s wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth reveals herself to be a very complex character that continues to push her husband to do whatever it takes, eventually leading to her own downfall. Lady Macbeth was ambitious initially but becomes remorseful due to her guilt in regards to Duncan’s death.
Following a prophecy given to Macbeth by the Three Witches saying that Macbeth will one day become the king, Lady Macbeth has made it her mission to convince her husband that he must go through and kill King Duncan to fulfill the prophecy and gain power. Lady Macbeth, in an effort to convince Macbeth to go through with it and kill Duncan says, “I have given suck, and know/ How 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 swore as you/ Have done this” (I.VII.63-67). The use of the phrase “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me” insinuates that Lady Macbeth is referring to the fact that she has had a child in the past and that she understands the love that a mother may hold for their child. However, this truly exposes the ruthlessness of Lady Macbeth’s character as she says that she would dash “the brains out, had I swore as you have done this”. She uses her past experiences and the love that parents hold towards their children as a way to manipulate Macbeth into doing whatever she pleases. Her ambition drives her to comparing killing a king to killing her own child as a way to convince Macbeth that because he said he would kill Duncan that he must follow through with it.
After Macbeth has killed Duncan, Lady Macbeth very briefly lets her guard down and shows a different, almost guilty, side of herself. While Lady Macbeth has a moment alone she states, “Naught’s had, all’s spent/ Where our desire is got without content/ ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy” (III.II.6-9). Lady Macbeth’s use of the phrase “doubtful joy” implies that she is not as happy as she thought that she would have been now that Duncan is dead. She says that it is “safer to be that which we destroy than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy” meaning that she believes that it would be better to be the person that was killed—Duncan—rather than the one that is tainted by the guilt and has to live with the consequences of what had happened. Lady Macbeth says “naught’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content” insinuates the idea that they have risked everything for their own personal motivation, but had not gained anything from it. She starts to show remorse at the fact that they have killed Duncan and that there is no going back. Afterward, Lady Macbeth goes through a drastic personality change as the guilt begins to weigh down on her conscience and consumes her. She ends up sleepwalking and heavily hints at her overwhelming feelings when speaking to her doctor. In the final words that Lady Macbeth speaks as she tries to wash imaginary blood off of her hands she says, “To bed, to bed/ There’s knocking at the gate/ Come, come, come, come, give me your hand/ What’s done cannot be undone” (V.I.73-76). The phrase “what’s done cannot be undone” was spoken before by Lady Macbeth to Macbeth when he was struggling to cope with Duncan’s death as a way to calm him down. She turns the phrase onto herself as her once merciless persona becomes guilt ridden as the deaths start piling up. Lady Macbeth saying “to bed, to bed, there’s knocking at the gate” refers back to when Lady Macbeth and Macbeth pretended to be asleep when Duncan was murdered. The “knocking at the gate” that she speaks about is in reference towards Hell as Lady Macbeth believes that she is knocking on the gates of Hell because of what she has done. The guilt that Lady Macbeth has undergone has caused her personality and views to change as she goes mad because she cannot wipe the blood of the murders from her hands.
Lady Macbeth becomes filled with guilt because of how consumed she becomes due to the death of Duncan. This leads to Lady Macbeth committing suicide as she is no longer able to deal with the psychological and mental consequences of murder. She reacts negatively as she goes from being focused on her and her husband’s personal gain and trying to convince him to just get over everything to killing herself because she is no longer able to cope with what she has become.
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