Lady Macbeth: Character Evolution

Lady Macbeth: Character Evolution
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Lady Macbeth: Character Evolution
Lady Macbeth is one of the most puissant, ambitious, and interesting female characters of Shakespeare. Although the story of the play "Macbeth" revolves around the witches' prophecies, regicide, and downfall of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth seems to be the most dominating figure in the play. Being a round character, she undergoes transformations throughout the play, and the reader observes perceptible changes in her thinking, demeanor, and attitude. In the first act, Lady Macbeth appears as an enterprising, ruthless, and manipulating lady who instigates her husband to kill the king. However, her character undergoes a dramatic transformation after the regicide as she realizes the gravity of her crime, making her a confused and skeptical woman. Finally, the guilt of the heinous crime takes its toll on her, and she takes her life to avoid the scruples of a guilty conscience. The character of Lady Macbeth evolves from an aspiring would-be queen to a remorseful, hallucinating psychotic, and these transformations reveal multiple aspects of her personality and unfold her journey towards truth, repentance, and final redemption.
Lady Macbeth appears to be a very ambitious and courageous woman in the beginning when she shows her determination to commit regicide. She taunts her husband for being hesitant to commit the murder and longs to become a man so that she could do the crime herself. The following lines of Act I Sc. V reveal her commitment and ambition: “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (Shakespeare, 1871, p.18). This textual evidence is sufficient to throw light on her determination to fulfill her desire as she even accepts change in sex to make her plans successful. Likewise, her cunning, dual, and manipulative nature is also exposed in the same act when she utters the following lines to Macbeth: “Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't.” (Shakespeare, 1871, p.18). These lines reveal her as a cruel, diplomatic and opportunistic person who could adopt any means to accomplish her aim. Her suggestion to Macbeth to appear sophisticated and well-meaning but remain unsparing and ruthless for his aim makes her one of the most loathsome figures of English literature. Furthermore, she exhibits her indomitable courage for the act of regicide and attempts to dispel her husband's doubt by saying the following lines in Act I Scene VII:
“We fail!
But screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we'll not fail” (Shakespeare, 1871, p. 23)
These lines elaborate on how she shuns Macbeth's doubts about the failure of their plan, instills confidence in him, and assures him of success. Her faith makes her a courageous person who is willing to embrace all perils for the sake of her ambition. On the whole, these excerpts from the text are more than sufficient to prove that in Act I, her character portrayal makes her a highly aspiring, clever, cunning, and relentless person. Although this aspect of her character is soon to be changed, it makes her character i...