Character Sketch Act 5: Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth enters the fifth act sleepwalking and is being observed by her gentlewoman and a doctor. “It is an accustomed action with her to/ seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue this a quarter of an hour” (5.1, 29-31). The gentlewoman tells the doctor that Lady Macbeth does this very often and although they don’t know what it means the audience can see that Lady Macbeth is trying to wash her hands of the blood that is on them from her part in the murder of Duncan. Of course there is no real blood on her hands anymore but the rubbing of her hands represents her trying to free herself of the guilt that is her participation in murder.

Lady Macbeth reveals what is really tormenting her by talking while sleep-walking, “The 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” (5.1, 42-45). Lady Macbeth here tells of how Macbeth has killed Macduff’s wife and she wants to know when it will end. Lady Macbeth is no longer this strong woman character, but a woman that is mortified by her husband’s actions. He started murdering to become king and then couldn’t stop and because of this Lady Macbeth is being tormented by the thought of what is going on, she doesn’t want to think about what Macbeth might do next. She mentions her hands are still not clean, and this is because she still feels guilty for this because she convinced Macbeth to go through with killing Duncan so she is partially responsible for all of this murder.

Macbeth shows that even though he has been caught up with killing people lately and being king he still cares about his wife. “Seyton: The Queen, my lord, is dead./ Macbeth: She should have died hereafter;/ there would have been a time for such a word” (5.5, 16-18). Macbeth feels bad that his wife had to die right as he is about to go into battle because there is no time for him to mourn her death properly. This shows that even though Lady Macbeth was mortified by Macbeth’s behavior to which he must have been aware of he still cared that she had an untimely death. She committed suicide because eventually the guilt of all the dead was too much for her to live with. From Act 2 to now this is a very big change, in Act 2 the audience might have thought that Macbeth would commit suicide, but by Act 5 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth switched personalities.

Character Sketch Act 4: Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth is mysteriously absent during Act 4; it doesn’t become clear why until the beginning of Act 5. Lady Macbeth has started to be overcome with guilt from all the blood that is on her hands and her husband’s. This is an interesting change in her character, at first she was the one that was all for killing Duncan and then Banquo but as time went on and the murdering kept going on she started to become disturbed. As Macbeth became more ruthless and kept having people murdered in cold blood Lady Macbeth realized what an awful path she had led him down. She feels especially bad because Macbeth had tried to back out of the original plan a couple of times only to be forced back into it by herself.

Lady Macbeth’s absence is important because it shows the reader or audience the intense grief and tormentation that she is going through. She used to live a nice normal life until she became greedy and pushed her husband into becoming a monster that she is unable to live with. The thing that torments her most is that it all stemmed from her, and not her husband.

With Lady Macbeth not appearing in this Act the audience is introduced to another strong willed wife, Lady Macduff. She talks to her kids about how their father is dead even though he has just left them unprotected. This takes strength because Lady Macduff must have loved her husband very much but when he left without leaving protection for them her only words to describe him are “dead” and “traitor”. This is similar to Lady Macbeth because both women see dramatic changes in their husbands, and because of these changes become sullen.

Character Sketch Act 3: Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to take a break and have some fun with his guests at a banquet. “Come on,/ gentle my lord ,sleek o’er your rugged looks./ Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight” (3.2, 29-31). Lady Macbeth shows the audience how she is not a heartless woman but also is caring for her husband. This is a side of Lady Macbeth that hasn’t really been seen much up until this point. In previous acts she was rude and mean to Macbeth by making fun of him and his manliness by saying she felt nothing from the murder when he obviously was devastated. Lady Macbeth may be acing this way now because Macbeth is now king, and she is glad that he got what he deserved. It is interesting that she addresses Macbeth, her husband, as “my lord” it shows how she recognizes his title and respects him for it.

Lady Macbeth is a very polite hostess because when her husband’s banquet was not going very well she said to her husband “My royal lord,/ you do not give the cheer.. The feat is sold/ that is not often vouched, while ‘tis a-making,/ ‘tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;/ From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;/ Meeting were bare without it” (3.4, 32-37). This quote shows how Lady Macbeth cares about her guests and whether or not they feel welcome and are enjoying themselves because she talks to Macbeth about what he could do to make the feast better. This also shows how Lady Macbeth cares about Macbeth’s image, she saw that his guests weren’t very happy and so she took action and spoke to Macbeth about what he must do to save his feast from being a fiasco. Again she calls Macbeth “my lord” to emphasize the fact that he is now king and that she is happy about it and proud of him.

Character Sketch Act 2: Lady Macbeth

In Act 2 of Macbeth Lady Macbeth’s dark side is revealed, she makes fun of Macbeth for feeling guilty about killing Duncan. “Macbeth: This is a sorry sight. Lady Macbeth: A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight” (2.2, 24-25). Lady Macbeth mocks Macbeth’s feelings and tells him he should not feel bad. She is looking at it in a way that Macbeth did what he had to do to become king and now that the deed was done there is no use feeling bad because it was necessary.

“Infirm of purpose!/ Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead/ Are but as pictures; ’tis the eye of childhood/ That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,/ I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,/ For it must seem their guilt” (2.2, 56-61). Lady Macbeth asserts herself over Macbeth here. Lady Macbeth calls him weak after he refuse to return to the scene of the crime to place the daggers as evidence against the guards, then she takes charge and decides that she must do it herself and tells Macbeth that it must be done so that the guards are thought to be guilty. From this the audience can tell that Lady Macbeth wants to get away with this murder so that her husband can become king, a title she believes he deserves.

Lady Macbeth again shows her authority over Macbeth in Act 2. “My hands are of your color, but I shame/ to wear a heart so white. I hear a knocking/ at the south entry. Retire we to our chamber./ A little water clears us of this deed” (2.2, 68-71). Lady Macbeth makes fun of Macbeth here by saying that she is just as guilty as him but isn’t acting weird and feeling bad. She is instructs Macbeth what to do and she does not panic when she hears a knocking in the distance, she keeps her cool and instructs Macbeth on what he should do so as not to get in trouble. This shows how much Lady Macbeth does not want to get caught and how strong of a character she is, but also how she seems inhuman with her lack of remorse about Duncan’s murder. She shows a comforting side when she tells Macbeth that all his guilt will be washed away once he washes his hands of Duncan’s blood.

Character Sketch Act 1: Lady Macbeth

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare the character of Lady Macbeth is very important to the story. She is the wife of Macbeth and plays a large role in his decision-making process, which influence the story. “Unsex me here/ and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/ of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood;” (1.5, 41-43). This is a quote from Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy when she is first introduced to the audience. What she says in her soliloquy gives the audience the impression that she is a very strong-willed woman that wishes to be treated as an equal. “Unsex me here” means she wants gender roles to be dropped and to just be people all on the same plain.

Lady Macbeth shows how polite she is when Duncan comes to stay with Macbeth. “All our service/ in every point twice done and then done double,/ were poor and single business to contend/ against those honors deep and broad wherewith/ your Majesty loads our house” (1.6, 14-18). Here Lady Macbeth tells of how no matter how well they treat Duncan even if it were doubled in its grandeur it would be small in comparison to Duncan’s house. This is a compliment to Duncan saying he must have a very luxurious life in his home but is also showing Lady Macbeth telling Duncan that she will be giving him the best hospitality they have to offer.

Lady Macbeth shows the audience that she “wears the pants” in the relationship so as to say she makes all the decisions in the end and controls Macbeth. “Was the hope drunk/ wherein you dressed yourself? Hath it slept since?/ and wakes it now, to look so green and pale/ at what it did so freely?/ From this time such I account thy love. Art thou afeard/ to be the same in thine own act and valor/ as thou art in desire? wouldst thou have that/ which thou esteem'st the ornament of life/ and live a coward in thine own esteem,” (1.7, 36-44). Macbeth has just told Lady Macbeth that he will not be pursuing the plan to kill Duncan to become king because the king has honored him. Lady Macbeth’s responded by asking why he has lost the hope he had earlier that made him freely think that killing Duncan for the crown was a good idea. She asks if the hope that he seemed to have conveyed so freely before was drunk meaning it was not thought through. She also calls him a coward for not going out an getting what he wants, the crown, and just wallowing in his self-esteem.

LRJ 5: Death

“Now does he feel/ his secret murderers sticking on his hands;” (5.2, 17). The word murderer is paired with sticking because they both have similar connotations. Murder has an obvious negative connotation, but sticking is less obvious, it is more subtle and it adds to the strength of the bad connotations. “Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine” (5.3, 16). This sounds awful, the body did not just die but the soul perished as well. This shows that true evil is at work. “I will not be afraid of death and bane/ till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane” (5.3, 61-62). This shows how Macbeth is unafraid of death because he has been told certain things. The fact that he is able to not be scared even a little by the thought shows his stupidity, because he thinks it isn’t inevitable. “And all our yesterdays have lighted fools/ the way to dusty death” (5.5, 22-23). This shows how the past guides foolish people to “dusty death”. The adjective dusty makes death seem very unpleasant. “Give them all breath,/ those clamorous harbingers of blood and death!” (5.6, 9-10). Having blood coupled with death makes it more powerful because it links them, in order to get death blood will most likely be shed and they both have strong negative connotations and together they are very clear. “Show thy face!/ If thou be’st slain,” (5.7, 16). Again slain is used to described those about to be killed because here Macbeth is giving a warning that he will kill them violently if they don’t show their face. “But like a man he died. Then he is dead?” (5.8, 43). This passage shows how death is inevitable even to those who may think they have conquered it. “ Had I as many sons as I have hairs/ I would not wish them to a fairer death” (5.8, 49). This quote shows how even though Macbeth was their enemy they were still glad her was able to die in a noble way that would be fit for any of their sons. “Of this dead butcher and his fiendlike queen—“ (5.8, 70). Macbeth is referred to as the dead butcher, and this really gives the reader an idea of what Macbeth was. He killed many people in brutal ways but now he is dead.

LRJ 4: Death

“Rebellious dead” (4.1, 97). This sentence personifies the dead and makes them seem like they can actually do things like live people can do. “My father is not dead, for all your saying./ Yes, he is dead” (4.2, 38-39). This is conversation between Lady Macduff and her son about whether or not his father is dead, meaning he is no longer with them. Macduff is alive but he is dead to them right now because he left them unprotected from Macbeth. “If he were dead, you’d weep for him;” (4.2, 64). Here the son says that if Macduff was actually dead his mom would cry. “He has killed me, mother” (4.2, 85). This is the son saying to his mother that he has been murdered and it brings negative connotations because it is a child saying that he has been murdered. “The sword of our slain kings” (4.3, 88). This shows how the knights were killed in a violent way. “Died every day she lived” (4.3, 112). Here died doesn’t mean she actually died but it means she lost the will to live a little bit every day. “The dead men’s knell/ is there scarce asked for who, and good men’s lives/ expire before the flowers in their caps,/ dying or ere they sicken” (4.3, 171-174). This passage talks about how good men have short lives that expire or end very quickly, faster than a flower in a cap, this comparison is a hyperbole but it gives great perspective. “Savagely slaughtered, to relate the matter/ were, on the quarry of these murdered deer,/ to add the death of you” (4.3, 206-208). This alliteration of awful words together adds to the meaning by giving it the “s” sound like a snake. Snakes are usually evil, and the words “savagely slaughtered” have a brutal gory connotation. “My wife killed too? I have said. Be comforted./ Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge/ To cure this deadly grief” (4.3, 214-216). This shows how people are affected by death, they are filled with grief because a loved one was murdered and then they transfer that grief to anger and then to revenge.

LRJ 3: Death

“Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers” (3.1, 33). Parricide is the killing of one’s parents, which is an awful thing and gives a very dark feel to this passage. “For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered,” (3.1, 67). Macbeth says this and by saying this he gives himself a darker more evil character because he has now admitted to murdering Duncan. “Which in his death were perfect” (3.1, 109). Death is just used for the definition here. “Better be with the dead,” (3.2, 21). Here the dead are referred to as people that time can be spent with giving them human characteristics. “Ay, and since too, murders have been performed/ too terrible for the ear. The time has been/ that, when the brains were out, the man would die,/ and there an end ; but now they rise again/ with twenty mortal murderers on their crowns,/ and push us from our stools. This is more strange/ than such a murder is” (3.4, 78-84). This passage is filled with references to death, dying and killers and all these references together make it dark and sort of scary with all the talk of death. The murders performed are described to be too terrible for ears meaning they are so awful that one would be pained to hear them. Also, it says that when someone dies there is an end; this is the first mention of this throughout the whole play. There is also talk of twenty murderers, which is twenty times more menacing and malicious and barbaric than just one murderer. “He shall spurn fate, scorn death,” (3.5, 30). This tells how Macbeth will reject death as if it isn’t inevitable. “Whom you may say, if’t please you, Fleance killed/ for Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late./ Who cannot want the thought how monstrous/ it was for Malcolm and for Doanlbain/to kill their gracious father?” (3.6, 6-10). This passage talks of sons killing their fathers, but in a way that says it is preposterous to think they killed their father because such an act is considered to be one of the worst crimes of all. “What ‘twere to kill a father” (3.6, 20). This enforces how bad it is to kill one’s father.

LRJ 2: Death

“Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse/ the curtained sleep. Witchcraft celebrates/ Pale Hecate’s offerings, and withered Murder,” (2.1, 51-53). This quote uses death in a comparison with nature, saying that it is like it right now perhaps because it is very still, or cold or dark and gloomy, this is up to the reader’s connotations of death. Withered murder makes the act of killing someone even more evil. “That death and nature do contend about them/ whether they live or die” (2.2, 7-8). This quote tells of how death and nature fight each other, as to say that death tries to claim people while nature tries to keep them living. This quote personifies death. “There’s one did laugh in ‘s sleep, and one cried ‘Murder!’” (2.2, 26). This shows how others react to murder and how they think it is bad. “’Sleep no more!/ Macbeth does murder sleep,’ the innocent sleep,/ Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care,/ the death of each day’s lyfe,”(2.2, 39-42). This quote tells of how Macbeth metaphorically has murder sleep because of him murdering Duncan. The guilt from killing Duncan will rest on his conscience for a while making him unable to sleep. It also tells of how each day of life is already dead, or useless. “The sleeping and the dead/ are but as pictures” (2.2, 56). Death is compared to the sleeping saying they have the same qualities in this instance. “Strange screams of death,” (2.3, 56). In this line the word scream is important because people don’t usually scream about something good, it’s usually about something terrible and awful. “Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope” (2.3, 67). This calls murder sacrilegious therefore showing the reader that by committing murder one is destroying what is sacred. “Shake off this downy sleep, death’s counterfeit,/ and look on death itself!” (2.3, 78). This is another instance of death being compared to sleep, sleep is death’s counterfeit because it isn’t death but they have similar qualities. “Renown and grace is dead;” ( 2.3, 96). Here Shakespeare uses dead to mean forgotten or no longer in use and describes things with it. “This murderous shaft that’s shot” (2.3, 143). An image is put into the reader’s mind of a deadly shaft of some kind flying through the air after ready this sentence. “Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed” (2.4, 13). This tells of a an owl being killed by a hawk, which is a bad thing. “Those that Macbeth hath slain” (2.4, 22). The word slain means to kill in a violent way, therefore this sentence brings more negative, dark connotations to Macbeth by saying that he has slain people.

LRJ 1: Death

In Act One, the theme of death comes up twelve times, which shows the reader what kind of mood this play will likely to be set in. The high number of death references provides the reader with foreshadowing of future death to come throughout the book. “Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with bloody execution” (1.2, 17-18). This quote talks of brandished steel, which is a sword and it is described with the word execution to really give the reader an idea of its power, it is a deadly weapon. “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive/ Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,” (1.2, 66-67). Shakespeare uses the word death here just to tell the reader that the Thane of Cawdor has passed away, but he says death instead of passed away to foreshadow more death and to continue the dark mood. “Killing swine” (1.3, 2). The Second Witch says this to the first witch and the word killing sets the mood as dark and portrays the witches as evil. “Strange images of death” (1.3, 97). “But I have spoke/ With one that saw him die” (1.4, 3-4). “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/ shakes so my single state of man” (1.3, 140-141). This is Macbeth saying the thought of killing a man in an unlawful and premeditated way makes him sick, this shows Macbeth’s character. “Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more/ than would make up his message” (1.5, 36). The word dead is used here to express how fatigued the messenger is from delivering the message so fast. It says he would be dead except for his breath meaning that he is still alive because he is breathing but is at the point of exhaustion that it might as well be death “You murd’ring ministers,” (1.5, 48). Murder is used to describe the agents as evil and unlawful. “I th’assassination/ could trammel up the consequence,” (1.7, 2-3). This use of assassination shows how the killing of Duncan would be murder and an evil thing to do, it reinforces the mood and tone of the play. “Their drenched nature lies as in a death,” (1.7, 69). This quote describes the nature to be so still that it is as if it were dead which paints a nice picture for the reader. “As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar/ upon his death?” (1.7, 80). The word death is just used here to reference someone’s death, but the fact that it is referenced keeps the tone dark and gloomy.