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.