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.