The downfall of Lady Macbeth
Uploaded by a_arian on May 13, 2000
What do you think brought about the downfall of Lady Macbeth?
There were several aspects of Shakespeare’s novel ‘Macbeth’ that led to the downfall of Lady Macbeth. The mentality of Lady Macbeth in the play changes dramatically from the wife a Noble General, to an evil aggressive murderer (brought upon by the witches predictions), and finally a woman who had de-graded to such an extent that she took her own life.
We are not told an awful amount about Lady Macbeth at the start of the play [prior to her letter from Macbeth about the witches prophecies I.iv], but I thought that Lady Macbeth seemed: as good of a wife as any nobleman’s or officer’s.
We see how a vigorous Lady Macbeth; initially in association with the witches’ predictions, at-tempts to mirror their disturbance of gender in psychological terms by desiring to “unsex” herself in order to carry out such a powerful action [murder], otherwise, being impossible for a woman to carry out (no offence or sexism is intended when I state this).
Lady Macbeth continues to be a frightening and vicious figure as she becomes full of evil thoughts. This is evident by the context in which she states that she would sacrifice the life of her own infant, if it were her wish or order to do so: “…Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn As you have done this…” [I.vii.57-59]. So enraged and overpowered by evil, that her purity and innocence (which is part of a woman) had all but depleted, and consequently she also lost her will to control herself and her sanity (sanity-later on in the deterioration of Lady Macbeth's character). She came to a point where evil pushed her to certain lengths such as committing the heinous act of regicide; killing her loyal and innocent king, king Duncan.
At one stage I believed that it was as if she was given the supernatural strength of a warrior or a Knight to commit such an act. Her feminisms had all but been ripped out, being replaced with a heart of stone. She could only have acquired such forces when she wished for them [via evil forces]: “Come, you Spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me, from the crown (crown-she already pic-tures herself with a crown alofted on her royal head, crown also...