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LADY MACBETH INSTABILITY ESSAY

KIRSTY CLYNE

In William Shakespeare's “Macbeth” one of the main characters, Lady Macbeth, shows
signs of instability as the play progresses
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Despite her growing instability, it adds understanding to the main
concerns of the play such as appearance and reality, the idea of Macbeth’s need for
security and also the effect of a strong conscience on the characters in the play
...
Her strength and ruthlessness is shown here
as she knows that Macbeth will not be able to kill the king due to his strong conscience so
she speaks to evil spirits, asking them to “pour {her} spirits in thine ear” and “unsex” her,
basically taking her lack of conscience and pouring it into Macbeth
...
Ambition was seen as evil during the Shakespearian times, and
also the king was viewed as God’s representative on earth and therefore by speaking of
killing the king, the audience instantly recognises Lady Macbeth as a ruthless force not to
be reckoned with
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This links in with the main concern of appearance and reality, showing that not everyone is
what they seem to be and that everyone can manipulate appearance to appear as reality
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This scene
provides an ironic touch to the play as both of them have blood coating their hands and

although Macbeth is beginning to panic about it Lady Macbeth just informs him that “a little
water clears {them} of this deed”, but in actual fact by the end of the play it is her who has
been completely destroyed and pictures seeing the blood still coating her hands
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After this point in the play, Lady Macbeth starts to deteriorate and shows more signs of
instability
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During Act 3, Macbeth decides to have
Banquo killed and as he meets with Lady Macbeth who was uninvolved in this, she
announces to him that “Naught's had, all's spent” and this helps to show the start of her
deterioration as she cannot physically keep going after giving away all of her ruthlessness
and emotions to Macbeth all the way back in the first act
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This is also conveyed in Act 3
Scene 4 during the Banquet scene, and after Macbeth goes off the rails from seeing
Banquo’s ghost, the audience can tell that she no longer has anything left in her to be able
to continue saving him and instead just tells him that he “lack{s} the season of all natures”
and demands he gets some sleep
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This also therefore links in with Macbeth’s
need for security and as the witches are tricking him, it also relates to the appearance vs
reality theme of everything not quite being what it seems
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She has been
reduced from a ruthless and hardworking woman to nothing more than a delusional
sleepwalking figure and it is clear to the audience that she has completely lost her mind
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This helps to add to the underlying understanding of the effect a
conscience can have on a person that is displayed throughout the entire play
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She is now described as having a “disease” beyond
the practise of the doctors and it is determined that she needs God, not a doctor
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This adds to
one of the final points regarding conscience in the play, as it shows that even the strongest
of characters can be ruined by too much of it
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Word count: 1161



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