Lady Macbeth - Character Sketch

Lady Macbeth is the type of person who will manipulate someone else into getting her what she wants instead of getting it herself. Instead of killing the King herself and dealing with the guilt, she manipulates Macbeth into killing the King for her. This way, she can be a Queen and not have to live with the guilt of killing a person. This is how Lady Macbeth gets what she wants; manipulation. An example of how she manipulates Macbeth is by attacking his manhood. She says that if he doesn't go through with the plan to kill the King, he will "live a coward in thine own esteem"(1.7.2), meaning that he will feel weak and cowardly for the rest of his life. Macbeth does not want his wife to think he is not a man, so he falls under the pressure and commits the crime, and Lady Macbeth gets what she wants through manipulation. When Lady Macbeth is trying to make sure nobody finds out that Macbeth was the murderer, she continues to manipulate him. Macbeth has an outburst at dinner in the presence of several Lords, because he sees the ghost of Banquo. After Lady Macbeth insures the lords that her husband is fine, she takes him aside and asks him "are you a man?"(3.4.4), once again questioning his manhood. She does this so that Macbeth will calm down because that is the manly thing to do. The only reason she wants him to calm down is because she is afraid that he will reveal their secret.

Lady Macbeth is also very ambitious. She is the one who constantly pushes Macbeth to kill the King and take the throne. As soon as she finds out about the prophecies, her mind is set on making her husband King. When Macbeth begins to second guess himself and attempt to back out of the plan, Lady Macbeth persuades him into doing it. Once she gets an idea in her head, it is stuck there, she does not back out of a plan. She is determined to make sure that she gets what she wants. Instead of being happy for her husband for becoming the Thane of Cawdor, she immediately discards this feat and begins planning something bigger. Thane of Cawdor is not good enough, her husband must keep moving up in the ranks. This is where Lady Macbeth shows her ambition, along with her greed. If she had been happy with her husband becoming Thane of Cawdor but going no further, there would have been no problem. They may have lived "happily ever after". Instead, she gets greedy, and wants her husband to go after the throne.

Not only is Lady Macbeth unsatisfied with her husband's role, she is unsatisfied with herself. She doesn't even want to be a woman, she wants to be a man so that she can be strong and powerful. She has a mind full of evil ideas, but she is not able to put any of her ideas into action. She thinks that if she was a man she could, and that's why she says "Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here"(1.5.2). She seems to never be happy with what she is or what she has, she always wants more. This may have something to do with her self confidence. Lady Macbeth seems insecure, because she is never happy with who she is, along with who her husband is.