With Lady Macbeth, it is the case of Adam giving Eve the apple, instead of the other way around. With his letter, Macbeth plants in her visions of grandeur, which ultimately leads to her downfall as well as his. Macbeth’s own impressionability and delusions infect his wife and she quickly becomes the main motivator of ‘their’ actions. No longer “ignorant of what greatness is promised” her, Lady Macbeth is the engine fueling her husband’s ill-fated siege of Scotland’s throne. She realizes that he hasn’t the stomach for lechery and treason and uses her womanly charms to thwart his hesitations. For all intents and purposes, she wears the pants in the relationship; she has the plans, she’s got the backbone, and her words have more weight that do his.
Her public performance is flawless, unlike Macbeth, who shows outward signs of weakness and even madness in front of Duncan at the feast and in the presence of the rest of court at the dinner table in a later scene. Lady Macbeth plays the perfect hostess and the perfect lady. “Your majesty loads our house, for those of old, and the late dignities heap’d up to them…” She switches her demeanor quickly and conspires with Macbeth outside the dinner hall. And the next morning she feints after viewing the body throwing suspicion away from herself. It is her commitment to the role that eventually condemns her soul. She keeps her cool, even when the stakes are high. She holds Macbeth together at times when would nearly blow their cover.
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