Lady Macbeth, A Woman Drove By Love Or Ambition?

“Macbeth,” a tragedy in five acts, is based on episodes in the life of a king of Scotland, who lived from 1005-1057. The tragedy is a penetrating, concentrated and harrowing study of ambition. Both Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, have a driving ambition that turns each of them into a spiral of guilt and evil. No character in any of Shakespeare’s plays undergoes such a radical change as that which transforms Lady Macbeth from a nearly superhuman character in the first act of Macbeth into a sleep-walking zombie at the start of the fifth and final act in the play. The question, however, that needs to be asked is, was she a self-made monster of ambition and evil or an emotionally imbalanced woman driven by love?

Shakespeare first introduces the character of Lady Macbeth into the play in Act I, Scene V. The first words spoken of Lady Macbeth are in prose. Shakespeare often used this to show something significant was about to happen. Lady Macbeth’s first speech is actually the words of her husband’s as she reads the letter he has sent to h

There are many passages in the play to suggest that it was Lady Macbeth’s own ambition to become queen. For example, why does she push Macbeth to murder Duncan when he realises that the only justification of the murder is his own ambition? When Lady Macbeth finds out this is how he feels, she uses her art of persuasion, and knowledge of Macbeth’s weaknesses, to make him kill the king as she knows what gets him motivated. This wisdom of her husband, however, reveals that maybe her intentions are purely selfless because she cares for him a great deal and is convinced this is what he wants, even though he is not aware of it. Due to Macbeth’s lack of knowledge of his spouse, he is unable to prevent her from persuading him. Now that the murder is agreed to take place, Lady Macbeth makes sure everything is set up for the murder. On the surface it would appear that Macbeth was responsible for the murder since he committed the crime, but when more is read into it, it becomes clear that Lady Macbeth was more responsible. After the murder has been carried out, Lady Macbeth shows how strong a person she really is by using kind words and confidence to calm Macbeth and prevent him from going insane. Does this suggest that she did not remove all of her femininity by being caring for her husband in his time of need?

At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth appears as a kind wife but underneath lies a scheming and treacherous woman. Both Lady Macbeth and her husband go through many changes throughout the course of this play. They go from being honoured and noble people to being reduced to nothing. They both have tragic flaws such as ambition and greed and commit murder to succeed. However, can Lady Macbeth’s actions be justified? It is evident that she has great love for her husband and that her main aim was to make her husband happy. If Lady Macbeth and her husband had not have been so ambitious towards power, they might have ended up with a happy ending. Instead, their tragic flaws became the cause of their bloody downfall.

er informing her of the witches’ salutations and prophecies he has received. This tells us that their relationship was quite strong because as soon as he had received the witches’ words he notified his w

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