Lady Macbeth, Macbeths Lady-Villain :: Macbeth essays

Macbeths Lady-Villain William Shakespeares moving tragedy Macbeth presents a leading lady who is not the usual sort of woman, but sort of a contradiction of the typical woman. Let us consider her character in this essay. In Memoranda Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons comments on the Ladys raw manner Macbeth announces the Kings approach and she, insensible it should seem to all the perils which he has encountered in battle, and to all the happiness of his safe return to her, -- for not one kind countersign of greeting or congratulations does she offer, -- is so entirely swallowed up by the horrible design, which has probably been suggested to her by his letters, as to have forgotten both the one and the other. It is very remarkable that Macbeth is frequent in expressions of tenderness to his wife, while she never betrays one symptom of affection towards him, till, in the fiery furnace of affliction, her iron heart is swimming down to softness. (56) Fann y Kemble in Lady Macbeth depicts the character of Macbeths wife Lady Macbeth, even in her sleep, has no qualms of conscience her remorse takes none of the tenderer forms akin to repentance, nor the weaker ones affiliate to fear, from the pursuit of which the tortured soul, seeking where to hide itself, not seldom escapes into the boundless wilderness of madness. A very able article, published some years agone in the National Review, on the character of Lady Macbeth, insists much upon an opinion that she died of remorse, as some palliation of her crimes, and mitigation of our detestation of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of guilt . . . and that I think Lady Macbeth never had though the unrecognized pressure of her great guilt killed her. (116-17) Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The slay Works of William Shakespeare interpret the character of Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is of a finer and more delicate nature . Having fixed her eye upon the end - the attainment for her husband of Duncans top of the inning - she accepts the inevitable means she nerves herself for the terrible nights work by artificial stimulants yet she cannot strike the sleeping king who resembles her father. Having sustained her weaker husband, her own strength gives bureau and in sleep, when her will cannot control her thoughts, she is piteously afflicted by the memory of one stain of blood upon her little hand.