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Learn about Lady Macbeth's role, ambition, and madness in Shakespeare's tragedy. Explore how she manipulates, overrides, and suffers as a woman in a male-dominated world.
- Macbeth
In Act 5, scene 1, Lady Macbeth sleepwalks through Macbeth’s...
- The Three Witches
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A detailed description and in-depth analysis of Macduff in...
- Character List
The drunken doorman of Macbeth’s castle. Lady Macduff....
- Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas...
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- Macbeth
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Although Shakespeare used the names of real historical people in writing Hamlet, the events of the drama are mostly made up. So in that sense, Lady Macbeth is not a real character. There was an 11th-century Scottish king named Mac Bethad Mac Findlaich. Presumably, he had a wife but we know nothing about her.
Lady Macbeth is ambitious. She is manipulative and uses several techniques of a skilled manipulator to entice Macbeth into the murder of Duncan. Usually thought of as a hard, ruthless woman, she is, in reality, soft. Not long after the murder, unable to cope with her guilt, she falls apart and loses all sense of herself.
Lady Macbeth tries to prop her husband up as he descends into a guilt-ridden hell but she soon falls victim to the same condition. Her whole life literally becomes a nightmare, in which she relives the event that has brought her condition about. Her life becomes unbearable and she commits suicide.
Lady Macbeth does not personally kill anyone. She conspires in the murder of the king, Duncan, though, and actively encourages Macbeth to kill him. It is Macbeth who does the actual killing. Lady Macbeth plays no part in the many further killings that Macbeth engineers. Soon after the killing of Duncan the two don’t even talk to each other.
Lady Macbeth is partly responsible for the kind of killing that was taboo in Mediaeval Scotland – murdering one’s king, murdering one’s relative and murdering a guest in one’s house. In killing Duncan the couple did all three. She begins to have nightmares about the murder and, in particular, the blood on her hands, which she can’t get rid of no ma...
Once Duncan is killed Lady Macbeth is pleased that her ambition to be the wife of a king has been achieved, but that feeling very soon turns sour as guilt begins to eat away at her. She then she has feelings that she can’t live with, and ends up killing herself (one of 13 suicides in Shakespeare’s plays).
No. Lady Macbeth is a 2016 British film based on Nikolai Leskov’s novella Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, and starring Florence Pugh.
Learn about Lady Macbeth's personality, actions, and quotes in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Find out how she manipulates, schemes, and falls apart in the play.
Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most infamous female characters. Cunning and ambitious, she is one of the protagonists of the play, encouraging and helping Macbeth carry out his bloody quest to become king.
Explore the complex and controversial role of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Learn about her ambition, gender, madness, and relationship with her husband and the witches.
Learn how Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's wife, is one of the most powerful female characters in literature, with a burning ambition to be queen. Explore how she lacks humanity, taunts her husband, and becomes mentally deranged in the play.
Learn about Lady Macbeth, Macbeth's wife and a ruthless murderer who wants to be Queen of Scotland. Read her quotes, themes, literary devices, and related characters on LitCharts.
Learn how Lady Macbeth transforms from a powerful and ambitious woman to a weak and guilt-ridden one in Macbeth. Explore her role as a witch, a murderer, and a victim of patriarchy.
