Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth to have a different female personality than of those from the Jacobean Era. He shows us that Lady Macbeth’s character is more of a, deep, evil, and very two sided type of character; throughout the play her inner character is quite similar to the Witch’s character. Lady Macbeth, for some reason, seems to be power hungry most of her time.
Shakespeare creates Lady Macbeth in a way where she can be highly determined to do the deed, also won’t back down because the deed might be too challenging for her. Additionally, she tends to use other people to do her will. “That hath made them drunk hath made me bold,“ this quote opens Act2: Scene2, it connotes that ‘them’ being drunk made her valiant and brave towards the deed of killing King Duncan, ‘them’ could also be the obstacles’ that her and Macbeth needed to dodge for Macbeth to be King. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth commits an act which I interpreted it as a very motivated move, “I have drugg’d their possets” implying that she had no other choice but to the risk the chances of getting caught to drug the King’s guards.
From another part, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth to be the dominant character within her and Macbeth’s relationship. This very unusual compared to the supposed natural nature of women in the Jacobean Era. Women in this era are portrayed as kind, helpful, and obedient while the men are shown as the dominant ones with absolutely no limits of what they can do. However, Lady Macbeth’s character is shown otherwise; “Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead are but as pictures”. The manner in which she is demanding. She demands that he gives her the daggers and she demands that he gets rid of the picture, additionally, she shouts ‘Infirm of purpose!’ which is coward. In the Jacobean Era, women would have never called their husbands a coward and that to the men is abuse, which would leads to punishment, but that did not happen. This could be that Macbeth on the battlefield is strong minded and when he is off he’s weak minded.
Lady Macbeth is constructed by Shakespeare to appear very evil and demonic. It seems to have almost been destiny to have received that prophecy and for Lady Macbeth to act in such a manner. In Act 1:Scene 5 she asks the evil spirits for help; “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from crown to toe topfull of direst cruelty” this depicts that she already knows that Macbeth will need help in committing such a deed, also the term ‘spirits’ used by Lady Macbeth suggest that she is using dark magic, giving her character a much darker characteristic. Could Lady Macbeth be a Witch?
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