Understanding Lady Macbeth and, crucially, what themes Shakespeare uses her character to explore is vital to understanding Macbeth as a play. Even in her absence from the stage she remains a crucial character to the plot of the play and influences how the other characters – particularly Macbeth – act.
In this detailed character profile you will find analysis of how Shakespeare uses the character of Lady Macbeth across his text to explore the following themes:
This page also includes advice on how to answer an exam question on Lady Macbeth.
Exam Tip
Although understanding Lady Macbeth is crucial in understanding Macbeth as a play, it is equally important to understand how she contrasts to other characters in the play, and what Shakespeare uses these other characters to represent. See our Macbeth: Characters page for detailed analysis of each of Macbeth’s major characters.
How does Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth?
The best way to understand characters in a Shakespeare play is to explore how they relate to the overarching themes of the play. In this case, how Shakespeare uses the character of Lady Macbeth to explore the themes of ambition, gender and the supernatural.
Lady Macbeth and Ambition
- Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth display the fatal flaw of ambition throughout the play:
- The fatal flaw, or hamartia, is a common feature of tragedy
- Typically, in a tragedy, this fatal character flaw will result in a character's demise, or death
- Shakespeare conforms to the conventions of tragedy by having both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth consumed by their hamartia and, ultimately, dying
- For more of the conventions of tragedy see our Macbeth: Writer’s Methods and Techniques page
- It could be argued that Lady Macbeth is even more ambitious than Macbeth:
- This makes Macbeth a true tragic hero: unlike Lady Macbeth, he is at first presented as brave and loyal, and has redeeming qualities
- It is just his ambition that is his downfall
- Conversely, Lady Macbeth cannot truly be considered a tragic hero because she is not presented at the play’s outset as sympathetic
- At the outset of the play, she has no doubts about the plan to murder King Duncan
- Macbeth, on the other hand, wrestles with his conscience when weighing up whether to commit regicide
- Therefore, it could be argued that an audience would have more sympathy for Macbeth:
- Lady Macbeth’s ambition has dire consequences for her state of mind
- She is less bullish about the murder of Duncan
- She has lost control of her speech
- She has lost the ability to control Macbeth, or the people around her
- She ultimately loses her mind and commits suicide
- Later in the play (in Act V, Scene I), we see that her resolve and authority have disappeared:
- Her hubris (overconfidence) leads her to commit crimes that would have been considered truly shocking to a Jacobean audience:
- This hubris comes with a fall, and she is consumed by guilt and fear of religious consequences
- For more on regicide, and religious beliefs in the Jacobean era, see our Macbeth: Context page
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s Relationship: Exploring Jacobean Gender Roles
- Shakespeare explores ideas about gender roles through the character of Lady Macbeth
- She is shown to subvert the typical characteristics of a woman in that era:
- She is not loyal and dutiful towards her husband, Macbeth
- She is not subservient to her husband, or other men, but rather controlling and manipulative
- She is not loving, or nurturing, or compassionate: she feels no pangs of conscience when planning, or remorse after, the regicide of King Duncan
- Therefore, Shakespeare presents the audience with a woman who is thoroughly untypical of Jacobean societal norms
- It could also be argued that Shakespeare presents a role reversal in the traditional Jacobean relationship between a husband and a wife:
- Typically, a man, and especially a husband, would have:
- authority over his wife, but Lady Macbeth seems to have authority over both Macbeth, and even the castle, Dunsinane, that they live in (she calls them “my battlements”)
- agency to act as he pleases, but Lady Macbeth influences, or even manipulates, his actions in the first two acts of the play
- Interestingly, this role reversal incrementally switches back to societal norms over the course of the play:
- As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth has less and less authority over her husband
- Macbeth begins to keep secrets from Lady Macbeth (the assassinations, visiting the witches for a second time) and having increasing agency
- By Act V, he assumes the typical, dominant role of a husband, and Lady Macbeth is reduced to a feeble, powerless wife
- Shakespeare could be suggesting that because she is a woman, Lady Macbeth is less capable of handling the power that comes with being a king or queen
- He could also be suggesting that women have less capacity to deal with guilt
- She commits suicide while Macbeth fights bravely until the last
Lady Macbeth and Corruption of Nature
- Lady Macbeth may also been seen to represent the corruption of the proper, Christian order of things
- She cannot maintain her authority over Macbeth
- She cannot handle the consequences of regicide, and commits suicide as a result
- Shakespeare may be presenting a moral message here to his Jacobean audience: disrupt the proper Christian order and prepare to face devastating consequences
- The Jacobeans believed in the Great Chain of Being, which asserted a rightful hierarchy of all things in the universe, as set out by God
- Kings were above men, and men were above women in this hierarchy
- For more on the Great Chain of Being, see our Macbeth: Context page
- Because Lady Macbeth both plans to usurp the throne, and has the ability to control her husband, a man, she can be seen as disrupting this established order
- For this she is punished
- Shakespeare could also be comparing Lady Macbeth – as a woman – to the evil influence of the witches:
- The witches also seek continually to disrupt the natural order of things by manipulating the weather, and human beings
- She is ‘unnatural’, just like the witches are, because of her untypical attributes and dominance over Macbeth:
- She also is childless, which marks her as an unnatural wife
Lady Macbeth Exam Question
In order to get top marks for your essay, it is very important that you know the format and requirements of the exam paper and the nature of the exam question. It is also vital that you know how to plan an answer in the Shakespeare exam and are aware of what you need to include to get the highest grade. In this section you will find:
- an overview of the exam
- a plan for a Lady Macbeth question
- a Lady Macbeth essay model paragraph
Overview of the Shakespeare Exam
- A Lady Macbeth question would be part of Section A of your GCSE Paper 1
- The essay is worth 34 marks: 30 for the quality of your essay, and 4 for the level of your spelling, punctuation and grammar
- In your question paper you will find an extract from the text of Macbeth and only one question
- You must answer the question that is set and refer to the extract, but also the rest of the play
- Revise the plot of the play
- Revise some selected quotations from different parts of the play
- This is challenging because the exam is what’s called “closed-book”, meaning that you will not have access to a copy of the text (other than the printed extract) in your exam
- Therefore, in order to refer to the play as a whole it is important to:
For a much more detailed guide on answering the Macbeth question, please see our revision notes on How to Answer the Shakespeare Essay Question.
Exam Tip
It is not a good idea to try to guess what theme or character may come up in the exam. This often results in students focusing their revision on topics that won’t come up. Remember, the examiners can set a question on anything related to the text, and it is also important to note that the examiners stress that “there is no such thing as a character or a theme question”. The exam question may be on a combination of character and theme, or the relationship between two characters, for example. Therefore, the best approach is to understand thoroughly the major ideas explored by Shakespeare in the play. See our Macbeth theme and context pages for more on these ideas.
Plan for a question on Lady Macbeth
Below, you will find a template for a plan for the following exemplar question on Lady Macbeth. It is always worthwhile spending a good deal of time planning an answer at GCSE, with examiners repeatedly reporting that the highest marks are awarded to those students who have clearly set aside time to plan their essays. For more information on planning a response, and approaching the Shakespeare question in general, see our comprehensive revision notes here.
Exemplar question
Starting with this extract, how does Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman?
Write about:
- how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman in this extract
- how Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman in the play as a whole
[30 marks]
AO4 [4 marks]
Extract:
Act I, Scene VII
Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s unwillingness to follow through with their plan to murder King Duncan
LADY MACBETH
Was the hope drunk
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour
As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would,'
Like the poor cat i' the adage?
MACBETH
Prithee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;
Who dares do more is none.
LADY MACBETH
What beast was't, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.
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Thesis statement: While Shakespeare initially presents Lady Macbeth as a powerful woman with agency over her husband and influence over others, later in the play she is shown to have lost her authority and ability to command. Shakespeare is perhaps suggesting that it is unnatural for a woman to hold such power, and that her character falls prey to the consequences of assuming such an uncharacteristic role as a woman. |
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Topic sentence |
Evidence from extract |
Evidence from elsewhere in play |
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Initially, Lady Macbeth is presented as subverting gender expectations of a woman: she has power over both her husband and her household |
“When you durst do it, then you were a man” = questioning Macbeth’s masculinity |
“My battlements” = she believes the castle of Dunsinane is hers |
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Increasingly, however, Lady Macbeth loses hold on her power and is increasingly sidelined by her husband |
Contrast the insults of “coward” and “green and pale” |
Macbeth begins to keep secrets from her (assassinations); she is increasingly sidelined in terms of agency |
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Ultimately, Lady Macbeth is presented as a feeble, powerless wife, a complete reversal of her character in Act I |
Contrast the interrogatives and blank verse |
Prose a reflection of the complete loss of control and power; death isn’t even on stage |
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Shakespeare’s methods: Commanding language; characterisation across whole play |
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Contextual factors: Jacobean expectations for women; societal norms |
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A Lady Macbeth Essay Model Paragraph
Below is a model paragraph for the past paper question above. For a full model answer, including annotations on why the response would be given full marks (and, therefore, represents a Grade 9 response) click through to our Shakespeare: Model Answer page.
Lady Macbeth is certainly presented as perhaps the most powerful of all Shakespeare’s characters in Act I of Macbeth. Increasingly, however, Lady Macbeth loses hold on her power, and is progressively sidelined by her husband. In this scene, the final scene of Act I, she still assumes the dominant and controlling position in her marriage: in a manner thoroughly atypical of a Jacobean woman, she has the power to hurl insults at her cowed husband. She calls him a “coward” and “pale and green”: these adjectives denoting sickness suggesting that he is both weak physically, but also mentally. Here, Lady Macbeth still assumes the dominant role in the relationship, and is able to manipulate Macbeth into following through with their plan to commit regicide, despite the fact that he has just stated adamantly “we will proceed no further in this business”. This power that she holds over Macbeth begins to wane as the psychological consequences of committing such a sacrilegious act increase. In the banquet scene, Shakespeare presents a desperate Lady Macbeth attempting to calm a visibly agitated Macbeth, who is hallucinating and vociferously ranting at a ‘ghost’. Unlike earlier in the play, Lady Macbeth is unable to have Macbeth bend to her will. She still uses the same insulting language (“shame”) and imperative verbs but, this time, to little or no effect. Moreover. from the point of the murder of Duncan, Macbeth begins to keep secrets from Lady Macbeth (such as the plans for assassinating Banquo and Fleance), which shows not only his increased agency, but also of a power dynamic in the relationship changing: gradually, he is becoming more powerful as Lady Macbeth’s power decreases and her influence wanes. This could be Shakespeare criticising what he saw as unnatural power dynamics in marriage. It could be argued that Shakespeare is presenting the gender roles in a relationship (so unusual at the play’s outset) increasingly conforming to societal expectations, since the magnitude of the crime they have committed – the mortal sin of regicide – is assumed to be too much for a woman to handle.
