Lady Macbeth, Macbeths Lady-Villain :: Macbeth essays

Macbeths Lady-Villain William Shakespeares moving tragedy Macbeth presents a leading lady who is non the usual sort of woman, but rather a contradiction of the distinctive woman. Let us consider her pillow slip in this essay. In memo Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons comments on the Ladys cold manner Macbeth announces the Kings surface and she, insensible it should seem to all the perils which he has encountered in battle, and to all the blessedness of his safe return to her, -- for not unitary kind word of recognise or congratulations does she offer, -- is so entirely swallowed up by the frightful 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 nerve center is melted down to softness. (56) Fanny Kemble in Lady Macbeth depicts the character of Macbeths wife Lady Macbeth, even in her sleep, has no qualms of conscience her remorse takes no(prenominal) of the tenderer forms akin to repentance, nor the weaker ones allied 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, produce some years ago 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 easing of our detestation of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of wrong-doing . . . and that I think Lady Macbeth never had though the unrecognized military press of her great guilt killed her. (116-17) Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare assure the character of Lady Macbeth Lady Macbeth is of a fine r and more overdelicate nature. Having fixed her eye upon the end - the attainment for her husband of Duncans crown - she accepts the unavoidable means she nerves herself for the terrible nights work by artificial stimulants besides 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 retentivity of one stain of blood upon her little hand.