The Change Of Lady Macbeth In Shakespeare's Play

In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth has a very large range of emotions as the play progresses and she changes drastically over the course of events. At the beginning, she encourages Macbeth to kill Duncan but as it goes on, she realizes he’s taking it way too far and goes crazy with guilt and loneliness.

Lady Macbeth said, “Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty; make thick my blood, stop up th’access and passage to remorse.” (Act I, scene 5, line 40) In this she is asking to not be a woman any more so she can feel no compassion. She wants to become “manly” and be able to kill Duncan without guilt. In scene 7, when Duncan is at Macbeth’s castle, Macbeth has a change of mind about killing Duncan. When he tells Lady Macbeth this, she says that Macbeth isn’t manly enough to do it and changes his mind. This is all when Lady Macbeth was very cruel and heartless, when she wanted more than anything for her husband to become king.

As the play develops further, Lady Macbeth is still very persistent in Macbeth becoming and staying king, but she starts to realize how affected Macbeth has become by all of the things they have

This is when she has started rubbing her hands while sleepwalking. She rubs her hands like she is washing them because she is trying to get rid of the blood of Duncan and Banquo; she is attempting to wash away the guilt. While she is sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth says, “Wash your hands, put on your night-gown, look not so pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo’s buried; he cannot come out on’s grave.” (Act 5, scene 1, line 54) She is talking to herself in a state of panic, where she is trying to comfort and relieve herself of the guilt of Duncan and Banquo’s murders. She goes into such a lonely, guilt filled state of mind that causes her to kill herself later