preview

How Is Lady Macbeth Insane

Decent Essays

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is a characters with a noticeable development for beginning to end. Lady Macbeth is not only Macbeth’s husband, she’s also his voice of reason throughout the play. She has an active speaking role and presence, however after the third act, there is a break in Lady Macbeth’s character. She does not appear again until the fifth act. During this gap, there is an evident change in Lady Macbeth’s character. She becomes insane. Shakespeare leaves no explanation to the sudden change in character, however in Macbeth (2015) the directors insert a scene to make Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness more clear. The scene shows Lady Macduff and her children being burned at the stake, and there are frequent cuts showing …show more content…

At this moment, Lady Macbeth is trying to hide the fact that Macbeth is following the path to insanity. At one point during Macbeth’s breakdown, Lady Macbeth pulls him aside and says, “This is the air-drawn dagger which you said / Led you to [the king]. O, these flaws and starts, / Impostors to true fear, would well become / A woman’s story at a winter’s fire / Authorized by her grandam” (III.iv. 75-9). Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that he needs to stop acting out because it was his decision to murder the king and Banquo. Also, Lady Macbeth brings up the point that no one, tells Macbeth that it’s necessary to murder the king. Lady Macbeth is trying to compose herself and Macbeth in front of their guests, to allude that nothing is wrong, however the guests can confirm that Macbeth was the person who killed the king. This is important to Lady Macbeth’s descent into insanity because she’s blaming other people for putting the idea into Macbeth’s head, but in reality she was the person who convinced Macbeth to murder the king. This is the first moment where it’s evident that Lady Macbeth is becoming

Get Access