Introduction paragraph
Thesis: Lady Macbeth is the most important character in Macbeth because she tries to act like God, she has a flaw that the audience can identify with and that she stark raving mad.
I: Lady Macbeth Tries to be God
- Hannibal quote
- Similarity to Lady Macbeth
- What being God entails
- Manipulates Macbeth – questions his manhood
II: Lady Macbeth’s Tragic Flaw
- She’s a human being
- Audience can identify with her flaw
- Makes her so memorable
- Everyone has thought about killing someone
III: Lady Macbeth Goes Stark Raving Mad
- Duncan looks like her father
- She empathizes with her victims, even though logically she shouldn’t
Lady Macbeth, Hannibal Lecter and God: Why Lady Macbeth is the Most Important Character in Macbeth
Lady Macbeth is not only one of William Shakespeare’s most famous villains, but is one of the most famous female villains in all English literature. However, she only appears or is spoken about by other characters for about one-third of the only play she ever appears in, Macbeth. How has she become so popular even though she spends a very short time in the actual play? It is because she is the most memorable character in the play. Even Macbeth pales in comparison to his vividly portrayed wife. She is memorable for three reasons – that she acts like God (or at least, tries to); that she has a tragic flaw that people can identify with and that she goes mad even after she gets what she wants.
Lady Macbeth knows exactly what has to be done in order for Macbeth to become King and for her to become Queen. King Duncan and his family have to be killed. There really is no other way around it, as Lady Macbeth sees it. Duncan is spending time in her castle. Lady Macbeth realizes that there will be no better opportunity than now in order to kill the king. She has a glimpse of the future – or what she thinks the future holds for her. She takes it upon herself to become God in deciding who lives and who shall die.
A contemporary version of Lady Macbeth can be seen in Thomas Harris’ cannibal killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. This character appears for less than 20 minutes on screen in The Silence of the Lambs (1992) and yet Lecter remained the dominant character of the film. In all of the films, books and television shows Lecter appears in, he dominates all of the other characters and events because he plays at being God. In the television episode Amuse-Bouche, Lecter tells his patient (and the camera) “Killing must feel good to God, too. He does it all the time. And are we not created in His image?”
Lady Macbeth calls upon invisible forces like night and darkness in order to carry out the murder, like a goddess commanding the Universe. “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here” (I.v.30-31) she cries, trying to transform herself from a mortal woman into an immortal God. Back in Shakespeare’s time, God was always thought of as masculine. “Come thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife see not the wound it makes” (I.v.50) Lady Macbeth not only manipulates the Universe (or believes she has) but she also manipulates Macbeth by taunting his manhood. When Macbeth first refuses to kil Duncan because he is a guest, Lady Macbeth says “Art thou afeard, To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire?” (I.vii.40 – 43). She also calls Macbeth a coward and says that only after killing Duncan will be have proved himself “to be a man.” With only speaking 30 lines, she convinces Macbeth to kill the king (Keirnan, 2006.) In Shakespeare’s time, it was thought God used men like chess pieces in order to do His work. Lady Macbeth also uses men like chess pieces.
However, Lady Macbeth’s tragic flaw is that she is a human being and not God. God may work with a cruel logic but Lady Macbeth cannot. She winds up feeling sorry for her victims. She also becomes terrified that she and her husband will be found out as Duncan’s murderers. Killing may feel good to God, but not to Lady Macbeth. She knows what to do to get what she wants and is cold enough to have her wishes carried out. However, she cannot live with herself after the deeds are done. She keeps seeing blood on her hands. She is convinced others can see the blood, too and therefore will be able to see that she had Duncan murdered. Edgar Allan Poe would explore this further in his short story “The Tell-tale Heart.” In contrast, Hannibal Lecter would never be bothered by his killings in a God-like way. This is what makes him so chilling.
Everyone at some point in their lives think about killing someone that is in their way. Most people choose not to kill. Lady Macbeth chose otherwise. It is this universal wondering about killing someone that makes her the most powerful character in the play. She tries to be a cold calculating machine but cannot overcome her own humanity.
This clash between her divine aspirations and her human limitations drives Lady Macbeth stark raving mad. A quote attributed to the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, that may have been well-known in one form or another in Shakespeare’s time states, “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” This seems to be what happened to Lady Macbeth. She is haunted by visions of blood. She revealed earlier in the play that she would have killed Duncan herself “Had he not resembled My father as he slept” (II.ii.12-13.) She later cries, “Yet who would have thought that the old man had so much blood in him” (V.i.28-30). Blood is also a symbol of family or to those we are related to by blood. Lady Macbeth cannot help equating Duncan with her own father, symbolized by the ever-present yet invisible blood on her hands. This blood obsession makes her madness believable to Shakespeare’s audiences. In modern times, the constant hand washing is stereotypical of the obsessive compulsive, so it is the hand washing and not the blood that resonates with modern audiences.
Lady Macbeth is the most important character in the play Macbeth because she takes over the role normally assigned to God. She commands invisible forces like a god would. She manipulates her husband in the way God manipulates prophets or those He has supposedly spoken to. Lady Macbeth becomes so memorable because she cannot keep up the façade as God. She eventually cracks for very human reasons and kills herself because she denied her own humanity by pretending to be God. This is something that everyone in the audience can relate to. But for the grace of God, there goes each audience member.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. D.A. Theime, 1867. (Google Books edition.)
Fuller, Bryan, Harris, Thomas and Gray, John D. Hannibal Season 1, Episode 2, Amuse-Bouche. Originally broadcast April 12, 2013.
Kiernan, Pauline. Filthy Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Most Outrageous Sexual Puns. Gotham, 2006
