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... greening nature. She uses her status as a woman to con Macbeth into killing Duncan. As his wife, she also has to calm any of his fears and doubts. She also is looking out for his benefit and wants to see him succeed. Lady Macbeth plays a very important role in tragic development of the play.
Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth's masculinity to convince him to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth touches directly upon these issues in her attack on Macbeth's manhood when he hesitates to kill Duncan (Andrews 522). Her first attack to his virility is when she says, From this time such I account thy love (I, vii, 38 - 39). She parallels Macbeth's unwillingness to kill the King with sexual nonperformance (Bradley, 213). She is making her love for him dependent on whether or not he carries out this murder.
When Lady Macbeth says Wouldst thou have that which thou esteem 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' th adage? (I, vii, 42 - 43), she continues to verbally assault Macbeth's courage and manhood until she has him agreeing to the murder plan. She urges the excellence and dignity of courage, a glittering idea which has dazzled mankind from age to age, and animated sometimes the house-breaker and sometimes the conqueror; but this sophism Macbeth has forever destroyed by distinguishing true from false fortitude in a line and a half, of which it may almost be said that they ought to bestow immortality on the author though all his other productions had been lost- I dare do all that may become a man, who dares do more is none. [I. vii. 46 - 7 ] (Johnson 171). Lady Macbeth will not give up until she gets what she wants. He loses his nerve, but Lady Macbeth rallies him (Spender 247). She tells Macbeth, When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be so much than what you were, you would be so much more the man (I, vii, 49 - 51).
She tells him that he was a man when he made the promise to kill Duncan, but now he is not a man because of his doubts. She expresses that in her very graphic complaint: I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this (I, vii, 39 - 42). Lady Macbeth is really attacking Macbeth, because no man wants to be called a coward, but he especially does not want to be called one by the woman he loves. By evoking this vulnerability Lady Macbeth acquires a power over Macbeth more absolute than any the witches can achieve (Adleman 287). Lady Macbeth has so much power, which one can observe by her actions over her husband alone, that she is the greatest influence in his life. Lady Macbeth has to calm some of Macbeth's fears in order for him to continue the planned deed of murdering Duncan.
She must deal with her husbands qualms. She insinuates that he is not an adequate man if he gives in to his fears (Boyce 356). Macbeth doubts the success of the plan to murder Duncan. He says to his wife, If we should fail? (I, vii, 59); and she retorts with much confidence We fail? (I, vii, 60). She also thinks up the plan on how to kill Duncan. When Duncan is asleep- Whereto the rather shall his days hard journey soundly invite him- his two chamberlains will I with wine and wassail so convince that memory, the warder of the brain, shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason a limber only (I, vii, 62 - 68).
She is the master of the situation, influences he husband, and maintains herself in a logical relation to her surroundings (Coriat 219). When Macbeth is not willing to go back and see Duncan's dead body Lady Macbeth points out that The sleeping and the dead are but pictures. Tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil (II, ii, 50 - 53). She calms Macbeth to reassure him that everything will work out. Lady Macbeth's desire for success also causes her to coax Macbeth into murdering Duncan. She is ambitious less for herself thank for her husband after reading her husbands letter, she does not once refer to herself.
It is of him she thinks: she wishes to see her husband on the throne, and to place the scepter with in his grasp (Jameson 192). She asks him why is afraid where there is so much glory in gaining the crown for himself. When he hesitates to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth says, Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valor as thou art in desire? (I, vii, 39 - 41). In the most directly lustful of her ambitious fantasies, Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that the great business of murdering the King shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and martyrdom (I, v, 67 - 68).
Jameson says that it in the mind of Lady Macbeth, ambition is represented as the ruling motive (191). Lady Macbeth's motives were for her husbands advancement. She influenced him to kill Duncan, only so he could enjoy a higher status. The combination of the influence of the witches and the influence of the Lady Macbeth on Macbeth are undoubtedly what precipitate the tragedy. The witches initial prophecies set Macbeth up to be doomed in the first place.
The apparitions deceive Macbeth and lead him to believe he is invincible, when that is not the truth. Lady Macbeth plays a large role in the influence of her husband. She questioned his manliness to get him to commit murder for her. She was able to calm his fears to assure him that the plan would work and benefit him. Lady Macbeth desired to see her husband succeed so much, that shed tell him anything to get him to kill Duncan. The Witches influence only existed only on a cosmic level, as where Lady Macbeth's persuasion of her husband is more fear-inspiring because she brings the full extent of the witches evil influence to an internal level with her power to make Macbeth murder Duncan.
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