Lady Macbeth as a Tragic Heroine

World Literature 1st
9/30/13
Macbeth Essay
The Tragic Heroine The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare demonstrates to the reader just how powerful the wheel of fortune can be in a play. Lady Macbeth is the tragic heroine of this play; because the reader sees her morals take a turn for the best with an extensive price to pay. Trouble begins in this play when Lady Macbeth puts herself in control of the situation, therefore forcing herself into a man’s role. At the beginning of the play we see the eagerness in Lady Macbeth after receiving the letter from Macbeth about the witches’ prophecy. While Macbeth is interested in the idea of becoming king, Lady Macbeth starts devising plans to end Duncan’s life right away. It is seen throughout Shakespeare literature that whenever the role of the man is switched with the woman’s role, the universe becomes unbalanced, and foreshadows danger. Lady Macbeth readily takes the role as the head mastermind behind Duncan’s demise. At the evening of the murder, Macbeth lets his hesitation, and guilt get the best of him, and he decides that he is not going to go through with killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth suspected that her husband might let his indecisive and good nature take hold of him, so she quickly snaps him out of it. She questions his manhood and wishes she was a man, so she could carry the task out herself. Her scheming ways force Macbeth into thinking he has to murder Duncan in order to prove himself worthy. With the ruthless, manipulative, and ambitious manner of Lady Macbeth,
Rath 2 it at first seems that she might be in control throughout the entire play, but that is not how Shakespeare intended it to be.
Soon enough the roles return to their destined places, and Lady Macbeth experiences a striking change or moral. The guilt of murdering Duncan seemed to have no affect on Lady Macbeth in the slightest, while for Macbeth the remorse still lingers with him. The reader sees the role of guilt dramatically switch places from Macbeth to Lady Macbeth after Duncan’s killing. While Macbeth goes on a killing spree in order to hold his position of power, Lady Macbeth is slowly taken over by her madness. A scene that shows the severity of Lady Macbeth’s sorrow is her sleep walking scene. The doctor and nurse observe her repeatedly rubbing her hands together trying to cleanse herself of the bloodshed. While Lady Macbeth is not aware of all of Macbeth’s murders, she knows she is responsible for turning Macbeth into the monster he has become. While she and Macbeth become more and more distant as the play goes on, she has suspicions of what Macbeth plans to do in the future. It is not clearly stated, but it is suggested that Lady Macbeth is the one who sends a messenger to Lady Macduff warning her of a possible murder. The fact that Lady Macbeth dies by committing suicide shows, she was entirely consumed by her guilty and her character had turned for the better.
Although the process in which Lady Macbeth acquires her new compassionate character is a tragic one, she is a genuinely a better and more feminine person afterwards. As Macbeth states in his soliloquy “She should have died hereafter…” that people are no more than a player who “…struts and frets their hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” Lady Macbeth realizes that her position as queen is not worth the bloodshed and guilt. The one thing she wanted most in the world no longer signifies anything, after what she has done to earn it.