Lady Macbeth Research Paper

Lady Macbeth is responsible for her own downfall due to her involvement with supernatural forces, her ambition and her guilty conscience.
Lady Macbeth claims that she can "look like the innocent flower/But be the serpent under 't" (1,5,64-65). She imagines that she has the capability to be remorseless and determined enough to do anything. Yet, she calls upon supernatural forces to use to her advantage. She does not ask for the help of the ‘dark side' but demands it as though she could undermine the power of unearthly evil forces. She demands: "Come, you spirits/that tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here…stop up the access and passage to remorse…you murdering ministers…come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell…nor the
heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, / To cry, ‘Hold, hold!'"(1,5,39-53). She's asking the supernatural forces to make her insensitive so that she feels no remorse and not hesitate in her plans to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth is embracing the darkness and welcoming it, implying that she holds no evil in her soul. This ‘agreement' with the ‘dark side' makes way for the reason as to why she begins carrying a lit candle wherever she walks. She does this as if she is now afraid of the forces she once called upon in her quest for more power.
Lady Macbeth's great ambition is evident when she receives the letter from Macbeth with the news that he was prophesied as the King of Scotland.
She immediately thinks that she and Macbeth will have to kill Duncan as she says "thou…shalt be / What thou art promised" (1,5,14-15). She also decides that Macbeth is too good natured to kill the king, saying "it is too full o' the milk of human kindness" (1,5,16). After Lady Macbeth plots the murder of Duncan she learns that he will be making an appearance at the Macbeth house. She seems quite pleased with this new information as she says, "He brings great news. The raven himself is hoarse / That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan" (1,5,37-38). Her ambition to have more power by being Queen is so great that she will do anything to get what she wants. However, once Lady Macbeth becomes Queen she also becomes very unhappy. She gets what she wants and still wants
more.
The guilt Lady Macbeth felt is indescribable, for the feeling of committing murder can only be felt by those who have committed murder themselves.
Her guilt was so great, that while she was sleep walking, she began to re-enact the murder of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth was actually scared of being caught as well as regretful to what she had done. One night while sleepwalking she begins saying:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One; two, why, then ‘tis time do't. Hell is murky! Fie, my lord-fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?
Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (5,1,34-39)
When she speaks those words she was implying "Who can judge a King, when the King is the judge?" as well as "…no one will be able to make us confess how we got this power." Lady Macbeth's guilt is further shown when she continues with "The Thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?/What, will these hands ne'er be clean?"(5,1,41-42). This implies that she knew about the murder of Lady Macduff and their son as well as others living with the Macduff's. All of this guilt and stress built up so high that it was eventually too much for her to handle. It was just too painful and the pressure was so overwhelming that she simply couldn't manage it anymore. The only solution that she deemed possible was to take her own
life.
Lady Macbeth is therefore truly responsible for her own death as all of the above aspects lead to her suicide and in turn her very own downfall.