Lady Macbeth's Flaws

The play ‘Macbeth' was written by William Shakespeare in 1606, however Shakespeare set ‘Macbeth' in the mid eleventh century. At the time in which the play is set life was much different and women played a distinct role in a family. Women were supposed to be domesticated and very maternal. They did not go to work, they stayed at home and cooked, cleaned and looked after their children. The main female protagonist in this play is the antithesis of a typical mid eleventh century woman. Lady Macbeth is a strong manipulative female who seems to be more dominant than her husband Macbeth. Lady Macbeth also does not seem at all maternal, there is evidence in the text to suggest that she has given birth before but due to lack of medical knowledge her
In each of the four tragedies the main character always has a fatal flaw. A fatal flaw is the a detrimental error which leads to the downfall of a well respected protagonist. In the play the well respected protagonist is Macbeth whose fatal flaw is his ambition. Macbeth is also a typical stereotype men in the mid eleventh century. Macbeth was a loyal kinsman and a loving husband. Macbeth can be viewed as the hero at the beginning of this play because of his attitudes towards life, he values everything aspect of his life. However his ambition to become King led to his downfall, in particular, his death.

Macbeth's ambition lead him to having murderous thoughts after he meets three witches who give Macbeth and Banquo three prophecies each. This meeting is where the whole play changes because Macbeth is completely absorbed by these three prophecies. These three witches are evil and only want to manipulate Macbeth's thoughts,
‘All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis.
All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of
Macbeth is still oblivious to the fact that the witches are evil. Almost immediately after his encounter with the witches Macbeth writes a letter to his spouse, Lady Macbeth, telling her about the three prophecies. At this point in the play their relationship is at its closest. Macbeth loves and respects his wife dearly,
‘My dearest partner of greatness.'
This indicates that Macbeth has an equal relationship with his wife.

Lady Macbeth is intrigued by these three prophecies and takes charge of the situation by beginning to plan King Duncan's murder. Lady Macbeth is extremely ambitious to become Queen as she too is oblivious to the manipulative ways of the witches. Lady Macbeth knows exactly what she is doing and knows that no normal women would ever plan a murder. That is why she appeals to the spirit world to ‘unsex' her and fill her ‘from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty.' Lady Macbeth also calls the spirit world to take away her femininity so that she is able to do the deed,
‘Come to my woman's breasts and take my milk for gall.'
This expresses that Lady Macbeth wants her life giving milk to be taken from her breasts and be replaced with poison so that she can kill, taking someone's life