Lady Macbeth's Soliloquy Analysis

Throughout Macbeth, Lady Macbeth appears in nine scenes, seemingly rational and in control of herself, although rather obsessed with gender roles in relation to power. Her preoccupation with masculinity and power is exemplified in her soliloquy, as she speaks of “fear[ing] [Macbeth’s] nature”, because it is too full of “human kindness (I.V)”. Lady Macbeth believes that her husband would be too afraid to act, and uses this to play on his fears: “Art thou afeard/To be the same in thine own act and valour /As thou art in desire? (I.VII)”, pushing him to what she considers their mutual goal: power. Her fears for her husband’s lack of action and her belief in his fear lead her to deride him into action- notably, it is Lady Macbeth who first commits to this plan and pushes Macbeth along.
It is this fear that in turn shows that she still has sentiment and a conscience she cannot escape from. Still, it can also be said that Lady Macbeth’s greatest fear is the weakness within herself. In her famous soliloquy in Act 1, scene 5, Lady Macbeth denies her feminine side of sentiment and kindness, the very characteristics she condemns Macbeth as a weak coward for having. Until her death, she pushes away any idea of weakness and fear of taking action. Perhaps Lady Macbeth simply does not care for anything other than power and control, yet while she scorns kindness, guilt, and other characteristics as weak, seemingly afraid of being powerless, she herself succumbs to the very trait she feared most- weakness- falling into the trap of a guilty conscience and later implied to have committed suicide. Lady Macbeth can no longer live with herself and the torments of a guilty conscience, and led by fear of her weakness and of the deeds she and her husband perpetrated, completely loses her ability to rationalize, plan, and stay