Lady Macbeth symbolizes the evil of human nature. Her ugly intentions are seen
in the apostrophe when she calls: “Come you spirits.” She calls for the spirits in the same
manner as do many witches. She betrays her femininity by asking the spirits to “come to
[her] womanˇs breast and take [her] milk for gall.” Moreover, she calls for them to
completely “unsex [her] here.” The disgusting imagery used in the line “make thick my
blood” flashes back to Act I Scene I and parallels Lady Macbeth with the three witches.
Just like witches, she wants to control peopleˇs lives, especially the life of Macbeth. She
works her way through by repeatedly belittling and emasculating him.
Lady Macbeth is sly, selfish, and manipulative because she finds an approach to
change Macbethˇs decision about the regicide by using emotive arguments to refute
his logic. At first, Macbeth remains thoughtful: “I have no spur to prick the sides of my
intent, but only vaulting ambition.” In contrast, Lady Macbeth is completely guided by
her desire to gain self-profit. When she sees that Macbeth is close to rejecting the idea
of regicide, she decides to play on his pathos. She applies hyperbole to display her
bravery by saying that she is capable of "pluck[ing] nipple from [babyˇs] boneless gums
and dash[ing] [its] brains out." She purposely uses this exaggeration to juxtapose her
own qualities with those of Macbeth. She implies that Macbeth is less manly than she is,
thus pushing him into committing the crime to prove his masculinity. She even goes as
far as to state her challenge of Macbethˇs masculinity directly: “when you durst do it,
then you were a man”.
Lady Macbethˇs emotional outbursts immediately undermine Macbethˇs
position, and he even seems to fear her. Lady Macbethˇs tone sways among outrage,
aggression, and cajoling. In her rhetorical question: “Was the hope drunk… and wakes
it now, to look so green and pale at what it did so freely?” Lady Macbethˇs aggressive
personification completely defeats any last doubts that Macbeth may have had. Lady
Macbethˇs eloquent language establishes her domination over Macbeth. To assert her
authority, Lady Macbeth presents Macbeth with a bitter invective: “…Screw your
courage to the sticking plate.” Lady Macbeth repeatedly taunts her husband using
diction such as “barren sceptre” and “live a coward.” In a moralizing way she
proclaims that he is “too full oˇthˇ milk of human kindness”.
Macbeth ends up respecting Lady Macbethˇs courage by drawing an analogy
between her and “undaunted metal.” In a way, Macbeth looks up to his wifeˇs
opinion by echoing her thoughts and borrowing her style of language: “False face
must hide what the false heart doth know.” Yet, he decides to challenge her claims by
resolving to kill the king. The alliteration “false face” perfectly describes the
charactersˇ final decision. The “f” sound accentuates the hideousness of this decision.