Lady Macbeth was completely cruel and heartless. Throughout the play, we do not see much of a touch of humanity in her, and perhaps her only good quality was that she used to love her husband with all her heart and soul. Besides that, we do not see any other good qualities in her. At every step of the play, we can see her cruelty. She encourages Macbeth to kill the king. There was not a single bit of kindness or compassion in her, and we rarely see a woman as cruel as her in a play.
To understand the psychological state of Lady Macbeth, her soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 5 is very important. In this soliloquy, we see that Macbeth writes her a letter from the battlefield. In this letter, he informs her about the prophecy of the witches. The witches prophesied that Macbeth would become a king, and Lady Macbeth became overjoyed upon reading the letter. However, according to the norms of that era, it was impossible for Macbeth to become a king. This letter demonstrates Macbeth’s deep love and unwavering trust for his wife. This is because, if the contents of the letter had been leaked somehow, Macbeth’s inevitable punishment would have been death. After reading this letter, Lady Macbeth, alongside being overjoyed, begins to think about how she can help her husband succeed on this path. Not even once did it occur to her that it was legally impossible to make Macbeth king. Rather, her cruel thoughts became even stronger, and from then on, she began to think with all her heart and soul about how to remove the king and make Macbeth king. This soliloquy highlights the distinct character traits of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
We can describe Lady Macbeth as a manly woman. Although she was a woman, she did not exhibit any of the typical characteristics of a woman. She did not have any woman-like charm, sweetness, or softness in her. Rather, she had the mental strength of a brave warrior. She did not hesitate to make any harsh and cruel decisions at any time, and she did not care about how much harm this caused to others. In other words, Lady Macbeth should have been a soldier. Perhaps, if she had lived in this era, she would have become a soldier, and her psychology is like that of a soldier.
When a soldier takes part in a war, he does not
consider what is right or wrong. He must fight and help his side win the war.
If his side wins, peace and happiness come to his heart. But if his side loses,
he feels pain and sorrow. Lady Macbeth possessed this kind of psychology, and
if we consider it from this perspective, she can be described as a
Machiavellian character. The main principle of Machiavellian characters is that
“the end justifies the means” — that is, the objective must be achieved at any cost.
The thought came to Lady Macbeth’s mind that she must make her husband king,
and after that, she had no other thoughts. She had only one thing on her mind:
how she could make her husband king. For this, she committed unethical and
immoral acts at every step and encouraged her husband to do the same.
Sometimes, it felt as if Lady Macbeth were the husband and Macbeth were the
wife.