Lady Macbeth, A Woman Drove By Love Or Ambition?

6 Pages 1525 Words

William Shakespeare is without a doubt the most popular playwright in the history of the theatre. Shakespeare wrote over thirty plays, and none more popular than “Macbeth.”
“Macbeth,” a tragedy in five acts, is based on episodes in the life of a king of Scotland, who lived from 1005-1057. The tragedy is a penetrating, concentrated and harrowing study of ambition. Both Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, have a driving ambition that turns each of them into a spiral of guilt and evil. No character in any of Shakespeare’s plays undergoes such a radical change as that which transforms Lady Macbeth from a nearly superhuman character in the first act of Macbeth into a sleep-walking zombie at the start of the fifth and final act in the play. The question, however, that needs to be asked is, was she a self-made monster of ambition and evil or an emotionally imbalanced woman driven by love?
Shakespeare first introduces the character of Lady Macbeth into the play in Act I, Scene V. The first words spoken of Lady Macbeth are in prose. Shakespeare often used this to show something significant was about to happen. Lady Macbeth’s first speech is actually the words of her husband’s as she reads the letter he has sent to her informing her of the witches’ salutations and prophecies he has received. This tells us that their relationship was quite strong because as soon as he had received the witches’ words he notified his wife. The witches plant the seed of ambition here by predicting that Macbeth shall be King of Scotland. This outcome will benefit her and her husband equally. She immediately concludes that the “fastest way” for Macbeth to become king is by murdering the present king, Duncan. Lady Macbeth’s immediate thoughts may make her appear as though she is a thoroughly irreligiously cold and ambitious woman, but this is not so. To prepare for what she feels must be done she calls on evil spirits to “stop u...