Thanks for the question! Lady Macbeth is one of my favorite characters in all of Shakespeare’s work (possibly all of literature?) and I think she’s absolutely fascinating.
In terms of what she looked like and sounded like, it’s kind of fun to think about! She definitely would have a strong Scottish brogue, of course. I suppose in my mind, she’s something of a cross between the mother from Brave and Wonder Woman!
But what strikes me first about Lady Macbeth is how she switches places with her husband in many ways. At first, he appears to be the “weak” one that will destroy their plans. Later, she is the one who risks exposing what they have done. This clearly is one heck of a journey, and we don’t actually get to see much of it.
At the beginning of the play, she seems remarkably eager to believe the prophecy. Almost eerily so. Perhaps it’s silly, but it kind of brings to mind the boy Tom Riddle/Voldemort, so ready to believe in his own greatness; an inherent special destiny.
The second thing that fascinates me is the gaps between when we see her.
We don’t really know anything about Lady Macbeth before the prophecy. It seems that even before the prophecy she was ferocious in her brazen boldness, but that could just be the way she liked to think of herself. Is the bloodthirsty Lady we see over her first couple of scenes different than who she was in the weeks prior? We don’t really know. Likewise, we don’t really see her descent into madness. Only when she’s reached rock bottom does she reappear and we’re left to mostly imagine her fall.
When we last see Lady Macbeth, she is utterly pitiable. Much of the mess is of her own making, but it’s one of the most tragic moments in any of Shakespeare’s play to see someone who was so proud and so defiant standing in front of us so completely broken. And that’s what she is. She is broken in pretty much every sense of the word. I think it’s a powerful reminder that some things cannot be erased, and some decisions have lasting consequences.
What characters want always tells you a great deal about them, and Lady Macbeth is no different. There’s a lot of ways to look at it, but I think at the beginning of the play she simply wants power. She then becomes concerned with maintaining that power. This makes perfect sense to me, as she was clearly an intelligent woman, and I imagine the onerous restrictions placed on her because of her gender would have made her feel frustrated and helpless. I can absolutely believe that she would have wanted to change that, and would have gone to great lengths to do so. By the time we see her washing her hands, I think her want is just as simple: she wants to be whole again. As encumbered as her mind is, I believe she realizes that she is broken. That must be a truly terrifying realization. It’s partly for that reason that, despite her horrific decisions and actions, she deserves our pity.
