Is Lady Macbeth evil? (quotes)

“Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here” Lasy Macbeth calls on the spirits of even to overtake her. It could be argues that she puts herself in the path of evil and deserves everything she gets.
“Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way.” It is she who decides that murder is the only way for her husband to attain the throne. She is possibly more ambitious than he is
“You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch” Lady Macbeth says leave it all to her
“That I may put my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue.” She intentionally and cruelly manipulates Macbeth into committing regicide. Shows her intentions were clear form the outset. She planned to persuade his to commit regicide from the moment she read his letter.
“Like the poor cat i’ the adage””When you durst do it, then you were a man.” LM uses reprehensible and underhand tactics in order to manipulate her husband into attaining the throne. She accuses him of cowardice.Lady Macbeth emasculates Macbeth.
“Was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?” She refuses to countenance Macbeth’s change of heart. This is the central reason why she is traditionally borne most of the blame for Macbeth’s actions.
“All pur service in every point twice done, and then done double.” She gleefully greets Duncan at the castle. Her capacity for cunning cannot be overestimated. She puts on a show of welcoming Duncan that is sickening for the audience to watch. Her use of doubles in her speech clearly links her to the witches and their evil ways; “double double toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble”
“Look like an innocent flower but be the serpent under’t” Continually emphasises the need for false appearances. She tells Macbeth to begin a pretence of loyalty in front of Duncan.
“Woe, alas! What, in our house” LM shows astonishing ease with trickery when a moment calls for pretence. She reacts perfectly to the news that Duncan has died.
“sleek o’er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial among your guests tonight” she pleads with Macbeth to put on a show for the quests who will attend their banquet.
“I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, for it must seems their guilt” She paints the grooms faces with blood and seals their fate. These were innocent men who she deliberately set about to drug and set up. (“I have drugged their possets”. Her thoughts and actions are completely reprehensible
“Give me the daggers…” She continuously covers up for Macbeth, allowing his to continue down his murderous path. It is she who returns to the scene of Duncans murder to place the daggers at the drugged guards’ sides.
“Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus, and hath been from his youth.” Her attempt to cover up Macbeth’s behaviour at the banquet. When he reacts in an outrageous manner to the ghost of Banquo she tries desperately to explain it away. Thus, it is her words and actions that enable Macbeth to become evil.
“rapt in the wonder of it””yet I do fear thy nature, it is to full o’ th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” It can be argued that LM only wanted the best for her husband. She clearly saw his ambition after reading his letter he had written after immediately hearing the witches prophecies. Furthermore, it is clear that her husband has cowardly tendencies. It is because LM is aware of M’s deepest desires that she sets about plotting the murder of Duncan.
“but screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail” Her suspicions are proved correct when Macbeth loses his courage (“We will proceed no further in this business”). LM had no choice but to prop up her husband and compels him to do what was necessary to achieve his ambition.
“What beast was’t then that made you break this enterprise to me.” This indicates that it was actually Macbeth who proposed the idea of killing Duncan first and not LM. If this is true then all the blame should be on Macbeth’s head and not LM’s
“I have given suck and know how tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me” It appears the Macbeths are childless. This quote could be an indication that the Macbeths once had a child that passes away and thus the audience should feel nothing but sympathy for LM
“Give me the daggers…” “Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck.” As soon as Macbeth seizes the throne he turns from his wife who worked so hard to help him in achieving this. This is in spite of the fact that she saved him from detection by bringing the incriminating daggers back to the scene of the crime. He was overcome with fear and yet again LM moved to protect him.
“Help me hence, ho!””Look to the lady.” M’s indifference to his wife’s distress is shocking in A2 S3 when she faints. It is only MD and B who respond to her cries. Macbeth is entirely silent and allows the other to attend to her. This stunning betrayal is another reason why we should pity LM
“Noughts had, all’s spent””Why do you keep alone?” The ill-effects of M’s growing indifference towards LM should not be overlooked. His focus is entirely on himself and his own state of distress.
“Things without remedy should be without regard: what’s done is done.” Despite all of his careless treatment of her, LM still tries to comfort and advise him. He disregards her love by treating her disrespectfully when he refuses to tell her of his nefarious plans for Banquo (“…dearest chuck”)
“there’s knocking at the gate: come come come, give me your hand.” The isolation that she suffers and the strain of trying to help her husband come to a head when we witness her completely mental breakdown in A5 S1. It is pitiful to watch her as she sleepwalks through previous events. As ever, even in her madness, her concern for her husband is paramount.
“Out damn spot! Out, I say!” She feels crippling remorse for her part in the murder of Duncan.
“Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done’t””Yet who would have thought the old man to have so much blood in him.” The fact that she cries about the scene that she came upon in Duncan’s chambers becomes all the more piteous because of this.
“She should have died hereafter.” Macbeth’s unemotional response to the death of his wife.It seems a heartless response to the death of a woman whose constant concern with for her husband. It could be argued that she deserved a better eulogy than this.
August 9, 2019