Lady Macbeth: The part that dies so the whole can live
Duality in Shakespeare’s Scottish play
As a lifelong reader of Shakespeare, I never understood the popular interpretation of Lady Macbeth as a villain. Though often portrayed as a fourth witch, the final and most decisive voice to send the great Glamis down his murderous path, it seems to me Lady Macbeth is not possessed by evil, at all.
She doesn’t seem to me the power-hungry, nagging wife that eggs her husband on to kill and claim title and land for himself. Rather, through the sheer depth of their love, she takes onto herself the ugliest, vilest aspects of Macbeth’s personality, the ones that he himself is too weak to carry.
When we first meet Lady Macbeth, she is not outlined as a separate entity from her husband, at all. This isn’t to criticize Shakespeare’s portrayal of women (quite the contrary, he seems to have had a profound respect and love for them, writing some of the most nuanced and elaborate literary females of that time). Rather, Lady Macbeth being presented as another facet of her husband serves to highlight the depth and intensity of their connection. When she first appears, she is reading out loud her husband’s letter, telling of his encounter with the three witches.
