Character Development of The Macbeth Family Essay

The Macbeth Family Character Development

Considering Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's character development throughout Macbeth, it is clear that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have switched characters. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is scared like somebody would be when skydiving for the first time, albeit on a much grander scale. He is, for all intents and purposes, normal. A normal person would certainly be scared about murdering the king of that person's country, whom everyone adores, and trying to frame others for it. Macbeth acts like this up until Act III. Even when he kills King Duncan, he is only acting upon his wife's behest. He is not ambitious enough that he can make decisions with enough ramifications such as these on his own. He is also a little bit crazy when faced with what he is about to do, culminating with the famous dagger monologue in Act II scene i. Then, beginning at Act III, his personality begins to develop from one who is accounting for the consequences of his actions to one that can do these actions without a second thought, beginning with his ruthless killing of Banquo. He reverts a little bit back into form when seeing Banquo's ghost in Act III, Scene iv. However, that is just a momentary lapse and should be considered the exception rather than the rule. This transitions all the way into Act V, Scene v, when Macbeth barely bats an eyelash at the news that his wife died. Macbeth sums up his growth by saying, I have almost forgot the taste of fears... I have supp'd full with horrors; / Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, / Cannot once start me. (76) What he is saying is that earlier, he would have been scared at the predicament that came before him; however, now that he's seen real horrors, such as the weird sisters and their apparitions and incantations, he isn't frightened as easily anymore.

Lady Macbeth, however, takes roughly the opposite route. She begins the play as Macbeth ended it, not taking a second glance at whatever she does. She is able to coax Macbeth through all of killing Duncan and taking the throne, even while Macbeth is afraid and half-crazy. She says this in response to Macbeth asking what happens if they fail to kill the king. We fail! / But screw your courage to the sticking-place / and we'll not fail. (17) However, she takes a little bit of a different route than Macbeth. Instead of just becoming scared like Macbeth was in the beginning, and only half-crazy, she became full-on crazy. She was sleepwalking, hallucinating, and babbling by the time she committed suicide. The turning point for her was when Macbeth left her to go to battle, as the gentlewoman that looks after her says. She even causes a doctor to say that she needed more spiritual help than physical. In the end, she kills herself for reasons unknown. However, in the beginning, she was ambitious, determined, and practical. This makes her character development roughly the opposite of Macbeth's.