Firstly, Lady Macbeth is wicked. She calls upon “thick night and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell” so that her “keen knife” will be unable to see “the wound it makes”. Although her senses are so alive and acute, Lady Macbeth’s speech is filled with the desire for blindness or darkness, so she calls on “thick night” to blot out her sight. Her plan to kill Duncan just to obtain the title she desires is outrageously ruthless. Lady Macbeth even tells Duncan to “leave the rest to her [me]”, completing her transformation from woman to man. She is sure that she will be able to murder Duncan and fulfil her desire of becoming Queen. Hence showing that Lady Macbeth, who is willing to go to extreme lengths to get what she wants, is wicked and lacks “th’ milk of human kindness”.
Secondly, Lady Macbeth is cruel. As soon as she received Macbeth’s letter telling him about the Witches’ prophecies, she already had a brief plan of what to do to “have thee crowned withal”. She takes action immediately, and creates a plan to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth plans to drug Duncan’s two chamberlains “with wine and wassail” when he is asleep so they will not be aware of what is happening, and will hence be unable to protect Duncan. By doing so, the servants shall have to “bear the guilt of their[our] great quell”. Lady Macbeth’s true cruelty is shown when her death has no effect on the play as she is not considered a hero. Her character is that of such pure evil that it is difficult for the audience to sympathize for her on a personal level. Her crimes were considered so brutal that it would be difficult for anyone to ever forgive her.
The Essay on Macbeth Lady Duncan Kill 2
... to believe that Lady Macbeth is responsible because she makes up the details of the plan to kill Duncan, while Macbeth was considering not ... concerning killing Duncan, Macbeth wishes that he would have the fortitude to go ahead and kill Duncan. Macbeth expresses his desire to be ... able to kill Duncan even though he knows he will ...
Next, Lady Macbeth rarely shows any sympathy towards anyone. To obtain the title of kingship and queen ship for Macbeth and herself, Lady Macbeth is willing to “pluck[plucked] her[my] nipple” from a “babe”, even when it was “smiling in her[my] face”. This evidently shows the lack of sympathy in her, and even a babe, she would not let off. For Lady Macbeth, manliness excludes compassion and nurturing. Therefore, Lady Macbeth rarely shows any sympathy towards anyone.
Lastly, Lady Macbeth does have a certain amount of ‘weakness’. Although she was quite determined to kill Duncan and even claimed that she would “pluck[plucked] her[my] nipple” even from a “babe” solely to obtain the kingship and queenship, Lady Macbeth could not bring herself to kill Duncan. She claimed that if Duncan “had not resembled her[my] father as he slept, she[I] had done’t”. This clearly shows that she is not unsexed as the “milk of human kindness” is actually present in her. Therefore, Lady Macbeth does have a certain amount of ‘weakness’ in her.
In conclusion, I think that Lady Macbeth can be considered the fourth witch in Macbeth to a great extent. Besides having a certain amount of ‘weakness’ in her, she is actually wicked, cruel and lacks sympathy in her.
