In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth”, Lady Macbeth is a person that is manipulative of Macbeth’s actions, however, this is only for the period before and during the murder of King Duncan, afterward, Macbeth starts to become more independent and Lady Macbeth becomes the person being manipulated by Macbeth. And the next few paragraphs of this article are the supporting pieces of evidence of this.

 

In Act 1 scene 5, Lady Macbeth said: “…be the serpent under’t…” (page 27) to Macbeth when they were having a conversation before King Duncan’s murder. During this scene, Lady Macbeth is manipulating Macbeth to commit murder by saying this. In the past, “serpent” has a bad connotation and it is the symbol of evilness and death. It is usually related and linked to Satan and Devil in Christianity which the audience at that time believed. And this scene shows the manipulation Lady Macbeth is acting on Macbeth.

 

In Act 1 scene 7, Lady Macbeth said: “…live a coward in thine own esteem…” (page 33) to Macbeth. In this scene, Lady Macbeth is intentionally making Macbeth angry by saying that he is not a man and he is not brave enough to kill King Duncan, and here, Lady Macbeth is manipulating Macbeth by saying something that is meant to make him upset, and thus, Macbeth will be committed to murdering King Duncan since Macbeth doesn’t want to be called a “coward”, which is what Lady Macbeth wants Macbeth to do.

 

In Act 2 Scene 2, Lady Macbeth said: “…give me the daggers…” (page 37) after Macbeth has murdered King Duncan, Lady Macbeth asked Macbeth to give him the daggers and put them beside the servants so other people will think that the servants have killed King Duncan instead of suspecting Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. In this scene, “daggers” can have different intended meanings, the intended meaning of “daggers” in this scene might be a symbol of the Lady Macbeth’s cruelness and her manipulative mind towards Macbeth.

 

In Act 3 scene 2, Macbeth said: “…Apply to Banquo…” (page 77). From here on, Macbeth is becoming more and more independent and he is becoming more manipulative himself. And he can do actions himself without Lady Macbeth’s influence. In this scene, after Lady Macbeth is aware that Macbeth is planning to kill Banquo, she tried to stop him to do that, however, Macbeth told Lady Macbeth to “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck” (3:2:47-48) in line 47-48. So here, Macbeth is manipulating Lady Macbeth.

 

Given the 4 pieces of evidence from the script of Macbeth above, we can see how Lady Macbeth went from being manipulative of Macbeth’s actions to being manipulated by Macbeth.