In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady
Macbeth is a woman in a dominant man's world. She is extremely ambitious and
authoritative, and eager to make plans. At the opening of the play, she has a lot of
influence over Macbeth. Her only object for her ambition is her husband, however, as
was generally true for all women of that era. Any leading she does will have to come
through his position in society.
She is, of course, also
ruthless, and some might even say evil, although physically defeating a ruling monarch
through assassination or battle is somewhat the norm in Shakespeare's day, not to
mention 11th century Scotland.
She is also not quite so
ruthless as she wishes to be, and not quite so ruthless as she first appears. She prays
to her spirits to make her as ruthless as a male warrior (thus showing she has natural
limits to her ruthlessness). Then she cannot bring herself to kill Duncan because he
reminds her of her sleeping father. Finally, she mentally and emotionally breaks down
after Banquo, Lady Macduff, and the Macduff children and household are all slaughtered.
Those murders were not part of her original plan, and were more hideous than anything
she could cope with.
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