How do you think Shakespeare might want the audience to react to Lady Macbeth in this scene?.
In act 5 scene 1 Lady Macbeth enters the play for the first time for several acts. In the last act we see her, Shakespeare leads the audience to think badly of her. But after this scene people may begin to feel sorry for Lady Macbeth.
To understand why the audience may feel this way towards Lady Macbeth we have to go back to earlier acts in the play. The audience believe that Lady Macbeth is evil as she wants to kill King Duncan in order for her to gain power as her husband Macbeth will become king. She is not the one to kill Duncan but she sends Macbeth her husband on a guilt trip to do the terrible deed (King Duncan is not just a king to Macbeth but a cousin to). Lady Macbeth does this by calling him a coward and says that he is not the man she thought he was "And live a coward in thine own esteem, letting I dare mot wait upon I would".
Shakespeare does not make Lady Macbeth seem like anything but a bad person although he shows she is not evil. This is shown in acts 2 scene 2, the night of the murder. .
Lady Macbeth said that when she went into the bedroom where she saw the dead body of King Duncon it made her feel guilty as it reminded her of her father. She also had to have a drink before the murder to calm her nerves, as she was on edge about the crime she is about to commit. This tell us that she wasn't such an evil person as people suspected, but a person who does care and is worried about getting brought to justice. Even though Lady Macbeth was not the person to kill Duncan she would still get the same punishment as Macbeth.
Until act 5 scene 1 Macbeth has been tormented with visions, nightmares and disturbances in his sleep while Lady Macbeth scolds him for his weakness. Now the audience witnesses the way in which the murder has prepaid on Lady Macbeth as well.
