As we know, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth with inspiration from Aristotle. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and was a pioneer to certain thoughts of science and philosophy in Ancient Greece. Aristotle believed that every tragic character had a fatal flaw which would lead to their downfall, he called that a hamartia. A tragic character with a realization of their fatal flaw, he called that anagnorisis. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown to be opposites throughout the play. They act in contrast before and after their murders on Duncan and the Guards; they are also shown to be different tragic characters.
Macbeth is shown to act worried and regretful when killing Duncan whereas Lady Macbeth is shown to be brave and strong when killing the guards. Macbeth feels bad for killing Duncan and wishes he could take back what he did and this can be seen in act 2 scene 2. “To know my deed, ‘twere best not to know myself. knocking within Wake duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst! Exeunt” (2, 2) The word “knocking” is used as a stage direction and Macbeth uses it to show his remorse “Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!” The stage direction “knocking” is used to play into Macbeth’s regret at killing Duncan. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth that the guards saw him kill but he was still in shock from killing Duncan. Lady Macbeth takes his daggers and kills them with no hesitation and when she comes back she questions Macbeth’s manliness. “My hands are of your color; but I shame to wear a heart so white” (2,2) She is saying that her hands are just as bloody as his in addition to saying she is more manly than him for not showing emotion. There is a metaphor used when Lady Macbeth says “I shame to wear a heart so white” Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that she is more of a man than him while being a girl and having a white and pure heart. In this time period it was very common for women to act like this, Lady Macbeth was shown to be out of the ordinary which would make the play more entertaining
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown to handle their murders differently. We see that Lady Macbeth acts confident and manly before killing the guards whereas Macbeth is shown to be afraid of the thought of killing someone. “Look like an innocent flower but be the serpent under’t”(1,5) is what Lady Macbeth says when convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan.“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?”(2,2) He says after he killed Duncan. Yet after Lady Macbeth killed the guards, she can be seen sleepwalking and this is where we can see her internal thoughts. “What will these hands ne’er be clean?” (5,1) Now we see the roles reversed; she is saying that her hands can’t be cleaned. “Why, so: being gone. I am a man again” (3,4) Macbeth says this not long after his kill on Duncan, Lady Macbeth was teasing him for not being manly and now he says that he feels like a man after killing him. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth use the word man to symbolize being strong and courageous. Macbeth uses a metaphor after his kill on Duncan when he says “Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?” (2,2) Neptune refers to the Roman god, god of the ocean. Macbeth also says that in a soliloquy to not show his unmanlyless to Lady Macbeth.
Macbeth is shown to be a hamartia character whereas Lady Macbeth is shown to be an anagnorisis character. Macbeth’s fatal flaw was that he became insane and wanted to kill everyone with a chance of taking his crown. “Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee? But yet I'll make assurance doubly sure, and take a bond of fate: Thou shalt not live” (4,1) Macbeth has been told by the witches that he can only be killed if the Birnam woods moved or someone not born from a woman. Macbeth believed that he was immortal and yet he still wanted to kill Macduff without Lady Macbeth convincing him. This shows his flaw and he would come to his downfall to the death to Macduff. This was possible because Macduff’s army used Birham forest to make it look as if the woods were moving; Macduff was birthed from his mother but she had a c-section which gave him the ability to kill Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was an anagnorisis character because she realized her fatal flaw of sabotaging and convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan. “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” (5,1) This was also while she was sleepwalking which tells us that it was an internal thought. Lady Macbeth sleepwalking is the last we heard of her in the play but there is a stage direction later in the book which says Lady Macbeth screams. Many suspect that she realized her fatal flaw and jumped off of the bridge because she couldn't handle the grief. Lady Macbeth uses a metaphor when says that “Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” . Arabia referring to a strong perfume couldn't make her feel like a woman again. She uses the word sweeten to represent how women acted in that time, she is saying that she couldn't be sweetened again and that could be why she jumped off of the castle.
In conclusion, this proves that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are opposites throughout the play; they had opposite thoughts before and after their first murders on Duncan and the guards and Shakespeare made them opposite tragic characters to make one of, if not his largest play that would go on to influence millions of people.
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