to kill an innocent baby truly exposes the masculinity role of power and ambition in Lady Macbeth. Furthermore, the fact that she is speaking significantly more than Macbeth illustrates that she has the dominating role in the marriage where she can easily shape and direct Macbeth’s behaviour. She even goes onto to decide the precise details of the murder as Macbeth stands by and listens. This sign of weakness in Macbeth and the strong, dominant role in Lady Macbeth would have unsettled or maybe even horrified the audience as society did not allow women to have such influencing power and it is goes against the stereotypes of women in those days.
Although Act 1 ends with Lady Macbeth as being portrayed as a malevolent woman who has deceitfully persuaded Macbeth, one could argue that she was not totally evil as she herself had to ask for assistance from the spirits. She does not naturally possess the zeal and violence to undertake her plan and has to seek the power of ‘murth’ring ministers’ to strip her of her femininity and help her to carry out her devious plan. Perhaps, Shakespeare did this to add a touch of vulnerability to Lady Macbeth’s character which becomes more apparent as the play moves forward, foreshadowing the changes that will appear in her character.
Whatsmore, by talking to greater beings suggest that she has some supernatural powers and gives her witch-like qualities. Again, this was another belief that was hugely criticised in Jacobean times. Belief in witches went against the Christian society and the devil was thought to work through the actions of the witches. So, Lady Macbeth’s call to the supernatural beings would have connoted she had a relationship with evil spirits and maybe even be a witch herself. This would have again put her in an unfortunate and uncomfortable position with the Shakespearean audience who would have regarded these dealings as a sin.