MACBETH, LADY

wife of Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth. A strong, rational, and calculating woman, Lady Macbeth is determined to see her husband put aside his milk of human kindness to fulfill the ambitions she has for them. She rejects her feminine nature in the memorable speech Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here / And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full / Of direst cruelty! That she succeeds in this will-to-cruelty becomes clear when she goads her husband to kill Duncan, with the words I have given suck, and know How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me; I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done to this. Despite her initial calmness and calculation, Lady Macbeth is eventually conquered by her inner demons. In a sleepwalking scene, she reveals her guilty feelings and tries to wash invisible blood from her hands. Her death is reported a few scenes later.