Many believe that to become the person they want to be, they must change their lives. The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare explores the idea that an individual is often unable to deviate from their fundamental character despite their desires for change. This idea is specifically developed in the characterization of Lady Macbeth throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth wants to be ruthless in pursuing her ambition to see Macbeth become king. However, as the story progresses, she slowly slips into madness driven by the guilt she feels from mortal danger. acts in which she participated. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get an Original EssayAt the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is depicted as the individual who drives Macbeth to perform murderous acts in pursuit of self-fulfillment personal and desires, she appears more ambitious than Macbeth as she begins planning Duncan's murder right after receiving news of Macbeth's prophecy of becoming king. She is shown asking the spirits to "de-sex her here and fill her from the crown to the feet with the greatest cruelty" (Act 1, scene 5) so that she will be evil and have the mental strength to push Macbeth to kill Duncan because she knows he doesn't have the courage to do it. While Lady Macbeth seems ruthless and cruel at the beginning of the play, this scene is significant because it presents Lady Macbeth as someone who demands that her feminine qualities of benevolence and sympathy as well as her morality be taken away from her so that she can become the mean and cruel person whose ambition is stronger than their moral compass. This is important in showing Lady Macbeth's fundamental character, as a person "born" evil would not need to ask for their morals to be taken away from them like Lady Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth shares her plans to murder Duncan with Macbeth, he is appalled and immediately begins to fear the impartial justice that would be the consequence of his actions. He later decides that he will not murder Duncan because he was a blameless king. This angers Lady Macbeth and she expresses that she would "rip her nipple from a baby's boneless gums and smash its brains out" if she had already promised to do so. In this scene, Lady Macbeth is able to manipulate Macbeth by questioning his masculinity. She also reveals her plan of action to Macbeth. Eventually, Macbeth is convinced that he gives in to Lady Macbeth's proposal and decides that he will murder the king in order to prove that he is a man. While Lady Macbeth appears to have the ambition and strength of a man at the beginning of the play, her facade begins to crumble after Duncan's murder. Lady Macbeth is anxious while waiting for Macbeth to return after murdering Duncan, she imagines that Macbeth is murdering Duncan at that very moment. Soon after, she hears Macbeth's screams and she fears that he has awakened the guards and therefore could not have carried out the murder. In her fury, Lady Macbeth reveals that if “Duncan had not looked like his father in his sleep,” she would have been the one to kill him. This is a critical line because it suggests that Lady Macbeth is not the strong, apathetic individual she was looking for at the beginning of the play, as she feels weakness when confronted with the murder of someone 'one who looks like his father. This demonstrates that Lady Macbeth's emotional connections with others are a crucial element of her character that grounds her and prevents her from straying from her core beliefs and morals, thus revealing that, 11(1), 69-82.