Many believe that to become the person they want to be, they must change their attitude. The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare explores the idea that an individual is often unable to move away from their core character despite their desire for change. This idea is developed specifically 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 for Macbeth to become king, however, as the story progresses, she slowly slips into madness driven by the guilt she feels over the mortal death. acts in which he participated. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is portrayed as the individual who drives Macbeth to murderous actions in pursuit of his own personal fulfillment and desires, she appears more ambitious than Macbeth as she begins planning Duncan's murder right away after receiving the news of Macbeth's prophecy of becoming king. She is shown asking the spirits to "deprive her of sex here and fill her from head to toe full of the most atrocious cruelty" (Act 1, scene 5) so that she will be evil and have the mental strength to push Macbeth to kill Duncan because she he knows he lacks the courage to do so. Although Lady Macbeth seems ruthless and cruel at the beginning of the play, this scene is significant because it presents Lady Macbeth as someone who needs her feminine qualities of benevolence and sympathy, as well as her morals, to be taken away from her in order to become the evil and cruel person whose ambition is stronger than his moral compass. This is important to show Lady Macbeth's core character because a person who is "born" evil would not need to ask for their morals to be taken away like Lady Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth shares her plans to murder Duncan with Macbeth, he is shocked and immediately begins to fear the impartial justice that would be the consequence of his actions. He later decides that he will not kill Duncan because he was an impeccable king. This angers Lady Macbeth and she expresses that "I will tear his nipple from a child's boneless gums and break his brain" if he had previously promised to do so, in this scene, Lady Macbeth is able to manipulate Macbeth by questioning his masculinity. He also reveals his plan of action to Macbeth. In the end, Macbeth is convinced to give in to Lady Macbeth's proposal and decides that he will murder the king 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 as she waits for Macbeth to return from killing Duncan, she imagines that Macbeth is killing Duncan right then. Not long after, he hears Macbeth's cries and fears that he has awakened the guards and was therefore unable to carry out the murder. In her fury, Lady Macbeth reveals that if “Duncan had not resembled his father while he slept” she would have been the one to kill him. This is a critical line as it suggests that Lady Macbeth is not the strong, apathetic individual she tried to be at the beginning of the play as she feels weak when faced with the murder of someone who resembles her father. This demonstrates that Lady Macbeth's emotional connections with others are a crucial part of her character that grounds her and prevents her drift away from her core beliefs and morals, thus revealing that Lady Macbeth is a principled character whose decisions and actions are driven by a burning ambition. When Macbeth arrives after., 11(1), 69-82.