Act Five Scene One.
Consider the diminished society of Lady Macbeth in this scene. The Queen is now alone aside from her gentlewoman and doctor, who as powerless ‘servants’ can only regard her as an object of appalled fascination, but can do nothing with their assumptions. It appears that loneliness and the passage of time have brought about introspection that has encouraged feelings of mental anguish and violent remorse expressed through her hallucinations. . Her erratic behaviour suggests her mind is haunted by her past actions and those of her husband. Interestingly, these hauntings are even revealed linguistically, as earlier pronouncements made by herself or Macbeth now return to plague her mind. The doctor and gentlewoman are clearly alarmed by the revelations leaked by Lady Macbeth as she is sleepwalking, yet they are powerless to complain to anyone as they are beholden to Macbeth. And Lady Macbeth seems to believe her guilt cannot be punished or held to ‘account.’ A curious and ironic distortion of the divine right of Kings after all the heinous crimes she and her husband have committed! The tension is further amplified by the dramatic irony of the audience knowing far more about the gory details of the dreadful crimes than the doctor or the gentlewoman.
Here are five observations that struck me as I witnessed the scene:
1) Lady Macbeth is a transformed figure in this scene. She sleepwalks and repeats certain incriminating behaviours which alarm those observing her. The resourceful, improvising, incisive figure of earlier in the play ‘leave the rest to me’ has been replaced by this fearful, haunted woman who is scared of the dark and hallucinates incriminating spots of blood by candlelight.‘ Enter Lady Macbeth, with a taper.’ Her speech is erratic and reveals her murderous criminality in disconnected fragments reflecting her broken, guilty state. ‘ The thane of Fife had a wife.‘ Here the internal rhyme sounds childlike underlining the unstable mental state of the speaker who has literally lost her way! The audience and the audience on stage watch on in appalled fascination, at the diminished figure of the Queen, leaking more revelations. ‘ what, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ This ironically reminds us of the earlier trite dismissal of her husband angst over his blood-soaked hands after he has murdered Duncan.
Why does Shakespeare expose her to the scrutiny of the doctor and gentlewoman at the beginning of the final act? How does this strangely intimate scene frame and foreshadow what will follow in the rest of the play? Does the audience enjoy this hubristic unravelling of the Macbeths’ power and control? Why has Lady Macbeth’s court shrunk so dramatically to the domestic? Why is Lady Macbeth now an object of psychological scrutiny; more a patient than a person? Has Lady Macbeth fallen into madness or was her excessive ambition (hamartia) already a manifestation of her unstable mental health?
2) Lady Macbeth begins her erratic ruminations and reminiscences with the highly ambiguous, ‘Yet here’s a spot.’ What are the effects of this remark on the audience and stage witnesses? Does this hallucinatory sighting of blood recall the blood on her husband’s hands? Are their hallucinations unnervingly synchronized with each other despite their obvious estrangement by this stage of the play? What is the relationship between washing and guilt in this play? Are there allusions to Pontius Pilate?
3) There is considerable ironic contrast between the indiscretion of Lady Macbeth in this scene and the self-control and malign hypocrisy demonstrated earlier in the play when she feigned loyalty to King Duncan and affection for Banquo. In this scene, the Queen speaks in fragments of her heinous crimes. Interestingly the fragmentation of her speech reflects her broken mental state. We listen in mounting fascination to her incoherent confessions that leak nightmarish criminality and guilt. Her fear of darkness and the need for a perpetual lighted candle makes the looming reality of her hallucinations truly diabolical.
4) The irony that Lady Macbeth’s murderous criminality is revealed as she goes sleepwalking is particularly grotesque as Duncan was brutally killed as he slept. The King’s trust was thus callously exploited by the scheming couple. Now by the final Act, the Queen cannot bear the dark as it is animated with her own monstrous guilt. The repetitions give representation to her inability to forget her murderous actions. She is already in a hell of her own creation.
5) The close scrutiny of the Queen’s behaviour that opens the scene, is presumably at the behest of the gentlewoman who is worried at her mistresses strange behaviour. She calls upon the doctor to join her in watching the Queen and ascertaining what the eccentric and alarming behaviour might signify. The male doctor initially remains unconvinced by the gentlewoman’s claims until he observes them first hand.‘ I…can perceive no truth in the report.’ He also assumes that the gentlewoman should talk to him about the Queen’s revelations, ‘ tis most meet that you should.’ but she remains discreet and loyal.’ neither to you nor anyone.’ As the scene progresses, the initial superiority of the doctor gives way to uneasy fascination as both spectators acknowledge they are witnessing incendiary revelations by the Queen. It is interesting to think of the historical context and that Lady Macbeth has now become weaker and more typically feminine in her vulnerability. The gentlewoman is also reliant upon the ‘good’ male doctor to verify her fears about her mistress, indicating that this world is deeply patriarchal and that females are a lesser species entirely. Does this scene make Lady Macbeth s suicide inevitable as the doctor suggests, ‘remove from her the means of annoyance… ‘ which is of course literally impossible as Lady Macbeth is consumed by guilt?
