Lady Macbeth is a fascinating character in the famous play written by William Shakespeare entitled Macbeth. Lady Macbeth has a multi faceted personality because one side of her character is contemptible, determined and rude while the other side is extremely fearful and hesitant. One of Shakespeare’s most famous characters, Lady Macbeth is known for manipulating her husband to commit the murder of king Duncan and thereby making her an active participant in the crime. Ambition is one of her most prominent traits; She will do anything to become queen and eventually she does but the thing about Lady Macbeth is that she has a conscience, even though she regards it as a weakness. The regret she feels about convincing her husband kill the king, the representative of God on earth, is eventually her demise. The first appearance of Lady Macbeth is in Act 1 Scene 5. At the beginning of the play she is violent and ambitious. She wants King Duncan dead so she can be the Queen and her husband the king. She craves power and control. Lady Macbeth is extremely controlling and uses any means necessary to eventually achieving her goal of getting her husband to murder the king. She states“, “were you not a man when you broke this enterprise to me”(1,7,47-48). Her ability to manipulate her husband eventually changes his mind and he goes ahead and kills Duncan. Lady Macbeth is willing to lie and compromise her integrity if she can get what she wants. Lady Macbeth questions her husband’s masculinity in order to get him to commit murder. She expresses how she’s so much more noble and strong than him, and how she wishes she were a man so she could just do the deed. She states, ”I fear he is too full of the milk of human kindness”(1,5,16) However, Lady Macbeth is a very shortsighted character. While Macbeth was thinking through all the pros and cons and repercussions of murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth was very nonchalant. “He’s here in double trust:/ [f]irst, as I am his kinsman and his subject, / [s]trong both against the deed; then, as his host, / [w]ho should against his murderer shut the door,/ [n]ot bear the knife myself.” (1, 7,12-16) but he also knows that in order to become king himself he has to murder this very good and justice doing, gullible man. After the murder of King Duncan Lady Macbeth says, “a little water will wash away the deed”. This is an example of how she thought that if she killed Duncan all she would need is water to wash away the blood and guilt. Beginning shortly after the murder of the king the relationship between Macbeth and his wife begins to change. Right after Lady Macbeth is still covering for Macbeth in order not to make the other thanes suspicious but with time the pair grows more distant witch each other and withholding important details from each other, like Macbeth not telling his wife about the three prophecies (4, 1) or that he ordered Banquo’s murder (3, 2). Meanwhile Lady Macbeth is trying to find courage by drinking. For some time she takes charge again but only to fall down again. By act 5 Lady Macbeth is a wreck. She is sleep walking and constantly playing the night of the murder over and over in her head. The deteriorating mental health of Lady Macbeth is shown in this quote “Here’s the smell of blood still; all the perfumes Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (5, 1, 44-45). This quote in contrast to the one about her being able to wash the blood of her with only water (2, 2, 49-50) is a perfect example of how her character has changed. Lady Macbeth once so strong and confident is now essentially loosing her sense of reality from all the guilt and grief that she brought upon herself. In conclusion see that Lady Macbeth is a very important character in this play; Shakespeare used her to convey a certain relationship of manipulation and taunting towards Macbeth, her husband and also to challenge what the audience believes about gender stereotypes. The irony of Lady Macbeth is that although she talked so violently and seemed so strong she was actually a very feeble individual. Lady Macbeth is an excellent example of how people can be blinded by ambition and pride and become so short sighted that they cannot see the obvious string of events that well occur after they commit such a dubious crime. And even though she did not commit the deed herself, she was the one who finally and fully convinced Macbeth of doing it, thereby making her the more responsible of the both of them.