1. Act 5 Scene 1
Act 5
In this scene we witness Lady Macbeth’s mental breakdown. How does this affect the audience’s view of her?
Is she mad or simply sleep-talking?
What is the paper she folds? Has she a conscience?
Has she committed any atrocities? Is she wicked?
How is the audience’s view of Lady Macbeth affected after we hear of her suicide?
How do the gentlewoman and doctor perceive her?

2. Why might an audience pity her here?
She holds a candle, wears a nightgown and carries a piece of paper – sign that she is repenting her crimes / being reborn (baptism)/ warding off dark spirits.
Gentlewoman and doctor feel sorry for her. The doctor says he cannot help her and is worried she might commit suicide. The gentlewoman states that she is glad that she does not have such a heavy burden.
Macbeth has left her to go into battle – she has no outlet for her guilty feelings.
Her sleep is clearly tortured by her feelings of guilt. She continually washes her hands to no avail. There is nothing she can do to repent her actions.
She re-runs her part in the murder – she does not blame anyone else – it is her words that haunt her.
Her mind is perturbed. Her thoughts are disjointed.
She is worried about Macduff’s wife. This sets her apart from Macbeth.

3. Why might the audience still not pity her?
She was dismissive of many of Macbeth’s worries (blood on his hands, lack of sleep). These words are coming back to haunt her ironically.
She invited the dark spirits into her life. It is her fault that she has been left powerless.
She is being punished for her controlling and manipulative actions earlier.
Witches were commonly put to death in this era. Is she a witch? Is she trying to remove signs of her being a witch?

4. It is in Act 5 that the audience are most likely to pity Lady Macbeth
It is in Act 5 that the audience are most likely to pity Lady Macbeth. In the stage directions, at the start of Act 5 Scene 1 Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as entering with a ‘taper’. Together with her nightgown and the piece of paper that she holds, she would appear, especially to an Elizabethan audience, as someone who is confessing and repenting their crimes. The fact that the gentlewoman states that she ‘has light by her continually’ could suggest that she is trying to ward off the dark spirits that she invited into her life and have left her powerless. It could also be a spiritual light that she is now seeking, desperately. A candle is given in a baptism ceremony for the same reasons.