Lady Macbeth - up to act III scene 2 - my opinion

At the start of the play 'Macbeth' we first are introduced to lady Macbeth through the letter, written to her by her husband. This produces the idea that she is very close to her husband, and that he values her, and her opinion very highly, because a letter is alot of trouble to go to when Macbeth is on his way to see her anyway.

During the first interactions between Lady Macbeth and her husband, lady Macbeth is presented as very domineering and over powering, as she seemingly takes control of  'operation King Macbeth'. This could seem unusual as she is a woman, but because the audience would have been used to he likes of Queen Elizabeth, female authoirity might not be too surprising.

Here, she is also presented with supernatural tendencies. She call upon spirits to 'unsex her' and seems to be filled constantly with violent thoughts. She is in fact presented unlike a woman or as one who wants to lose all sense of femininity. this idea is created through the images she uses, like the pulling her baby from her nipple and 'gashing its brains out', which is not what a mother would be expected to do.

She is also very deceptive. She comes across to Duncan as  'the perfect hostess', and yet she is planning to kill him that very night. Also, when the king is discovered dead, she 'swoons'. In this way she is presented to the rest of the court as a 'typical' woman, and only the audience and her husband understand her true tendencies.

During the murder of Duncan Lady Macbeth is presented as a very strong character. She gets annoyed at her husband when he does not full fill her plans exactly as she has planned them and so she has top hid the daggers. she even claims that she would have killed the king if he didn't resemble her father. The image of a Strong women, unaffected by guilt is reinforced when she say 'a little water will wash us of this deed' in comparision to Macbeth's opinion that the whole of the ocean won't wash the blood from his hands.

In act 3, however, Lady Macbeth seems to have lost some of the control over her husband. she is now asking him 'whats to be done' rather than instructing him. This makes it seem like she has lost control over 'operation King Macbeth' because Macbeth has become confident because of his 'trimph' over his murder of the king.