Despite the coldness of her resolve, her devious scheming,
and her very effective emotional manipulation of her husband, Lady Macbeth, in the final
analysis, is merely a woman, not a super woman. The first suggestion that she is not
invincible is her reaction to the sleeping King Duncan. She would have killed him
herself, she says, except he reminded her of her own father. This suggests that Lady
Macbeth, beneath the steel will of her ambition, is not impervious to feeling softer
human emotions; it suggests she had loved her father.
This
glimpse into her humanity foreshadows her emotional unraveling in Act V when she walks
in her sleep, reliving the murders for which she and Macbeth bear responsibility and
expressing horror over the blood that has been shed. Despite her earlier displays of
emotional strength and control, she has imploded under the weight of fear and guilt. She
is a pitiful sight, walking alone in the dark carrying her candle, sighing from the
depths of her soul. Unable to bear her pain, Lady Macbeth commits
suicide.
Prior to her destruction, she exhibits other
traits to suggest that she is no super woman in dealing with her life and circumstances.
Although she strives to relieve Macbeth's guilt and fear after Duncan's murder,
struggling to keep him sane and functional, she underestimates the depth of his despair
and cannot deal with it successfully. Macbeth spins out of control; one murderous action
follows another, with Macbeth acting on his own. Lady Macbeth loses control of her
husband and her own fate. A super woman might have been able to manage the events she
set into motion through planning and manipulating the murder of the king, but Lady
Macbeth is not a super woman. She is instead a human being, subject to human weakness,
who brings about her own destruction.
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