Starting with this extract, explain how far you think Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as an evil character in the play? (The extract in the exam paper would be Act I Scene 5 of Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth performs ‘the raven himself is hoarse)

Within the provided extract, Lady Macbeth is presented as an evil character when she rejects feelings of guilt and remorse, as she requests that the ‘passage to remorse’ is blocked. She is presented as wholeheartedly converting to malevolence. Shakespeare continues this concept and incorporates religious imagery, as she asks that she is cloaked in ‘the dunnest smoke of hell’, which implies that she is asking for hell and the devil’s help as they assist her in her crime. Shakespeare continues this religious imagery when she asks that her ‘keen knife see not the wound it makes/ Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,/ To cry ‘Hold, hold!’. Lady Macbeth purposefully requests not to hear or see heaven and goodness as she completes her murderous task. This suggests that Shakespeare is presenting Lady Macbeth as wholly evil in this scene, as she rejects Christian teachings of remorse, and actively asks hell to help her in her mission by shielding heaven from her.

                  However, in Act 5 Scene 1, Shakespeare arguably presents Lady Macbeth in a sympathetic light, and suggests that she is not evil, but is in fact regretting her actions. The infamous ‘out damned spot’ scene suggests that the various murders prey on her mind, despite the varying degree of her role in them. The juxtaposition of ‘The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?’ with ‘What, will these hands ne’er be clean?’ suggests her feelings of guilt for a murder of which she had no part. Her desire to clean her hands of the blood of the murders suggests that they cling to her and that she feels guilty about them. Her traumatised cries and moments of insanity, alongside the shock of the doctor and the nurse, suggests that she is incredibly ill and is therefore pitied by the characters and the readers.

                  Overall, Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as an evil character initially due to her evil thoughts and desires. However, he presents her sympathetically later in the play, evoking feelings of pity and sadness at her demise. Therefore he does not present her as wholly evil, as she is presented as sick and in need of help in the final scenes of the play.