About Me

I am the wife to Macbeth, Scottish nobleman. After goading him into committing regicide, I become Queen of Scotland, but later I suffer pangs of guilt for my part in the crime and I eventually commit suicide.

My origins lie in the accounts of Kings Duff and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare. I appear to be a composite of two separate and distinct personages in Holinshed's work: Donwald's nagging, murderous wife in the account of King Duff, and Macbeth's ambitious wife in the account of King Duncan.

I am a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first two acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, my role in the plot diminishes. I become an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth's plotting, and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by my husband's hallucinations. My fifth act sleepwalking scene is a turning point in the play, and my line, "Out, damned spot!," has become a phrase familiar to most speakers of the English language. The report of my death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth's "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" speech.

I illuminate the conflict between femininity and masculinity, as they are impressed in cultural norms. I suppress my instincts toward compassion, motherhood, and fragility — associated with femininity — in favour of ambition, ruthlessness, and the singleminded pursuit of power. This conflict colours the entire drama, and sheds light on gender-based preconceptions from Shakespearean England to the present.