planning. Her spur-of-the-moment orders will affect Macbeth so deeply that his character will be forever changed. Lady Macbeth intentionally tries to ignore consequence and concentrates on securing Macbeths future as king of Scotland. She looks to the quickest way as one that may lack rationality, but shortens their path to the throne. Lady Macbeth has been the authority icon for Macbeth, yet deep down, she never carried such traits to begin with. Because Lady Macbeth is a woman, she does not have the strength in her female heart, body or mind to carry out the deed of killing the King. Therefore, she calls upon the aid of the supernatural to give her male powers, so that she may have the audacity to go through with the plan to murder the King and allow Macbeth to obtain the throne. Women have always been considered as the gentler and fair sex. Lady Macbeth feels that to commit this crime, she must become as cruel as she believes men are. She calls for the spirits to unsex her, so she may act as a man would (Lenz, 238). Although Lady Macbeth is unstable and vulnerable at the end of Act I, she uses dramatic analogies to persuade her husband to follow through with the first murder: I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me: I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this (I.7.54-59). By hearing a woman who seems to be fearless of his anxieties, Macbeth is soothed. Lady Macbeth knows her husband is a strong person, and she knows she must seem stronger in order to convince him to go along with her plans. Lady Macbeth imagines that she has the ability to hide her true emotions, though her mind is as frail as an egg. She claims that she can act to look like a flower that is innocent, but be a serpent in disguise. After the murder is plotted between the two, Duncan decides to make a surpri...
