at milks me: / I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you/ Have done to this.” (I.vii.54-59). Lady Macbeth is saying that she would rather slaughter her nursing child than to back out of a responsibility she said she would go through with.As the play progresses Lady Macbeth’s deterioration can clearly be sensed. The first sign is when Lady Macbeth goes to murder Duncan, but is unable to because he “...resembled/ My father as he slept...”(II.ii.12-13). This is the first sign of her weakness that we are capable of detecting. After the murder is complete, Lady Macbeth becomes less active in Macbeth’s plan for domination. He begins to plan the murders without even consulting her, and she becomes more passive towards him. She no longer goads him to do tasks; he does them on his own. Soon she comments that “Nought’s had, all’s spent/ Where our desire is got without content: / ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy”(III.ii.4-7). We now see Lady Macbeth is regretting her decision to scam Macbeth into murdering Duncan. She is not able to enjoy their new success because she is unable to be sure they were really successful. This guilt and regret she is feeling is exactly what she was trying to prevent. Towards the end, we notice that Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking, and she is afflicted with hallucinations of guilt as a result of all the murders. She walks around the castle with a candle and rubs her hands as if she were washing them. For a moment she stops and says, “...What, will these hands ne’er be clean...” (V.i.38). She continues on by saying “Here’s the smell of blood still. All the per-/fumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand...” (V.i.43-44). She is obsessing over trying to become w...
