Lady Macbeth: Strong and Evil or Weak and Good

I think that Lady Macbeth is a very complex women for 
the sixteenth-century, she is even complex for the twentieth-century.  
She  is so many things wrapped into one person:  she is evil, 
manipulating, delicate, kind, murderess, and much more.  Lady Macbeth 
does not  have as many different twists and turns to her personality 
as Macbeth does, but she has many rich and fascinating combinations of 
qualities. In my opinion Lady Macbeth is the mastermind behind all off 
Macbeth's evil doing.  She is the brains behind the operation and 
knows just when to give Macbeth the extra added push (mental or 
physical) that he might need.  She is calculating enough that when 
Macbeth is having second thoughts that she manages to convince 
him to go ahead with killing Duncan (I, vii).  In this scene we also 
see that she has Duncan's murder all planned out and all that Macbeth 
has to do is kill the king that Lady Macbeth is going to take care of 
the guards.

In II,ii she shows how she is able to take over the situation without 
remorse when Macbeth seems to be falling apart.  She takes care of the 
guards, stands watch, takes over for Macbeth in planting the daggers 
back to frame the guards, and getting them ready for bed (for their 
alibi).  Here she shows that she is the one in charge and knows what 
to do and what not to do.  In this scene Lady Macbeth seems to be more 
power driven the Macbeth himself does.  Lady Macbeth is so complex.  
She talks as if she has not conscious and no heart like it wouldn't 
bother her at all but later in the play we see that it does bother her 
and she does have a conscious.  When Macbeth tells her
of what the witches say she is o.k. with it.  A few scenes later, when 
Macbeth is thinking of not going through with the murder of Duncan, 
Lady Macbeth is there to drive him back to it.  she does this by 
attacking his manhood.  In I, vii she talks about how he isn't brave 
and he counters by saying she and everyone know that he is the bravest.  
When that doesn't work she goes on about him having changed his mind 
about the murder, since the other night in bed.  She then goes on to 
give him an example that if she had said she would do something for him 
in bed, she would carry through with it.  Her example is that she would 
take a babe sucking on her breast and dashed its brains.  this shows how 
calculating she is.  Lady Macbeth knows exactly what to say to push 
Macbeth just that little inch he needs to go ahead and go through with 
the plan to kill Duncan.

I think that Lady Macbeth is a women who is calculating and vicious, 
all tough and uncaring on  the outside.  On the inside she is a weak, 
scared female who can not handle what she has done.  She is much 
smarter then Macbeth because it is she that devises the plan for 
Duncan, she that plants the incriminating evidence, and she that
takes care of Duncan.  I thought it was funny when she was telling 
Macbeth to go to sleep it would be better but it was she who in her 
sleep couldn't handle the truth.  In her sleepwalking soliloquy it 
also shows us a weaker part of her charcter that actually shows 
remorse for the killing and the devious behavior.  In V, i  Lady 
Macbeth goes on about the spots of blood and  how Banquo is dead and 
can not come back.  All of this is done in her sleep and shows that 
even though she is a tough and devious monster on the outside that on 
the inside she does suffer and has deep regret that she does not talk 
about when she is awake.  Another way to show that she is mainly just 
show is that Macbeth in II, ii was saying it will take oceans of water 
to get rid of the blood and even that isn't enough and Lady Macbeth was 
saying with just a little water they can erase any evidence at all of 
there participation in this murder.  But then when she was is 
sleepwalking she was talking about her hands.  This just shows that 
Lady Macbeth is all show and inside she is fragile.