Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are not evilMacbeth and Lady Macbeth are good people with bad judgment. It is unfair of Malcolm to describe them as "this dead butcher and his demon-like queen." At first, they are a respected couple sharing a romantic relationship. Their downfall is not due to evil, but to their ambition for Macbeth, sparked by the witches' prophecy. Macbeth's indecision over whether or not to kill Duncan, and Lady Macbeth's pleading with the spirits to remove her feminine qualities, demonstrate that cruelty does not come easily to them. Macbeth is a Scottish nobleman and important relative of King Duncan, whose inventor and heroic leadership of a winning tactic in a battle shows his skill, courage, and loyalty to his country. He is well respected, and after his feat of courage, Duncan believes him worthy of receiving the title Thane of Cawdor, which is a huge honor for Macbeth. The problem, however, is that this helps awaken his ambition, which we later discover is his tragic flaw. Lady Macbeth is a faithful wife who has ambitions for her husband. She thinks Macbeth deserves to be king, but thinks he is too nice to do anything. She doesn't think he could kill Duncan alone. She supports Macbeth and is willing to do anything she can to help him get what he wants. However, she is fundamentally a caring and loving person, which is why she begs the Spirits to take away her tenderness and femininity and make her merciless: "Come, you spirits who tend towards mortal thoughts, desex me here and fill me from the crown to the toes, the top full of the greatest cruelty (IV38-41) These testimonies about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth prove that at the beginning of the play, they were born... ... middle of paper ......omen Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900, ed. Manchester, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press, 1997. Knights, LC “Shakespeare: The Tragedies.” . A collection of critical essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Mack, Maynard. Shakespeare for Everyone: Thoughts Primarily on the Tragedies. of Nebraska Press, 1993. Schlegel, August Wilhelm. Criticism of Shakespeare's Tragedies. A course of lectures on drama and literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965. Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth. Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York: Washington Press, 1992. Steevens, George. Shakespeare, The Critical Legacy. Flight. 6. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981. Wills, Gary. Lady Macbeth and Evil. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.