Lady Macbeth facts for kids
Lady Macbeth is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play Macbeth (c.1603–1607). She is the wife to the play's main character, Macbeth, a Scottish nobleman. After talking him into killing the king, she becomes Queen of Scotland. Later, she feels bad about her part in the crime. She dies off-stage in the last act.
The idea for the character came from Kings Duff and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare. Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth appears to be made up of two personalities in Holinshed's work. These are Donwald's nagging, murderous wife in the account of King Duff and Macbeth's ambitious wife in the account of King Duncan.
Images for kids
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Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sargent, 1889.
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The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth by Johann Heinrich Füssli, late 18th century. (Musée du Louvre)
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A print of Lady Macbeth from Mrs. Anna Jameson's 1832 analysis of Shakespeare's heroines, Characteristics of Women.
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Sarah Siddons in the sleepwalking scene
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Photograph of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, an 1888 production
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Jeanette Nolan in the Banquet Scene from Orson Welles' Macbeth (1948)
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Gabriel von Max's depiction of Lady Macbeth.
See also
In Spanish: Lady Macbeth para niños
