Lady Macbeth, the husband of the eponymous character Macbeth, changes throughout the play as she drowns under the weight of her own guilt. She starts off guiding her husband Macbeth into doing what is necessary for him to become King - to do this she adopts a Machiavellian approach where she manipulates him into committing regicide by attacking his masculinity - "when you durst do it then you were a man". However, this is brought to an end by her never-ending guilt in Act 5 where she ends up sleepwalking and eventually killing herself. In Act 1, Lady Macbeth has a monologue which Shakespeare uses to give an audience an insight into her mind and her aspirations for Macbeth and the lengths she will go to for him. She opens a letter addressed from Macbeth after he has met with the Witches and heard their prophecy. In this monologue, she acknowledges that Macbeth cannot do what it takes to become King. She comments on how he is too "full of the milk of human kindness". Shakespeare does this to make her appear different to the ideal paragon of womanhood in the Jacobean era - he uses her to make an audience remember the ruthless reign of Elizabeth I and that things would change due to the new monarch James I. Later on in Act 1, Shakespeare signposts that Lady Macbeth will have a character arc in a soliloquy. He does this by making her renounce her femininity and embrace violence. This is shown by the quotation, "come you evil spirits, unsex me here". The "evil spirits" she calls upon gives negative connotations of the supernatural and the external influence of the Witches and associates Lady Macbeth as power-hungry and manipulative. It foreshadows how her influence leads to Macbeth's despotic rule. In the same soliloquy, she says "take my milk for gall". This shows how much she is willing to change for her husband and that she would give her "milk" and turn it into poison in order for him to become successful. Lady Macbeth also orchestrates the plan to murder Duncan. Macbeth is hesitant at first and her Machiavellian intentions are further revealed when she coerces him into performing the act. She tells him that Duncan will not see the "sun of morrow", clearly displaying her evil capabilities. Lady Macbeth then educates her husband on how to appear inconspicuous in order to not attract any attention from the guests. She says, "Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent underneath". This shows she is trying to convince Macbeth that he needs to wear a veil to hide the "construction" of his face for him not to appear guilty. This signifies a change in Lady Macbeth as she is presented as more controlling by Shakespeare and this reverses gender roles at the time. This could be interpreted as Shakespeare trying to show the Witches aiming to use her to get what they want. After Duncan's murder occurs, we see that Macbeth appears very guilty as he is unable to say "Amen" and he says "will all of Great Neptune's Oceans wash away this blood from my hands". This is contrasted with Lady Macbeth having little to no guilt as she says "a little water clears us of this deed". By making her say this, Shakespeare reinforces in an audiences mind that she is evil and has no remorse whatsoever. However in Act 5, we can see that Lady Macbeth later on in the play is consumed by colossal guilt, showing an immense shift in her character. She says, "Out, out damned spot" which implies she feels as if all the sins she has committed previously cannot go away and have manifested as a "spot" on her hand. Later, she says, "all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this hand" which shows an audience the weight of her guilt that makes her take her life. Shakespeare uses her to show what repercussions there will be if you disrupt natural order and Great Chain Of Being - a common belief in Jacobean society. Overall, Lady Macbeth is shown to be a corruptive force at the start of the play and emerges into a character who cannot survive under the immense weight of her previous sins. The "water" from the start of the first murder builds up into an entire of ocean in which she drowns.