In Act 5, Scene 1, we can see how Lady Macbeth's guilty conscience has become more than she can bear. Earlier in the play, she had valued ruthlessness and remorselessness, and she'd even prayed to evil spirits to help her become more ruthless and remorseless than she already was. Now, however, she laments Macbeth's ruthlessness when she asks, "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is / she now?" (5.1.44-45). Macbeth had brutally murdered...
In Act 5, Scene 1, we can see how Lady Macbeth's guilty conscience has become more than she can bear. Earlier in the play, she had valued ruthlessness and remorselessness, and she'd even prayed to evil spirits to help her become more ruthless and remorseless than she already was. Now, however, she laments Macbeth's ruthlessness when she asks, "The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is / she now?" (5.1.44-45). Macbeth had brutally murdered Lady Macduff and her children when he realized that Macduff had escaped him by fleeing to England. Including Lady Macbeth is clearly now no longer part of his plans, and she is sad for Macduff's wife and her own husband's terrible and purposeless brutality.
Further, she had earlier suggested that a little water would clear them of the deed of killing Duncan, implying that regret would never play a role in the way the Macbeths seized power. However, now she feels that she cannot get the smell of the blood off her hands and cries that "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand" (5.1.53-54). In the end, although she formerly valued remorselessness and ambition and brutality and power, Lady Macbeth now seems to understand the emotional and mental toll taken on her by her earlier priorities, and she cries, pitifully and alone. Guilt has distorted her previous ideas about which qualities are best.
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