Jezebel, whose husband was a king, would crown him with kingly deeds.
Lady Macbeth, whose husband was a prince, would see him crowned a king.
Jezebel would aggrandize empire, which her unlawful marriage thereto had
jeoparded. Lady Macbeth will run the risk of an unlawful marriage with
empire, if she may thereby aggrandize it. Jezebel is insensible to
patriotic feelings,--Lady Macbeth to civil and hospitable duties. The
Zidonian woman braves the vengeance of Jehovah,--the Scotch woman dares
the Powers of Darkness; the one is incited by the oracles of Baal,--the
other by the predictions of witches. Lady Macbeth has more intellectual
force,--Jezebel more moral decision; Lady Macbeth exhibits great
imagination,--Jezebel a stronger will. As the character of Lady Macbeth
is said to be relieved by the affection she shows for her husband, so is
that of Jezebel by her tenderness for Ahab. The grandness of the
audacity with which Jezebel sends after the prophet Elisha, saying, "So
let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life
of one of them by to-morrow about this time," has its counterpart in the
lofty terror of the invocation which Lady Macbeth makes to the "spirits
that wait on mortal thoughts,"--

"Fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and the passage of remorse!
. . . . Come to my woman's breasts,
And take my milk for gall, ye murdering ministers!"

But the last moments of these excessive characters are singularly
contrasted. Jezebel scoffs at approaching retribution, and, shining with
paint and dripping with jewels, is pitched to the dogs; Lady Macbeth
goes like a coward to her grave, and, curdled with remorse, receives the
stroke of doom.