Lady Macbeth is a schemer. In act 1, scene 5, she begins making serious plots against Duncan's life:
And that which rather thou dost fear to do,Than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither,That I may pour my spirits in thine earAnd chastise with the valor of my tongueAll that impedes thee from the golden round,Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seemTo have thee crowned withal.
She lacks the courage to murder him herself, so she relies on influencing Macbeth to commit the murder instead. She asks that her own soul be blocked from any feelings of regret over the deed and calls for "murd'ring ministers" to assist her evil thoughts.
Lady Macbeth coaches her husband in how to best deceive Duncan. When he wavers in his resolution, Lady Macbeth responds by insulting his masculinity. She pushes him relentlessly in this speech until he returns to agreeing with her plans.
Ultimately, Lady Macbeth is definitely somewhat to blame in the conspiracy. Without Lady Macbeth, it is unlikely that Macbeth would have carried out such plans. But is she to blame for the actual murder and death? I would argue no. Ultimately, Macbeth makes his own choices. He succumbs to the will of his wife, who is unable to follow through with her evil plans herself. Although his dissent would have made his wife unhappy, Macbeth still had that option. Instead, he chooses murder and believes in the seemingly self-fulfilling prophesies of the witches. Although it is likely he would not have carried through with the plans without his wife's influence, Macbeth is ultimately to blame for the actual murder—not Lady Macbeth.
There are many aspects of Lady Macbeth’s behavior that contribute to her husband’s decision to kill the king, but ultimately she is not to blame. Although she conspires with Macbeth, to place the blame on her would be to exonerate the person who committed the murder. Macbeth had free will and made a conscious decision to commit homicide—and regicide, the treasonous act of killing the king. He could have pulled out at any time, but he went ahead with the plan.
Another person assigning blame to her, however, is distinct from her blaming herself for her role. One of the most interesting tactics that William Shakespeare employs is to contrast her lack of physical involvement with her obsession over the deed. She literally has no blood on her hands, but her guilt leads to the figurative blood on her hands. In her conscious, waking hours, she knows she did not participate in the stabbing, but in her sleep, she imagines the “damned spot” that she cannot wash away.
http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/macbeth_5_1.html
Lady Macbeth is certainly responsible for King Duncan's assassination and not only masterminds the plot to kill him but also participates in the murder by helping her husband conceal his involvement. After receiving news of the witches' favorable prophesies, Lady Macbeth reveals her ambitious nature by commanding evil spirits to assist her murderous thoughts and fill her with cruelty. She then persuades her reluctant husband to commit the murder by ridiculing his masculinity and assuring him that they will get away with the crime. Lady Macbeth then masterminds the plot to kill King Duncan. She participates in the murder by drugging his chamberlains and placing the bloody knives back into the king's room following the assassination. While Macbeth is directly responsible for murdering the king, it is Lady Macbeth who convinces him to act upon his ambition and develops the murderous scheme. In addition to persuading her husband, Lady Macbeth contributes to the crime and assures that Macbeth usurps power with relative ease. One could argue that if it were not for Lady Macbeth's influence and help, her husband would not have carried out the heinous crime.
Lady Macbeth bears a large share of responsibility for King Duncan's murder. It is she who meticulously plans the foul deed and its subsequent cover-up down to the last detail; it is she who constantly encourages, incites, and cajoles her husband into committing this most heinous of crimes. In particular, she plays upon Macbeth's reputation as a brave, fearless warrior, to get him to do what she wants. She cunningly impugns his virility when he appears to get cold feet about killing Duncan; and the last thing a valiant soldier like Macbeth wants is to be thought of as a wimp and a coward by anyone, least of all his own wife. Macbeth's head has already been turned, the seeds of ambition planted in his mind by the Weird Sisters' prophecy. But, it takes the active encouragement of Lady Macbeth to fertilize the soil, so to speak, to turn her husband's overweening ambition into action.
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