The Changing Relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

779 Words2 Pages

The relationship among Macbeth and Lady Macbeth alters throughout the play Macbeth as they both in turn take on the role of the more dominant character. Their attitude to each other constantly changes throughout the play, although events in the play certainly draw Macbeth and Lady Macbeth apart their love for one another is evident throughout the play. Macbeth shows his love by saying a few compassionate words in his letter to Lady Macbeth about the meeting with the three weird sisters. Lady Macbeth shows that she cares for him by planning the murder of King Duncan so Macbeth can become king. By the end of the play Macbeth doesn’t care about his wife’s health that much, when she dies his taught was she was bound to die one day.

Macbeth is portrayed as a great warrior, a hero if you may. The sergeant praises Macbeth's savagery "brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)" (Shakespeare 1.2.18). Followed by his first meeting with the witches, Macbeth immediately writes to his wife to tell her what they had said in their prophecies. Lady Macbeth is introduced as a kind and loving wife, who underneath is actually a tricky and cunning woman. At this point in the play it is clear that Macbeth and his wife are very close because in the letter Macbeth refers to her as "My dearest partner of greatness" (Shakespeare 1.5.9). The fact that he refers to her as his 'partner' tells us that he sees her as an equal. The word that shows that Macbeth is affectionate to Lady Macbeth is 'dearest' which shows that he loves her greatly.

Lady Macbeth showed that she was supportive to Macbeth by encouraging him to kill Duncan in order to clear all obstacles that would get in the way of the third witches prophecy “All hail, Macbeth, that s...

... middle of paper ...

...lood off her hands after recalling the murder of Duncan. “What, will these hands never be clean” (Shakespeare 5.1.37)? In fact, Lady Macbeth’s madness shows that Macbeth didn’t know her as well as he thought. She completely fell apart.

Their relationship faces serious obstacles and strains are put on their loyalties to one another. Macbeth is viewed as a very good man and behind every man is his loving wife. Lady Macbeth demonstrates her love as she seeks to advance her husband in the ranks. She helped him with his insane moment in public, but when she goes crazy he barely did anything to help. They become more separate in their lives with one another they keep secrets and pursue their own path, which ends in with tragic consequences. At the beginning Lady Macbeth is the driving force in their relationship, by the end Macbeth appears to be running the show.

Open Document