Lady Macbeth as a Wife and as a Woman in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Lady Macbeth as a Wife and as a Woman in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

In the play 'Macbeth', there is one main relationship. This is between

Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth

is the stronger partner. She believes that with her help, Macbeth can

become King of Scotland. She uses all her powers of persuasion to get

Macbeth to murder the King. She plans all his actions and tells him

how to show himself in public. What she doesn't plan is his growing

passion for power and murder or even her madness. At the end of the

play, the roles in the relation ship had changed, where she was once

been the stronger partner, she becomes the weaker, and in the end,

commits suicide.

When we first meet Lady Macbeth in Act one Scene five, she is reading

a letter sent from Macbeth, who had just had his first encounter with

three witches and he was recalling it to Lady Macbeth. The witches had

prophesised that Macbeth was the Thane of Glames, would be the Thane

of Cawdor and later would be King of Scotland.

From the moment Lady Macbeth reads the letter, she believes instantly

that Macbeth will be king. She does, however, have some doubts, as she

fears that Macbeth, 'is to full o' the milk of human kindness' to

murder the King.

Therefore, I think lady Macbeth feels she needs to be even stronger,

in order to help Macbeth to succeed in the murder. The way that Lady

Macbeth chose to become stronger, was to call upon "spirits that tend

on mortal thoughts' and ask them to 'fill me, from the crown to the

toe, top full/ Of direst cruelty!". In this way, she wanted them to

'unsex' her, to make her less feminine and to be ...

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...o scene two, when Macbeth said "Sleep no more!" I think that

this cursed Lady Macbeth, as now she does not sleep at all but

sleepwalks aimlessly through each night. I also think that

subconsciously she can remember all that Macbeth has said, such as

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand"

and also all that she has said such as, "it will make us mad." With

these, her mind is making what has been said be integrated into her

life.

Macbeth is a play about courage manipulation and of love. Macbeth uses

his passion for power and acknowledgement of masculinity, to become

king of Scotland. Without the help of one woman however, he could not

have succeeded. Lady Macbeth is so full of blind love for Macbeth,

that she becomes the backbone of his personality and in turn drives

herself to suicide.