On line 47 Lady Macbeth says she wants her milk to be replaced by “gall”; milk suggesting womanly, and Gall implying bitterness: and on line 40 she says “unsex me here”. Lady Macbeth doesn’t literally mean she wants a sex change, but she is saying that if she were not a woman, she would do the dirty deeds herself.
When we first see the Macbeths together, they seem deeply in love. Lady Macbeth refers to Macbeth as “Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor,”(line 53) Macbeth responds with, “My dearest love,” (line 57) they are obviously very close. We know that Macbeth has doubts about what Lady Macbeth is proposing because after her speech (line 60-69) Macbeth replies with, “We will speak further-”(line 70) Lady Macbeth does listen to him, and they both exit the stage. I this scene Macbeth does not say very much.
In Scene 7 in Macbeth’s soliloquy we can see that Macbeth is having doubts about killing Duncan. He says, “We’d jump the life to come.”(Line 7) which means by killing Duncan, I am risking all chances of going to heaven. He then says, “We still have judgement here that we but teach Bloody instructions, which being taught, return to plague th’inventor.” (Line 8-9) which means by killing Duncan, I will be setting an example to others, who might do the same to me. Lady Macbeth uses rhetorical questions and psychological pressure to force Macbeth to agree; such as, “Was the hope drunk Wherein you dress’d yourself?” (Line 35) and “What beast was’t then That made you break this enterprise to me? (Line 47). In Macbeth’s soliloquy he is either using the ‘royal we’ or he is referring to Lady Macbeth and himself; but it is probably the royal plural, “We’d jump the life to come.” (Line 7) and, “We still have judgement here…”(line 8)
In Act 2 Scene 2 Shakespeare conveys to the audience the sense of tension between the two Macbeths by making them talk to each other with very short lines, “Did not you speak?” “When?” “Now” “As I descended?” “Ay.” (Lines 16-20). In this scene the stronger character is Lady Macbeth; only for the reason that Macbeth has just killed the King of Scotland, and would obviously be very nervous and scared at this point. Shakespeare shows this by making all of Macbeth’s speech correspond to the murder, which he just performed; he also makes him repeat words and phrases such as Amen and God bless us. “One cried ‘God bless us!’ and ‘Amen’ the other, As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. List’ning their fear, I could not say ‘Amen’. When they did say’God bless us,” (line 29-32) “ But wherefore could I not pronounce ‘Amen’? I had most need of blessing and ‘Amen’ Stuck in my throat. (Line 34~36). Lady Macbeth on the other hand seems not in the slightest bit moved about the murder that just took place; she doesn’t mind taking the bloody daggers back to the scene of the crime; and she tells Macbeth that, “A little water clears us of this deed.”(Line 70). She thinks that washing the blood from their hands will clear them of the murder. Macbeths line, “to know my deed, ‘twere best not know my self” is so important because it tells us that Macbeth will now become a murderer.
In the banquet scene, Shakespeare portrays the deteriorating relationship between the Macbeths by making their speech to each other extremely informal. She calls him “sir” (line 7) and “My royal lord,”(line 32).
It is open to opinion to whether the ghost of Banquo should be the actual “Banquo” or just an empty space. In Shakespearian times the real Banquo would have been used and would have had some recognisable feature that the audience would have known, which distinguished him a ghost. Nowadays an empty space would probably be used, as it would add a weird aspect to the play. The events of this evening shake Lady Macbeth so much because she can know see that Macbeth is going mad, and I think that she now fears for her own life.
In the sleepwalking scene, Shakespeare does not feel it necessary to show the Macbeths together to show how their relationship is falling a part. I doubt they have spent much time together since the Banquet scene. The obviously do not sleep in the same bed, or Macbeth would have heard Lady Macbeth sleepwalking and sleep talking, and told her to stop. Lady Macbeth is now being paid back for trying to be more of a ‘man’ than Macbeth because she took the bloody daggers from Macbeth and took them to the scene of the crime; complaining that he was a coward. Now she is sleeptalking about trying to get the blood of her hands.
Lady Macbeth’s words and actions in this scene include echoes of earlier scenes, such as her hearing the clock strike two: her saying, “To bed, to bed; there’s a knocking at the gate.”(Line 58) is very similar to, “I hear knocking At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber;” (Act 2 Scene 2 line 68-69) and “Hark, more knocking. Get on your night-gown,” (line 72-73)
