Lady Macbeth has a complex and an unusual relationship with Lady Macbeth which adds excitement and drama to the play. In their relationship we can find a struggle for power as Macbeth sees her as his equal which is strange but more surprisingly she is hungry for power and at times wants to be dominant and that’s what drives the plot forward. At the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth is more dominant and aggressive as she drives Macbeth forward and forces him to make decisions which highly affect the play like the murder of the king. But as I mentioned at the beginning she is more confident and determined then Macbeth and she doesn’t believe in him. She lacks faith in him and above everything drives him towards his ambitions. She questions his manhood and emphasises how true you should be to your promise. All of these things make the play interesting and thrilling and finally help Macbeth become king.
When Macbeth finally achieves his heart desire his relationship with Lady Macbeth dramatically changes. He becomes much more independent and confident which is an unexpected surprise in the play. At this point he starts to make decision on his own without even asking for Lady Macbeth’s opinion. It started with him killing the guards and then leads to more serious events like the attempted assassination of Banquo and his son where only Banquo’s son escapes. This also shows how when you obtain power you’re always hungry for more and that hunger can cause serious damage like destroy the special bond between two people. It seemed that their relationship suffered major hit but Lady Macbeth was still there for him and not failed to protect him when he started to see Banquo’s ghost. She had to act quickly and she managed to persuade the people and turned it on them that the king is having bad days and they making it worse by staring and asking questions. This proves how she loved him to the end and stayed by his side, even when it seemed he had no more feelings for her. The dramatic changes in their relationship really engage the audience.
Shakespeare lived in a patriarchal society which meant men had all power and women had only two choices: marry or be taken care of by their male relatives. Shakespeare’s view of women would therefore have been subject to the beliefs of the hierarchal system. But instead of going along with view at that time he alternated his opinion and presented Lady Macbeth as a independent and strong women. She is very different from the conventional views of women as I said before she is equal not hesitating to say dominant at some moments in her relationship with Macbeth which seems very strange and unnatural as women were seen as property of men and practically did not have any rights at all except to cook dinner for their husbands and take care of their children. Girls weren’t allowed to go school and if a girl could solve a maths problem she would be seen as a witch.
Lady Macbeth’s character must have had a large impact on Shakespearean audience in the theatre as I can imagine that watching Macbeth’s wife guide him through most of his career would be like watching planet earth rebuilt on the moon. The Dark Lady as referred in literature was similar to Queen Elisabeth which wasn’t married and was one of the strongest queens of England. Without Lady Macbeth pushing Macbeth’s ambitions he would not achieve anything which is shown really clear in the play. That had to deliver quite a large impact on the audience which some people might argue lead to the revolution where women started to become more equal at home and in society. It could have also lead for groups like Feminists to form. Women at those times would never imagine to wake up and go to work or most extraordinary to become a teacher.
Lady’s Macbeth character develops throughout the play. At first Lady Macbeth is a strong women which seems hard to stop but then she becomes weak. She was a brave women but turned fearful. From remorseless to guilty. Intrigue to pity and despised to sympathy. These are some of the ways she changed as the play progressed. She was a strong fierce women at the beginning of the play but as the bad ‘deeds’ where committed her character changed over time. She was weak, having nightmares, and even feeling pity. This is a big twist in the play as no one suspected a tough women like that would ever brake.
She has nightmares of her trying to wash blood of her hands, blood of the king. All these events lead to her breakdown and the ‘nice’ side of her is shown where she feels guilty and feels sympathy for the king. Even though she wasn’t the one to stab the king she is as equal of the murder just as Macbeth or even more as she was the one who forced Macbeth into committing the evil deed. At the end she can’t live on with the knowledge of what she and her husband have done and commits rather sad suicide. I think Shakespeare really emphasised on the way she suffered to show how evil is to kill a king and that karma exists and it will hunt you down.
In conclusion I think she is more of a drama queen and she got what she deserved. Harsh words you might say but that is the price you have to pay if you take someone’s life as no human in the world has the right and shouldn’t have the power to take someone else’s life. This shows how if you’re hungry for power you’re lives are short and miserable.