How does the relationship between Macbeth and lady Macbeth change Throughout the play?
How does the relationship between Macbeth and lady Macbeth change
Throughout the play?
I intend to discuss the change in the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I will refer closely to the play and supporting my beliefs with quotations.
In Act1 Scene1 we see the three witches chanting. I think this was used to make the audience scared. At the end of Scene1 the witches say together: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" The witches use these kinds of phrases a lot in the play when speaking to Macbeth. As you can see these are very confusing when you try to think what they mean.
When Macbeth first enters in Act 1 Scene 3 he is returning from a battle between the Kings men and rebels. He is with his friend, Banquo who fought beside him. They meet the witches who start to chant to Macbeth saying that he will be Thane of Glamis, which he already was, and then Thane of Cawdor, which he wasn't at that point. Then they said he would become King some day. This makes Macbeth confused as King Duncan is alive and well. Macbeth commands them to tell him more but they vanish leaving Macbeth and Banquo standing. Ross and Angus then come to Macbeth telling him that he fought well and that King Duncan has rewarded him the title of the Thane of Cawdor, this meant that one of the witches prophecies has come true.
In Act1 Scene 5 Lady Macbeth is reading a letter written by her husband Macbeth telling her about what the witches had said and the great news. Macbeth shows love for Lady Macbeth in the letter by calling her: "my dearest partner of greatness" These words prove how much Macbeth respects and loves his wife.
Lady Macbeth then plans the evil deed which she and Macbeth are going to carry out later on in the play. She then starts to pray to evil spirits to give her courage to carry out this deed: "That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements. Come, you spirits. That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here." Lady Macbeth carries on praying to evil spirits when Macbeth enters. Lady Macbeth greets him with great love towards him: "Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor! Greater than both, by the all hail Hereafter!" As you can see they really love each other but this will soon change throughout the play.
Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth how long the king is staying for. Macbeth then replies, "until tomorrow". Lady Macbeth then responded by telling him that king Duncan would die tonight: "Shall sun that morrow see!"
In Scene 6 king Duncan arrives and honours Lady Macbeth for all her trouble to let him stay: "See, See! Our honoured hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble. Which still we thank as love." King Duncan respects Lady Macbeth and her husband and has no idea what is to happen him: "give me your hand: Conduct me to ...
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Lady Macbeth asks Macbeth how long the king is staying for. Macbeth then replies, "until tomorrow". Lady Macbeth then responded by telling him that king Duncan would die tonight: "Shall sun that morrow see!"
In Scene 6 king Duncan arrives and honours Lady Macbeth for all her trouble to let him stay: "See, See! Our honoured hostess! The love that follows us sometime is our trouble. Which still we thank as love." King Duncan respects Lady Macbeth and her husband and has no idea what is to happen him: "give me your hand: Conduct me to mine host we love him highly, and shall continue our graces towards him."
At the start of Scene 7 Macbeth's soliquy tells me that he is thinking about what will happen if he does kill King Duncan: "If it were done, when tis done, then twere well. It were done quickly: If Th' assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch, with his surcease, success; that but this blow." As Macbeth carries on thinking he gradually talks himself out of it. When Lady Macbeth hears this she is determined to persuade Macbeth to carry out this deed. She does this by attacking his masculinity by calling him a coward and questioning his love for her:
"When you durst do it, then you were a man."
"From this time such I account thy love."
"And live a coward in thine own esteem."
This annoys Macbeth and he says that he will do this deed but any thing more is worthy of a man:
"I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none"
Lady Macbeth response to this is quite evil:
"I have given suck, and know how tender tis to love the babe that milks me" I would, while smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed his brains out, Had I so sworn. As you have done to this." Lady Macbeth uses this to make Macbeth see that she would kill her own baby rather than not do this. This tells you how much Lady Macbeth wants to become queen. She tries every way to persuade her husband to carry out this deed as she can only gain power through him as women were not as powerful as men and could not obtain titles in those days.
Now Macbeth considers doing the task once again, Lady Macbeth starts to tell him her plan, at the end of this scene Macbeth is going to do the deed but is still ashamed of what he is going to do: "I am settled, and bend up Each corporal agent to this Terrible feat, Away,
And mock time with fairest show; False face must hide what the false heart doth know."
In Act 2 Scene 2 Macbeth kills King Duncan using a dagger taken from one of the Kings guards who had been drugged by Lady Macbeth and were unconscious. Macbeth came to Lady Macbeth covered in blood, but he forgot to give the dripping dagger back to the guards so lady Macbeth did this and smeared Duncan's blood all over both of them. When she returns her hands are as bloody as Macbeth's.
Macbeth is ashamed and guilty and feels as if he will never get over of what he has done: "What hands are here? Ha! They pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean off my hands? No; this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red."
Lady Macbeth now thinks that her husband doesn't have a heart any more: "My hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white."
This gives the impression that lady Macbeth doesn't love her husband as much as she used to.
In Act 3 Scene1 is when Macbeth and lady Macbeth's love starts to die. Macbeth is now king and he is holding a banquet.
Macbeth dispatches three murderers to kill Banquo his best friend and Banquos son, Fleance as Banquo had also heard the witch's prophecies and might have some suspicion, however Fleance gets away while Banquo is killed. Macbeth is now not really caring for his friends any more.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are becoming more distant from each other, as Lady Macbeth did not know about the murder of Banquo and the attempted murder of Fleance, when before they told each other every thing.
At the banquet every body is there apart from Banquo, when Macbeth gives a prayer wishing that his so called friend a safe journey, Macbeth then sees the ghost of Banquo. This frightens Macbeth.
"Which of you have done this?" The guests do not know if Macbeth is hallucinating or if the ghost is real. I think that Macbeth felt guilty about what he had done and when he mentioned Banquo in his prayer it just reminded him of Banquo being murdered. Lady Macbeth tries to explain to the guests at the table that Macbeth is often like this and has been since he was a child; she ensures them that if they ignore him he will be all right in a minute. Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo again but this time he confronts it, while Lady Macbeth then sends everyone to bed. This is the last time you see lady Macbeth before she goes mad.
In Act 4 Scene1 Macbeth returns to the witches for advice about the murders he has committed.
In Act 5 Scene1 Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking replaying the night of Duncan's murder. She tries to get the blood, which she still sees off her hands and is talking to herself. She is starting to go insane: "Out, dammed spot! Out I say"
Lady Macbeth's final speech is a jumble of thoughts on things which have happened throughout the play: "Wash your hands, put on your night gown, look not so pale: I tell you yet again, Banquos buried; he cannot come out of his grave."
Lady Macbeth can only now repeat what Macbeth had said to her, as she knows that she has lost contact with him: "Come, come, come, come give me your hand."
In Act 5 Scene 5 Macduff's army is getting ready to attack Macbeth's castle and Lady Macbeth dies. When Macbeth hears this tragic news he does not seem to care: "She should have died hereafter;"
Then Macbeth talks the same way that his wife did when she was sleep walking: "Out, out, Brief candle!"
This might suggest that Macbeth will soon die too. Shortly after this Macbeth asks for his armour to fight Macduff's army. At the start of the play Macbeth probably couldn't have lived without Lady Macbeth but you can now see that their love has almost if not all completely disappeared.
In Act5 Scene7 Macduff killed Macbeth, and Malcolm becomes the new King of Scotland.
How does the relation ship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth change throughout the play? At the start they were a loving couple that cared for each other but after Duncan's murder their love started to deteriorate. After Macbeth saw Banquo's ghost he turned to the witches for help instead of his wife. I think this made her crazy, as she knew that she had lost her husband.
