Macbeth: Analyse and compare two scenes in William Shakespeare's Macbeth that show the audience the change in the balance of power, in their relationship, between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

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Macbeth

Analyse and compare two scenes in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth that show the audience the change in the balance of power, in their relationship, between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

        

During the play the relationship between Macbeth and his wife changes constantly. The person in power of the couple’s actions and the way they are frequently switches between the two of them. There are many scenes in which this is made obvious to the audience through the way they interact with each other in movement and the way they speak Shakespeare’s language. However, much of the play can be interpreted in many different ways and so it is left to the actors to show to the audience which of the couple they feel has the power during that scene.

        During the first two acts much of the power, I feel, is with Lady Macbeth as she persuades Macbeth to tempt fate and murder Duncan to become King of Scotland

“To alter favour ever is to fear

Leave all the rest to me”. On the contrary, after the murder of Duncan has taken place, in act 3 onwards, although Macbeth is now deeply troubled by his deeds and losing control of his emotions he gains the overall power of their relationship and Lady Macbeth is pushed to the side.

        The two scenes which I feel best represent this change in power are act 1 scene 7 where Lady Macbeth is in power and she is trying during this scene to persuade Macbeth that it is part of his fate that he should kill Duncan and become King; whereas in the second scene, act 3 scene 1, the power has, over time, transferred to Macbeth and he no longer needs his wife to persuade him to kill anyone or even to do anything. This is shown in the fact that here he is planning the murder of Banquo to be carried out by some angered citizen without even the knowledge of his wife. Therefore, indicating that not only is Macbeth now in power of the relationship but also that he no longer even communicates with his wife even about such serious matters as a murder.

        The significance of these scenes is that the power in the couple at the beginning of the play despite it mainly being with Lady Macbeth does change a great deal but once Macbeth has power he holds on to it very tightly. Once Macbeth has got the confidence that he can kill and not be punished for it he feels that he is above everyone else and can now do as he pleases, killing people if he wishes to do so.  He gains this confidence from killing Duncan and being not getting caught by anyone. He feels confident because he has managed to blame someone else for his deadly deeds.

        The first scene, act 1 scene 7, starts with many servants on the stage who then exit to leave Macbeth alone on the stage. At this point this is ironic due to the fact that he feels alone, in conflict with himself over what he should do next. He is fighting with his conscience over whether he should murder Duncan. There are around 28 lines of blank verse before he is interrupted by the arrival of his wife into the room.  During this time he talks over the many reasons for and against killing Duncan, thinking out loud so that an audience would understand what he is thinking at this given time. Here many of the words and sentences are long, making his speech slow and seem to the audience as though he is thinking out loud.  He starts by saying if the deed must be done it must be done quickly, “If it were done when ‘tis done, then ‘twere well It were done quickly”. This we already know as he has talked about this time when Duncan comes to his home as the perfect time to kill him, he will be off his guard.  He then goes on to say that killing Duncan now would give him and Lady Macbeth all that they have ever wished for yet it may destroy Scotland. “the be-all and the end-all”. It could either make the country perfect or rip down all that is good. Taking this into consideration he then talks about how what he does in this life could change what happens in heaven. Showing that even though he is about to commit murder he still has his faith and believes it supports him. He feels the murder is part of his fate so that, despite his knowing that it is a sin, he will still enter heaven but be damned whilst there.

        “Bloody instructions, which being taught, return

        To plague th’inventor” He thinks that if he were to do this deed the spirit of Duncan would forever come back to haunt him in an angered state, or even that he and Lady Macbeth could be killed by others as a result of it. By halfway through his speech he is still unsure about what he should do regarding this matter, he really wants to become king yet his conscience is fighting his every thought about it.

        The reasons that he gives during this speech not to kill Duncan are firstly that due to Duncan being his cousin, he feels that it is morally incorrect to kill a relative, also Duncan is his king, whom he is supposed to protect for the good of the country; and also Duncan is visiting his castle because he trusts him and that, as his host, he should protect him, not cause harm. “He’s here in double trust”.  He uses a Simile to describe how the virtues of Duncan “will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued” against his killing. The speech is ended by Macbeth talking about how there is nothing to hold him back, but only his ambition which forces him onwards. On the other hand the last words he says are that his ambition over jumps and therefore falls down on the other side.

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        During the whole of this speech Macbeth only says Duncan’s name once and even then it is only to say good things about him and not in the same sentence as anything about death. “Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek,” This shows the audience that he likes Duncan and in reality does not really wish to even harm him, yet because his ambition, the ambition of his wife and her persuasion skills he now feels that it is the best thing to do.

        It seems that Macbeth is shocked by Lady Macbeth’s entrance, as he did ...

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