The Changing Relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth

At this time in the play, the relationship is quite strong. Lady Macbeth reads the letter in which Macbeth wrote telling her the prophecies; she fears that Macbeth is too decent and squeamish to murder Duncan for the kings' title. Lady Macbeth plans to kill Duncan herself because of this or at least tell Macbeth the best way of doing the deed. This shows her superiority in the relationship and the actions of Macbeth. After lady Macbeth has read the letter she say's "yet do I fear thy nature is too fullo'th'milk of human kindness" which I think points out that she is dubious of Macbeth and Whether he is too pusillanimous to do the deed. This encourages lady Macbeth to overpower Macbeth and tell him to do the deed. At this point Macbeth and lady Macbeth have still not appeared on stage together which emphasises that the relationship is not very strong and when the two do appear on stage it is Lady Macbeth who makes the two do so.

Lady Macbeth does persuade Macbeth to kill Duncan, which shows her power over Macbeth she has in the relationship

After the murder of king Duncan, Macbeth and lady Macbeth meet on the stage for the first time. Macbeth goes into the room with the two daggers in his hands, lady Macbeth is enquiring why Macbeth has still got the daggers in his hands, lady Macbeth shows her control by taking the daggers off Macbeth and doing something with them. Here we are seeing the power lady Macbeth has over Macbeth. She is very angry at the fact that Macbeth still has the daggers with blood on them. Lady Macbeth dominates Macbeth, telling him what to do; she takes the daggers off him and places them on the guards who have been killed by Macbeth also.

Macbeth is being controlled by his wife and shows no objections to being dominated in the relationship. Lady Macbeth is shocked that Macbeth has killed Duncan because she thought that he did not have the willpower. Lady Macbeth's mind is troubled and at this point, we start to see her breakdown. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth to wash his hands and this will clear him of the deed. "Macbeth shall sleep no more" this shows that Macbeth is worried whether the deed he did was a good thing or not. Lady Macbeth is also worried by the murder. By the time the banquet comes along Macbeth has started to break down. Macbeth hallucinates that he can see Banquo, he is very worried, lady Macbeth tries to comfort him and is very worried about him, this brings the two together for the time being but then they do not appear alongside each other for a long time. At the banquet lady Macbeth says "the fit is momentary" which shows that lady Macbeth is very calm about the situation, by this statement she means Macbeth doesn't do this all the time, she is always sticking up for Macbeth when talking to others. When Macbeth sees Banquo, she shows his cowardism to all the other people at the banquet. Macbeth goes to see the witches for the second time to tell them they were correct about the prophecies. The witches tell Macbeth Great Birnam Wood shall come to Dunsinane hill where Macbeth's castle is. When Macbeth goes back to lady Macbeth, he tells her that birnam wood shall come to the castle when he went to the witches he was also told that "for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" he tells lady Macbeth this but she has started the real breakdown of herself. Macbeth calls a doctor because of the mental state of lady Macbeth. This is a big contrast to at the start of the play when lady Macbeth was dominating the couple. Now Macbeth is dominating because he is now controlling the couple. This now is the last time we see the couple together on stage. Now the relationship is next to nothing because we do not again see them communicate on stage. Macbeth say's to the doctor "how does your patient, doctor?" which emphasises that Macbeth does not want anything to do with lady Macbeth. Now the relationship is rock bottom. She dies soon after this. He also breaks down now and eventually dies.

The text "Macbeth" written by William Shakespeare is written on how the most famous relationship ends up destroyed because of greed and ambition. I have charted the relationship through the play and how it deteriorates as the play progresses.