The next scene is full of dramatic irony. Duncan welcomes Macbeth into his castle to thank him for his services in the battle:
“The sin of my ingratitude even now was
heavy on me.” (Act one, scene four, line fourteen to twenty-one)
This statement is extremely ironic, as recognised by Macbeth, who is feeling guilty because of his murderous thoughts. When Duncan names his son, Malcolm, as heir to the throne, Macbeth forewarns us of the murders he will commit once Duncan is gone:
“…that is a step on which I must fall down,
or else o’er leap…” (Act one, scene four, lines forty-eight to fifty-three).
When Macbeth leaves the group, the audience becomes aware of more irony in the situation: Duncan thinks Macbeth has gone in front to welcome him; Macbeth goes instead to organise Duncan’s murder.
The next scene introduces Lady Macbeth. She enters stage reading aloud a letter written to her by Macbeth. This scene is delivered almost entirely as a soliloquy. This means that all the attention on stage is given to Lady Macbeth, as everything she says is of importance.
In his letter, Macbeth has written about his plans to murder Duncan. Lady Macbeth is willing to support her husband but she fears he would not have courage enough to do it:
“…thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch nearest way: thou wouldst be great;
Art not without ambition, but without
The illness should attend it.” (Act one, scene five, lines twelve to eighteen)
Lady Macbeth shares her husband’s ambition; she would perhaps like to be queen as much as he would like to be king. She is aware that she will need to encourage, even force Macbeth to go through with his plans. She asks the spirits to remove her gentle, feminine qualities so that she can be consumed by evil:
“…come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
Of direst cruelty…” (Act one, scene five, lines thirty-six to fifty-two).
When Macbeth arrives, Lady Macbeth asks when Duncan is leaving:
“And when goes hence?” (Act one, scene five, line fifty-seven)
When Macbeth says he will leave the next day, Lady Macbeth says he will not live to see that day. Already Macbeth has doubts, and suggests delaying the murder, but Lady Macbeth becomes the stronger of the two and refuses to accept this. When Macbeth tries to argue:
“We will speak further” (Act one, scene five, line sixty-eight),
she tells him merely to act naturally, or else he will look guilty:
“To alter favour ever is to fear…” (Act one, scene five, line seventy)
Lady Macbeth is now a strong-minded and determined woman. She anticipated Macbeth’s reluctance, showing the strength and passion of their relationship.
On Duncan’s arrival, there is again much irony. Lady Macbeth comes across warmly, “like th’ innocent flower”, when in fact she is the “serpent under’t”. Duncan admires the castle:
“This castle has hath a pleasant seat…”,
not knowing this will be his place of death. It is also ironic when, at the end of the scene, Duncan takes Lady Macbeth’s hand. The audience becomes aware of the perilous situation Duncan is in, though he is unaware of it.
In Duncan’s banquet scene (act one, scene seven), Macbeth becomes the subject of his own nightmarish thoughts. He leaves the banquet, unable to stand the guilt of being in the same room as his murder victim. When Lady Macbeth enters in line twenty-seven, she knows what he is thinking, and more-over, she knows what to say to him in order to force him to go through with it. Macbeth is much weaker in the relationship at this point. He has no defence when trying to argue against Lady Macbeth; she patronises him and belittles him:
“What beast was’t then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man” (Act one, scene seven, lines forty to end).
Eventually, Macbeth defies his fear and agrees to go ahead with the murder. Macbeth is now stronger in the relationship, though Lady Macbeth still controls him.
The next scene shows Macbeth’s standing in the relationship fall again. He denies to Banquo that he thinks of the weird sisters, when in fact they occupy his every thought. Once Banquo and the servants have left, Macbeth becomes victim to his thoughts again, having visions of the daggers he will use to commit the crime:
“Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand?” (Act two, scene one, lines thirty-three to thirty-five)
Macbeth decides that he will commit the murder and prays that nothing (including his own fears and doubts) will get in his way.
At the beginning of act two, scene two, Lady Macbeth is portrayed in a different light. She has used the alcohol she used to drug the guards to give herself courage. She reveals that she would have killed Duncan herself, but he resembled her own father:
“Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done’t.”
At this point, the pair become almost equal again, but Lady Macbeth stays calm while her husband panics. Lady Macbeth tells him to “consider it not so deeply,” as she knows it will drive them mad. When Macbeth says “Sleep no more!” (act two, scene two, line forty-one), he highlights a significant point in the play – neither he nor Lady Macbeth sleeps without interruption after this point. Macbeth becomes hysterical and Lady Macbeth has to control both herself and her husband when she takes the daggers back to the chamber. At this point, Lady Macbeth appears to be the stronger character in the pair. However, this is only her external appearance. Inside, she is as unstable as her husband.
She ridicules her husband in an effort to calm him down.:
“My hands are of your colour; but I shame
To wear a heart so white.”
She assures Macbeth that “a little water clears us of this deed.” It is ironic that later in the play, no amount of water will clean the blood she sees on her hands.
Following the comic relief at the start of act two, scene three, the play descends into chaos. At the time it was believed that nature reflected what was happening in the world and Lennox’s comment that:
“Lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of death
And prophesying with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion, and confused events…”
merely reaffirms this.
During this scene, Macbeth completely overreacts at the situation, and Lady Macbeth is forced to use her position to save him. When Lady Macbeth faints in line one hundred and nineteen, it is possible that this was a dramatic device of Lady Macbeth to draw attention away from Macbeth who is creating trouble for himself. Lady Macbeth fears Macbeth will reveal their terrible secret if he says any more. Of course, she may have actually been overcome by the situation and therefore she really does faint, though this is unlike the strong willed lady from earlier in the play.
At this point, Malcolm flees to England and Donalbain to Ireland, thus removing two obstacles who had previously blocked Macbeth’s path to the throne. It adds suspicion to the cases of Malcolm and Donalbain and removes suspicion from Macbeth.
The next short scene is very much a ‘catch-up’ scene and gives the impression that time has passed since the murder. In this scene, Macduff reveals his suspicions about Macbeth – this becomes a key element in the banquet scene.
In act three, scene one, the night before the banquet, Macbeth is now king, but he is neither happy nor secure in his position. He suspects that Banquo knows what he had done – and he is right. It is ironic that the two should speak to each other so amicably when each suspects the other knows something he shouldn’t. Macbeth bids Banquo farewell:
“Till you return at night…”
It is unlikely that Banquo will return.
In his soliloquy, Macbeth starts to consider Banquo’s character, as he did in the planning of Duncan’s murder. He meets with two murderers and organises the murder of Banquo and Fleance. Macbeth confirms this with no doubts and no apparent feelings of guilt. He sees Banquo as a threat to his position and he wants him dead. In this murder he has not needed the support, encouragement and loyalty of his wife. He does not need her. He has not questioned his act; he has lost his sense of right and wrong. However, in doing so, he has become independent of his wife – he no longer needs her, or their relationship, to do his deeds.
His independence is seen throughout act three, scene two. In a short soliloquy, Lady Macbeth reveals she is not happy as queen:
“…our desire is got without content.” (Act three, scene two, line six)
When Macbeth enters, Lady Macbeth begins to realise that her husband is falling out of her control. He claims more murders need to be committed before he can be safe:
“We have scorched the snake, not killed…” (Act three, scene two, line thirteen)
When Lady Macbeth asks about Banquo, Macbeth lies. He simply tells her to:
“Present him eminence both with eye and tongue…” (Act three, scene two, line thirty-one).
He also tells her that “Banquo, and his Fleance, lives”. At no time does he mention Banquo’s murder. Lady Macbeth can still control herself, but no she can longer control her husband.
At the banquet, when Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost, Lady Macbeth is again forced to save her husband from a difficult situation. She tries to make excuses for him:
“…upon a thought
He will be well again.” (Act three, scene four, lines fifty-three to fifty-nine)
She ridicules him for acting in such ways, but he becomes no better and Lady Macbeth is forced dismiss her guests. She has foregone her crowning glory as queen for her husband, yet she will receive neither love nor affection in return. The pair still both have individual strengths but are no longer a combined force. Lady Macbeth’s grip on her husband is non-existent and their relationship is ruined.
Macbeth does confide in Lady Macbeth his suspicions about Macduff, but Lady Macbeth knows that, whatever advice she offers her husband, it will most likely be ignored.
Following this, we do not see Lady Macbeth in the play for some time. During this time, Macbeth becomes a murderous “tyrant”, and he falls further into the trap of the witches. He plans to murder Macduff, but Macduff fears for his safety and for the safety of Scotland, and so he flees to England. However, this does not stop the insecure Macbeth ordering soldiers to savagely murder Macduff’s wife and children. Slowly, the noblemen of Scotland become aware of Macbeth’s plans, and they plan a rebellion against the tyrant.
The next time we see Lady Macbeth is in act five, scene one. She has become insane with guilt, fear, pressure and worry after enduring her unhappy reign. She also reveals in her sleep-talking that she knew about Banquo’s murder:
“The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now?” (Act five, scene one, line thrity-eight)
Lady Macbeth has only her doctor and her gentlewoman at her bedside. Her husband is absent. He is now hell-bent securing his position as monarch. This has cost him, among other things, the love and companionship of his wife.
In act five, scene five, we see Macbeth’s reaction to the news of Lady Macbeth’s death. He despairs; he is pre-occupied with the battle ahead:
“She should have died hereafter…”
This is a sorry end for both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Without Lady Macbeth, Duncan’s murder may never have taken place; if Macbeth had not trusted his wife so much, if their relationship had not been so strong, they may never have become king and queen.
Ultimately, both sacrificed their friends, their greatness, and themselves to get what they each wanted. They loved each other passionately at first; but when Macbeth fell foul to the witches and his ambition, his death was already written. Their relationship could have saved them if it had been strong; yet its extreme strength – or perhaps it was its small weaknesses – left them in ruins.
