The Relationship of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in the Shakespeare Play "Macbeth".

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The Relationship of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth in the Shakespeare Play “Macbeth”

In this essay I will attempt to in detail describe the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the play “Macbeth”. Their relationship has many ups and downs and their mental state and dominance changes from scene to scene, and I will attempt to talk about this.

At the start of the play Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are equals and are not the stereotypical family of the time as the man was normally the dominant at this point in time. Macbeth shows how he regards Lady Macbeth as an equal in his letter to Lady Macbeth telling her about his meeting with the witches by using the line “my dearest partner of greatness” (1:5:9-10). At this time in the play Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are both clear of conscience.

As the play progresses Lady Macbeth becomes the dominant character and this is shown by her convincing Macbeth to murder King Duncan although he feels that Duncan has been good to him recently and his is family and a good king and so strongly disagrees with Lady Macbeth's plan to kill Duncan. At this point in the play Lady Macbeth is the dominant of the couple and she proves this by convincing Macbeth to kill Duncan, She challenges Macbeth's manhood and says that he is not a man in order to convince him to commit regicide. Lady Macbeth is quite clear of conscience and she does not show the reader any signs of being uneasy with what she plans to do. Macbeth however is not very consistent in his state of mind, whereas he is quite strong minded when he is arguing with Lady Macbeth about killing Duncan and when he is decided not to commit regicide, He is weak of mind and shows clear signs of this indecision to the reader “Bloody instructions, which being taught, return/to plague th’inventor” (1:7:9)

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Macbeth becomes the more dominant of the couple when he decides to have Banquo and Fleance murdered without consulting his wife and this shows that he is strong of mind and that he does not need Lady Macbeth to help him with his plot. This is in my opinion where Lady Macbeth first becomes conscience stricken as although she does not show any clear signs to the reader it is the point at which Macbeth does not need to aid him tell him what to do Lady Macbeth and has become evil in his own right.

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