In the Jacobean times the male was always the one in charge of the relationship and the woman used to be the one that would stay at home cook, clean and look after children if they had any; but in the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth it seemed to be the other way round and Lady Macbeth was the stronger character and she bossed Macbeth around. You could tell this by when she says ‘Hie thee hither’ Because Lady Macbeth is the dominant and they are meant to be the ones that go out and fight because they are usually male she has a weapon which is her tongue. You can tell this by when she says ‘and chastise with valour of my tongue’
Some people say that Lady Macbeth could have been under the influence of supernatural powers because when she is talking she says ‘That I may pour my spirits in thine ear’ This is sounding like a spell that a witch may cast to pour their bad, evil spirits into someone.
Lady Macbeth is trying hard to convince Macbeth to kill King Duncan because some would say she is a coward and doesn’t want to do it herself. She then says later on that she does not want to kill King Duncan because he reminded her of her father; this is showing weakness in her. This also shows that the witches have not completely taken over Lady Macbeth and she’s not a witch because if she was then she would not still have these feelings. You can also tell this by in Macbeth directed by Roman Polanski, Judi Dench playing Lady Macbeth and she is pacing around and seems very anxious, therefore could just be an excuse not to kill him because she is afraid of any consequences there may be.
‘The raven himself is hoarse’ Lady Macbeth says this just after the attendant exited. The raven bird is the bird most associated with killing and it could almost mean there was going to be a kill.
Lady Macbeth then begs the ‘murdering ministers’ to ‘unsex’ her, she wants to have no gender and so it is like having no feelings because women are meant to be kind and gentle and she doesn’t want that but she does not want to do the killing and that is what she thinks most men should do and they should not have a conscience. She also asks them to make her blood thick against remorse and compunction, this is could be taken in two different ways it could either be to her vagina or to her heart. If it was to her vagina it could be meaning that she defiantly doesn’t want to be a woman but if it was to her heart then it could possibly meant that she doesn’t want to have any feeling and most of your feelings come from your heart. Lady Macbeth then later asks to make the night dark to hide the sin that is to be committed. The wording of the entire soliloquy serves as a flashback to the first scene of the play, where the witches plotted their evil doings in a place where the air was foul and dark. ‘And take mu milk for gall’ this is saying that her milk should be taken and turned into poison. This could make her more evil and willing to kill and make her manlier inside.
‘Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark’ that is saying they want it to be as dark as possible and so then not even heaven can see that they are killing the king.
Macbeth then enters and Lady Macbeth is flirtatious to try and get Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth says ‘Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor’ that is saying that Macbeth is great and would be a good king of Scotland and was said in a flirtatious way. ‘The future in the instant.’ That is Lady Macbeth talking about when they will rule Scotland and be king and queen. By flirting Lady Macbeth is getting Macbeth onto her good side and so he is more likely to do what she asks. Macbeth then replies to her flirting and says ‘My dearest love’ this could either mean he was genuinely loves and her thinks she is his dearest love or could just be flirting back because he knows that she just wants him to kill King Duncan.
‘This night's great business into my dispatch’ that is saying the murder is natural to her even it if isn’t her that is doing the killing. Lady Macbeth then goes on to say that she was thinking about killing King Duncan herself.
Macbeth doesn’t want to be the one killing King Duncan because he is scared of what would happen to him on earth, because if he killed the king what is stopping another person killing him. Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth ‘We will speak further’ that is telling her he doesn’t want to do it but will talk about it later. Lady Macbeth replies with ‘to alter favour ever it to fear. Leave the rest to me.’ That is saying that she will do the killing if he does everything else.
In the Jacobean ages it was it a sin against God to kill the king and if that’s so then you should obey the king in the same way you would obey God. Macbeth does not want to be punished by God and that is why he does not want to kill Duncan. Macbeth is feared that God will be punishing him if he does kill him because they say you should treat the king like you treat God. Macbeth doesn’t want the phrase ‘he who lives by the sword dies by the sword’ to happen to him, he thinks if he kills Duncan someone may find out and kill him, or think that someone else killed the old king therefore they could get away with killing this king. ‘or heaven’s cherubin horsed’ this means that if heaven was against Macbeth then heaven can make the rest of earth against him.
Another way that Lady Macbeth plans to get Macbeth to kill Duncan is to mock him, she says that he is a coward and she also mocks his ability in bed. She thinks by doing this he is more likely to kill him because then he may want to kill him and so she stops mocking him.
Lady Macbeth comes across as anxious, she talks very to the point and very short and sharp, for example she says ‘How now? What news?’ she is not sure if she wants to carry on convincing Macbeth to kill the king or if she wants to kill the king.
Macbeth is starting to get scared because he is starting to realise that Lady Macbeth is very manipulative and she only wants him to kill the king and so she can be powerful and be the Queen of Scotland. Macbeth may be realising that she is blackmailing him into doing something that he doesn’t think is right because he is meant to be looking after the king not killing him seeing as he is hosting the party and should be protecting him.
Macbeth started to go back on his word and saying that he doesn’t want to kill the king anymore, Lady Macbeth gets angry and says
‘ I have given suck, and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.’
This means that Lady Macbeth would have killed her own baby if she had promised to; she thinks that Macbeth is a coward not for wanting to kill him. This is showing how much Lady Macbeth wants to be queen because a mother letting go of her child is that hardest thing a women would ever have to do.
While she was saying that she may have thought that the witches were present and so thought that she would have to be tough to make them think that she had supernatural powers like they did and that she was neither male nor female. When lady Macbeth was talking she was using plosive sounds such as dashed and plucked; these gave more effect and made her sound more angry for Macbeth backing out of their plan that he promised to her.
Lady Macbeth then proceeds to tell her husband how Duncan will be murdered and how she will make his two chamberlains appear to be guilty. She will get the guards drunk with wine, and Macbeth will stab Duncan while he is unguarded. Then they will smear the king's blood on the innocent chamberlains. Macbeth, against his better judgment, agrees to the plan saying, "I am settled and bend up." In other words, he gives in to the evils of his wife rather than listening to the counsel of his conscience. Macbeth ends the scene by saying, "false face must hide what the false heart doth know," a statement which serves as a flashback to Duncan's original statement about not being able to identify a traitor by his face.
In these two scenes Macbeth's slow convoluted soliloquies perhaps reflects the state of his tortured mind, while Lady Macbeth's scathing accusations reflect on her sharp, ruthless determination. Both scenes showed that Macbeth would normally pick the ‘correct’ decision if it wasn’t for Lady Macbeth twisting his mind with her scheming plans.
