Macbeth is writing to Lady Macbeth to convey his feelings and to tell her the events of the last few days. This shows that they both have a very close relationship with each other, that he is able to confide in her and that they trust each other in what they say and do. His letter to Lady Macbeth goes into great depth about the encounter he and Banquo had with the weïrd sisters. After he has “bade farewell” to his wife, there is a sense of eagerness for Macbeth to return home and carry out his prediction from Lady Macbeth. Her first line and a half of real dialogue express her desire for Macbeth to become King of Scotland, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised” (1.v.13-14).
Throughout her opening speech, we can see that she is determined to act for the need of her husband, “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear” (1.v.24) and also full of ambition, “All that impedes thee from the golden round” (1.v.26). Her mood and path of thought is broken when the attendant enters, as the atmosphere of evil and wrong doing turns into great pleasure and joy as the attendant remarks that “The king comes here tonight” (1.v.26). Immediately Lady Macbeth’s thinks back to what the weïrd sisters said to Macbeth about being Thane of Glamis, then Thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland.
As soon as the attendant leaves the castle, Lady Macbeth starts speaking in a horribly evil and insane type of manner. At first she compares the messenger the hoarse raven (1.v.36) and I feel that this is because the voice of the messenger is hoarse and a raven is supposed to be the carrier of messages. There is also a “symbolic significance” of a raven as traditionally the raven is “the carrier of evil”, in this case the bad news is for the approaching King Duncan, while his arrival will turn out to be a great opportunity for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to kill the king.
One of the weirdest thoughts that Lady Macbeth expresses during her speech (1.v.35-55) is her call upon the spirits to “unsex” her, thus removing her femininity and feelings such as guilt. The next line and a half (from line 40) have some extremely disturbing and tormenting words, “fill me from the crown to the toe topfull of direst cruelty”. She wishes to be filled with “evil”, therefore becoming “pure-evil”. She desires that her blood be turned thick to stop remorse reaching her soul and that milk be turned into poison. One of the most important lines in this speech is “Come, thick night” (1.v.48). I understand that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to conceal their plan of killing the king and more importantly to conceal their acts from heaven and the eyes of God.
During Act One Scene Six, Lady Macbeth plays the small role of being the hostess to the King and his accompanying men. She acts with compassion and pretends to show great joy of having royalty in her household, “All our service, in every point twice done and then done double” (1.vi.15-16). This is great dramatic irony, as the audience and reader know different to the claims of happiness of the stay of the King.
Act One Scene Seven is the crucial scene in the first act as it Lady Macbeth and Macbeth start to speak about the murder of Duncan in great depth. At the start of the scene, Macbeth is alone, contemplating the murder. As it states in the help in the Cambridge School Edition of Macbeth, only ambition spurs him on. Macbeth then remarks that he can find it in him to kill Duncan, “We will proceed no further in this business” (1.vii.31). Lady Macbeth accuses him of being a coward (1.vii39-44) as if he kills the King, he may become king himself. Lady Macbeth then launches into a speech about her beliefs about the murder and Macbeth’s lack of manliness. She also remarks that she would rather “dash the brains out” of her child than break her promise as he has done by backing out of the murder (1.vii.58).
Macbeth still has doubts asking “If we fail?” with Lady Macbeth replying “We fail?” (1.vii.58-59). This shows the confidence of Lady Macbeth in the murder.
Lady Macbeth is an extremely deep and dark character, who seems to do all the hard work of organising the murder for her husband. This is interesting, maybe showing that she has more control in the relationship. I wait with anticipation to see how Shakespeare develops her character in the rest of the play.
