My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white Discuss how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, with particular reference to Act I Scene 7, Act II Scene 2 and Act III Scene 2.

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Eliot Bryant

“My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white” Discuss how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, with particular reference to Act I Scene 7, Act II Scene 2 and Act III Scene 2.

        

        In this essay I am going to discuss how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and will refer particularly to Act I Scene 7, Act II Scene 2 and Act III Scene2. At the time of the writing of this play, the roles of men and women were different from how it is now. Even though there was an unmarried woman on the throne at the time. In Queen Elizabeth, women were totally undermined and seen as the weaker sex compared to the ‘higher’, ‘more powerful’, ‘dominant’ men. However in Macbeth, Shakespeare could be seen to challenge this through Lady Macbeth’s use of language in Act I Scene 7 and Act II Scene 2. Shakespeare’s Macbeth also expresses James I’s obsession with witchcraft that drove the country to the murder of thousands of women in the 17th Century. The witches in the play are a clear depiction of the country’s attitudes towards the unknown at the time, and in Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare could be seen to present a character that can hide evil behind beauty. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s initial roles in relation to the historical context, would have been seen as inappropriate and possibly evil. In Shakespearian times it was commonplace that the male figure of the house was the leader and women were simply ‘owned’ by their father or husband, yet in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, we see a reversal of this, with Lady Macbeth more dominant at the beginning and manipulating Macbeth, for her personal gain. This would make the Shakespearian audience suspicious of Lady Macbeth, because of the natural fear of witchcraft. The 17th Century audience may relate Lady Macbeth to the witches earlier in the play, because she manipulates Macbeth, yet a modern audience would not make that relation because no-one believes in witchcraft anymore. Shakespeare could be seen to use the play to convey his thoughts of popular matters of the time, a particularly large one being witchcraft. The significance of the quotation on the question is that Shakespeare is showing Lady Macbeth mocking Macbeth, who is supposed to be a great warrior, by calling him weak hearted. Shakespeare could also have been seen to use this line “my hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white," as if Lady Macbeth wished to infect him with her own nonchalance in exchange for infecting herself with the blood shed by Duncan. This shows that this quote is important in explaining how Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship.

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        At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship as quite intimate, with Macbeth responding to the events, by writing a letter to Lady Macbeth, telling her of the events that had unfolded. This is also evident in Polanski's production of Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth is physically attractive and is very intimate with Macbeth before telling him of her plans to kill Duncan. When Macbeth comes back to the castle, the way in which Lady Macbeth reacts to the letter shows the audience that she is the more dominant and in Act I Scene 7, he ...

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