How Does Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s Relationship Change Throughout the Play and Why?
How does Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s relationship change throughout the play and why?
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship is somewhat strange in the first place, due to the actions and things said to one another. However throughout the play there are many reasons that the relationship would change, for example when Macbeth is visited by the three witches and is told he will become the King of Scotland; “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” Also when they decide to kill Duncan to claim the throne. These events bring out different characteristics in both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth building upon the stereotypical man and women.
The relationship is changed and dismantled by the events that take place, for example when Macbeth is told he will become the Thane of Glamis and then eventually the King of Scotland he doesn’t believe the three witches but when he is crowed the Thane of Glamis he starts to believe he will become king; “Two truths are told, As happy prologues to the swelling act Of the imperial theme.”
When he tells Lady Macbeth of the news they both start to crave the power of being king and Queen so Macbeth comes up with a plan to kill Duncan and claim the throne. This is building upon the stereotypical characteristics of a man in a relationship claiming power by force and providing power for his wife. However as their plan comes closer Macbeth starts to get afraid of killing Duncan and tells Lady Macbeth they shouldn’t commit this murder anymore. This sends Lady Macbeth mad and she then becomes the more dominant person the relationship trying to persuade Macbeth to carry out his plan to claim the throne; “ And live a coward in thine own esteem” also “when you durst do it, then you were a man.” These two quotes are examples of Shakespeare’s use of manipulative writing, telling Macbeth he is a coward and has lost his manhood. Because of this Lady Macbeth has succeeded in her wish to carry out the plan to kill Duncan.
As the night progresses and the murder gets closer Macbeth builds up more courage and decides to go to Duncan’s chamber to kill him, in the meantime Lady Macbeth says; “Had he not resembled my father as he slept, I had done ’t.” This is the first time we see signs of weakness from Lady Macbeth as she herself could not commit the murder. With the murder complete, both characters begin to worry and have metal hallucinations about the murder with Lady Macbeth saying; “what, will these hands ne’er be clean?” even though she has no blood on her hands.