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Lady Macbeth Relationships

Decent Essays

In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare’s character of Macbeth is incredibly complex; he not only shows sides of treachery and cowardice but also kindness and caring. In his more caring, affectionate moments we see that Macbeth loves his wife and has an exceptionally close relationship with her; referring to her as “my dearest love” and consistently showing signs of trust and intimacy (1:5:49). She is the one he goes to with his troubles and worries before and after he starts to lose his mind. When Lady Macbeth gets sick he tells the doctor to “throw physic to the dogs,” and do everything to try to cure her because he loves her and doesn’t want to have to be without her, especially not at a time when he needed as many people on his side as he could get (5:3:49). They both have an obvious …show more content…

Before his ambition gets the best of him, Macbeth has good friends that he loves as well, such as Banquo and Duncan. But, with the looming promise of becoming king on the horizon, he betrays his friends; literally stabbing them in the back. Macbeth murders Duncan who is in his home “in double trust” (1:7:12). Duncan was his friend and his guest; Macbeth betrays that unspoken pledge of safety that comes with staying in the home of a “loyal” subject. He has his best friend, Banquo and his son Fleance, killed simply because he is scared of being overthrown one day. He doesn’t even have the strength of character to do it himself, but instead, pays people to do it for him, as only a coward could. He lets his fear get the best of him and acts rashly upon it but doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. He also sent out murderers to kill Macduff’s wife and children. Macbeth condemns another man’s soul to hell for the murder of an innocent child because he is too much of a coward to do it himself. Treachery and cowardice do not make well-loved men, but rather weakens their

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