preview

Relationship Between Macbeth And Lady Macbeth

Decent Essays

The play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare uses the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to drive the play along in multiple ways. One of the main ways it does this is by drawing a parallel between it and the mental state of both the characters at different points in the play. What starts out as a relationship built on trust turns into something so toxic it affects both of them on a psychological level. Another way is through the language the play is written in.
The first act of the play shows Macbeth addressing his wife as his “dearest partner of greatness” which could mean he considers them equals in their relationship. The fact that he’s telling her this so that she “mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing” means that he believes she deserves to know and rejoice just like he did, which shows that he probably involves her in his life. The beginning of scene five when she reads out the letter gives us these clues about their relationship before the events of the play, providing a base for their future dynamic to be compared to in order to understand the evolution of their relationship.
Despite this, their relationship is still rooted in gender roles and Shakespeare makes it clear that these roles are very important to the mental health of the characters, especially Lady Macbeth. She calls on spirits to “unsex” her which could be interpreted as her sacrificing her femininity for the sake of her husband as she believes his nature is “too full o’ the milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way”. She asks them to “take [her] milk for gall” which also shows her giving up her sensitive, motherly self (milk was already established as a representation of what made Macbeth human, so this can be interpreted as her giving up her humanity as well) and it is implied that she thinks she’s sinning, as she asks them to conceal themselves “in the dunnest smoke of hell” from heaven. This shows her devotion to Macbeth as she is doing this because Macbeth wouldn’t be able to build up the motivation to murder Duncan on his own, and in order to persuade him to do it, she needed to get rid of what made her feminine, which was usually synonymous with weak or caring at the time. Lady Macbeth’s guilt and death can be

Get Access