In the play, Macbeth, William Shakespeare begins in 1040 and establishes to the audience the strong relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, presenting it to be based on equality and shared power. However, as the play continues Shakespeare reveals to us how Lady Macbeth is a powerful and emasculating woman. Moreover, Macbeth is depicted as chivalrous and trustworthy being compared to ‘valour’s minion’ (1.2.20), thus setting the two protagonists up for a bigger fall as Macbeth ends the play damned to eternal hell whilst Lady Macbeth begins to realise the consequences of her actions as her mind begins to deteriorate and she descends in to madness. Furthermore, throughout the play, the Macbeths begin to become alienated from one another as their demons begin to haunt them. The two then begin to become torn apart from each other as they become the traditional patriarchal, Jacobean couple that they had been so different from at the beginning of the play.
Before the relationship breaks down, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship is seen by many, including Harold Bloom, as the ‘best marriage in Shakespeare.’ Macbeth conveys his feeling towards Lady Macbeth in the form of an intimate letter, written in prose, as he shares the details of the prophecy he has been presented by the witches promising him thane of Cawdor and then king. Macbeth wastes no time in telling Lady Macbeth, his ‘dearest partner of greatness’ (1.5), using a term of endearment that implies that Macbeth, who has been promised power over the entire of Scotland, remains humble, content with the fact that he will be able to share his success with his wife. It further emphasises that before the murder of Duncan, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a flawless marriage with the superlative adjective ‘dearest’ highlighting the commitment and devotion the Macbeths had for their relationship. Additionally, the use of the noun ‘partner’ could also propose that Macbeth is reliant on the help of his wife and subsequently allows Lady Macbeth to assume a leading role in their plot to murder the king to ensure that what has been promised to them is obtained. Lady Macbeth, as a bold and resolute character contrasts with common belief in the 16th and 17th century, the time in which Shakespeare lived and wrote, as it was believed most notably by John Knox that a ‘women in her greatest perfection was made to serve man’ therefore being naturally courageous would have been viewed as unnatural. Lady Macbeth fears that her husband is ‘too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness’ (1.5.15-18). This is said in the form of a soliloquy suggesting that she is angry at Macbeth's underwhelming ambition and realises that to get where she wants she must take charge, further emphasising the inverted power relationship compared to other Jacobean couples. Additionally, the motif ‘milk’ is often alluded to in Macbeth to signify femininity and therefore weakness as Lady Macbeth is regretful that her husband is so unambitious leading to her assuming her leading role as she must guide him to the throne using ambition and manipulation to control him.
Many would say that Macbeth grows to be the unfeeling remorseless person that Lady Macbeth fails to become this shows to the reader and audience the drastic change that they go through as they become consumed in their pursuit for power. The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begins to change throughout the play as their desires and ambitions begin to change. At beginning of the play Lady Macbeth is hungry for power and will do anything to get what she wants; however, ‘brave Macbeth’ (1.2.17) is content with his knightly status and chivalrous attitude. Lady Macbeth is shown to be smart and calculated at the beginning of the play going through drastic changes. Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits to ‘make thick [her] blood’ (1.5.41), this is said both literally and figuratively as she wants to make thick the blood in her veins symbolising her becoming strong and unfeeling to manipulate and kill without remorse. Furthermore, this is also a metaphor that gives the image of compassion flowing through her blood stopping her from being ruthless. However, Shakespeare sometimes contrasts many of Lady Macbeth's lines with juxtapositions that undermine her power foreshadowing her ultimate downfall at the end of the play. Moreover, as the play continues Macbeth later becomes fearless as he has ‘supped full of horrors’ (5.5.13-15), with the metaphor suggesting that he is filled with demons of his past. Furthermore, this quote could also refer to Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony where Macbeth is the only person who can see the mutilated body of Banquo at their dinner as he displays the first signs of his steep descent into madness. To many this role reversal, as Macbeth becomes more decisive and ruthless, restores what would be a natural balance between the genders and reflects the Jacobean beliefs that would have been held by a Shakespearian audience.
Gender plays an important role throughout the play. It shapes the Macbeths relationship as Lady Macbeth starts by being the unconventional Jacobean women, whereas Macbeth plays the role of the self-doubting, chivalrous knight. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth shows that she is hungry for power when she asks the spirits to ‘unsex’ (1.5.38-43) her, this transitive verb suggests that Lady Macbeth wants to be stripped of all her natural female emotions, tendencies and qualities as these maternal instincts would stop her from being ruthless. Moreover, she wants to be deprived of everything that makes her a compassionate reproductive woman, with some arguing that this may be linked to Lady Macbeth having lost a child, and therefore she has no need to be a woman. Furthermore, ‘unsex’ is a use of neologism, this is a made-up verb and suggests that through the use of unnatural language Shakespeare is suggesting that Lady Macbeth is going against the natural order of the world. Throughout the play Lady Macbeth often seems angry with the fact that she is a female, often pairing anything associated with femininity to weakness, she does this when she says, ‘take my milk for gall’(1.5.47), in this quote lady Macbeth is making a prayer to make her and her husband strong, therefore she must remove everything that can be associated with kindness or caring nature. The noun ‘gall’ suggests that Lady Macbeth wants to exchange her breast milk for poison or bile, this is because the breasts represent maternal tenderness and care which may interfere with Lady Macbeth's evil plans which result in the two protagonists descending in to madness as well as resulting in them becoming increasingly estranged from each other.
In the relationship of Macbeth two protagonists the underlying theme of appearance vs. reality plays a key role as they are both consumed by their own downward slide. This results in them being no longer unified but instead wholly disconnected from one another. For Lady Macbeth, she changes from a powerful, strong-minded person to being defeated and alone with her regrets as they begin to consume her. However, for Macbeth, he changes from being chivalrous and honest to being cold and heartless. Through the use of the metaphor ‘look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t’ (1.5.64) we look into how Lady Macbeth thinks and acts showing her to be calculating and manipulative, furthermore we see how Lady Macbeth thinks of her husband with noun ‘flower’ suggesting that she sees him as being effeminate. Moreover, we also see how well Lady Macbeth knows her husband as she appeals to his warrior side through the use of the metaphor ‘be the serpent,’ with the noun ‘serpent’ being associated with the devil. However, the last time we see Lady Macbeth, we see her sleepwalking as she dreams of the night that they killed Duncan, we see lady Macbeth guilt-ridden as we come to understand that she takes the blame for the person Macbeth has grown to become; this can be seen when Lady Macbeth compulsively washes her hands wondering ‘will [her] hands ne’er be clean’ (5.1.37) . This scene is filled with unnatural and disorganised behaviour as Shakespeare appropriately writes in prose rather than verse. Additionally, in this scene Lady Macbeth warns Macbeth earlier in the play to wash his hand to not be ‘brainsickly’ (2.2.47), however now she ironically stands on stage driven mad by her own guilt, with many contrasting this scene and Lady Macbeth's ultimate suicide with Cleopatra’s suicide which is depicted as an act of strength and love. Furthermore, this scene could be linked to context as in the 16th century a person sleepwalking was considered insane indicating that Shakespeare intended for Lady Macbeth to be viewed in a sympathetic light by his audience. On the other hand, Macbeth changes from being physically unable to live without his wife to dismissing her death and saying that ‘she should have died hereafter’ (5.5.17) contrasting the beginning of the play where he refers to Lady Macbeth as his ‘dearest partner of greatness,’ indicating that Macbeth who has become tyrannical and unfeeling is no longer dependant on Lady Macbeth and subsequently is able to dismiss her death as she is no longer of use to him.
In conclusion, there are many shifts in power and control throughout the play between the Macbeths. At the beginning Shakespeare conveys to his audience his idea of what a perfect relationship might look like, suggesting that equality and mutual respect is key for a strong relationship. However, as we move on Shakespeare highlights how through the manipulation and greed of Lady Macbeth, Macbeth becomes tyrannical and increasingly brutal. Shakespeare’s audience would have appreciated seeing a woman punished for violating what it saw as her natural duty to be subservient to men, moreover given Jacobean belief in pre-ordained hierarchical order, the audience would be glad to see someone like Macbeth punished. In conclusion, this message is still relevant today as we are forced to act and be a certain way by friends and social media that might help us in the short term only to ‘win us to our harm’ (1.3.125) in the end.
Many argue that Shakespeare created the character of Lady Macbeth to be like Eve in Genesis chapter 3 where similar to lady Macbeth Eve lures Adam towards sin, however in the case of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth it leads to their relationship becoming strained as they slowly begin to drift apart to work on their own problems.