Macbeth

Macbeth is a play based on treason, loyalty and knowledge consisting of many different characters one unlike the other. The protagonist’s wife Lady Macbeth is introduced in the fourth scene of the first act in which she reads her husband’s letter which tells about Macbeth’s meeting with the witches and their prophecy. Claiming that her husband is far too softhearted, even though he appears as a cruel and blood thirsty person in the first scene of the first act, the audience gets the impression of an even crueler wife who embodies some aspects of a witch.

This picture is underlined by her second soliloquy in which she pleads evil spirits to assist her plan of Duncan’s murder and hide her actions from every existing creature including God. Their relationship together is mainly based on dominance and is changes quickly throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth takes the lead, and is the driving force into killing Duncan. However, after the murder is done, she leaves Macbeth alone, physically and sentimentally, with her lack of sensitivity. This really makes Macbeth subconsciously move further away from her, and he starts losing trust in her rapidly.

Subsequently, after Lady Macbeth betrays Macbeth, he stops telling her all that happens, as he did before. Macbeth starts getting this trust issue with Lady Macbeth that he can’t stop. He feels like she might usher him into doing the wrong thing again, and he cannot trust her. They start drifting further and further apart, and later on, he doesn’t even bother to tell her about his plans to kill Banquo and Macduff’s family. Finally, as their guilt finally strikes, they don’t stick together and go against it as one unit, as they’re supposed to.

Instead, Lady Macbeth starts wallowing in her guilt all alone, until she starts sleepwalking and eventually decides to kill herself and commit suicide. Macbeth, upon hearing the news, stays in a stoic attitude, but asks the doctor for the physical state of the country. At this point, he doesn’t care for her, or anything, besides his crown. If there had been any type of love between them, they surely would have killed themselves together but they didn’t. While Lady Macbeth kills herself with her guilt, all Macbeth does in the last scene is win back a little bit of our respect, by fighting to his death, instead of running away from it.

In conclusion, Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s relationship drastically changes throughout the course of the play. From the beginning we see Lady Macbeth playing the more superior, and more dominating role of the two. As the play progresses and Duncan is killed, Macbeth seems to become the more superior one and makes this own decisions. Furthermore, in the last parts after Lady Macbeth dies, Macbeth doesn’t really seem to care anymore and is only avarice about his crown.