Lady Macbeth & Macbeth's Relationship

1. Beginning of play
1. "My dearest partner of greatness"
  1. Macbeth respects his wife and treats her as an equal - it is not real until he's shared it with the person he loves
2. "That I may pour my spirits in your ear"
  1. Lady Macbeth wants to help her husband achieve his dream
3. "and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round"
  1. Lady Macbeth doesn't see the aftermath of the event, only the obstacles towards it
4. "What though woulds't highly, that wouldst though holily"
  1. Lady Macbeth shows thorough knowledge of her husband
5. "Come to my woman's breasts, and take my milk for gall,, you murdering minsters"
  1. Lady Macbeth is willing to give everything she has for her husband to fulfil his wishes
6. "Leave all the rest to me"
  1. Lady Macbeth takes complete control over the situation, and Macbeth goes along with her plan.
2. Macbeth's refusal to murder Duncan
1. "Live a coward in thine own esteem, letting 'I dare not' wait upon 'I would'"
  1. Lady Macbeth uses her knowledge of her husband to attack his Achilles' heal, his inability to provide a son and therefore his manhood
2. "When you durst do it, then you were a man!"
3. "I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me"
  1. Shakespeare juxtaposes her own womanhood against his lack of manhood to expose the gap he doesn't fill in their relationship.
4. "If we should fail,-"
  1. Macbeth's answer proves that her knowledge of him is thorough, she knew his reasons were not out of morality but out of fear
3. After the murder
1. "These deeds must not be thought after these ways: so, it will make us mad."
  1. Lady Macbeth gives key advice here, however, unknown to her, the guilt is inescapable, whether it be in day or night.
2. "I'll go no more."
  1. This is the first sign of the deterioration of their relationship, she can no longer control him
3. "You do unbend your noble strength, to think such brainsickly of things."
  1. Lady Macbeth attempts to attack his manhood in order to control him, but he has detached himself from his mind and therefore cannot be manipulated.
    1. "To know my deed twere best not know myself"
4. "Go, carry them, and smear the sleepy grooms with blood."
  1. Lady Macbeth asserts her power over Macbeth through the imperatives, yet she no longer controls him, he has given himself to the hope of the supernatural
5. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?"
  1. Shakespeare uses the hyperbole to exaggerate Macbeth's utter fear of himself and his actions, yet also to show his cowardice of being unable to accept his own actions and act on them.
6. "A little water clears us of this dead"
  1. Lady Macbeth acts pragmatically and takes care of her husband, doing the 'clean up'herself, she appears mentally stronger than him in this scene, this is all to exaggerate her downfall.
4. Pre banquet scene
1. "Say to the King, I would attend his leisure for a few words"
  1. Lady Macbeth has to formally ask for permission to speak with her husband, contrasting to the beginning of the play
2. "Things without all remedy should be without regard"
  1. Lady Macbeth tries to calm her husband, however the scene results in him comforting her - shift.
3. "We have scorched the snake, not killed it"
  1. Is Macbeth himself the snake? Craving death to sooth his restless ecstasy? Macbeth's mind has been consumed by the supernatural forces, his wife's words seem ridiculous to him.
4. "we will eat..in fear...lie in restless ecstasy"
  1. Macbeth was aware of the consequences of their act, she was not, he knows their suffering will only increase in torture.
5. "Make our faces vizards to our hearts"
  1. Macbeth's words echo Lady Macbeth's earlier words, exaggerating the shift in roles.
6. "Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck"
  1. Is Macbeth protecting his wife from his sickness? Or is he trying to hide the deed from himself, as he has not told his love r.e. my dearest....
7. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!"
  1. She can no longer control him through manipulation, the supernatural has consumed his brain
5.During Baquet
1. "The fit is momentary: upon a thought he will be well again."
  1. Lady Macbeth can no longer control Macbeth, her role now is to cover up his actions.
2. "Are you a man?"
  1. Lady Macbeth attempts to regain her old power, yet she cannot succeed.
3. "Stand not upon the order of your going, but go at once!"
  1. She's lost control over her husband, and in doing so herself, the spirits she called to unsex her will now allow her guilt to consume her.
4. "You lack the seasons of all natures, sleep."
  1. There is one cure to their guilt and that is to sleep, sleep to forget - yet their conscience can never allow them this sweet relief.
5. "We are yet young in deed."
  1. Macbeth cannot stop until he is 'safely thus', the pronoun 'we' shows that although she is ignorant of the deaths, they act in parallel, she is never clean of his deeds.
6. Lady Macbeth's death
1. "All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand."
  1. This hyperbole contrasts her original sate
2. "What's done cannot be undone"
  1. She knows she can't take back her actions, they shall forever exist and she shall be forever haunted
3. "Canst though not minister to a mind diseased?
  1. Macbeth fails to see he has caused her pain, yet still loves her enough to beg
4. "Life is but a walking shadow... signifying nothing."
  1. Macbeth's reaction is devoid of emotion, to him life has no meaning, it has no purpose, there is no point in thinking of tomorrow, for death and hereafter walk hand in hand. Her leave merely reminds this.
5. "This dead butcher and his fiend-like queen"
  1. The characters entered as 'Brave Macbeth' and his 'honoured hostess' and leave as ...., perhaps the audience would relax at the idea they have rejoined each other in 'the balm of hurt minds'.

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Lady Macbeth & Macbeth's Relationship

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	Created by Leah Davis over 8 years ago