Changing Relationship Between Macbeth And His Wife example essay topic

The Changing Relationship Between Macbeth and his Wife". ... my dearest partner of greatness... ". writes Macbeth to his wife when he receives the first three prophecies from the witches. The relationship between Macbeth and his wife is a complicated one. At the start, they seem as in love with each other as when they were when married, the language used by both is intimate and playful. However there is a darker side to their relationship. Lady Macbeth has a change of heart and refers to her husband as a coward when they prepare to murder Duncan. ".

... I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks meI would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn as you... ". Dialogues such as this show her darker side, the side that finally convinces Macbeth to commit the murder of King Duncan.

It appears that Macbeth may even be afraid of his cruel wife. After the deed is done, she continues to look down upon him", My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white... ". She still thinks of him as a coward and mocks him about worrying about the deed. Her language and actions display this to us. She sarcastically calls him". ... worthy thane...

". Even though he has done exactly what she wanted him to do; Lady Macbeth still will tease him. This is one of the reasons that drive them apart further on in the play. Apart from her feigning a feint, we don't see much of the lady until the coronation banquet. Macbeth arranges for his long time friend, Banque, to be killed so the prophecy would not be fulfilled. When Lady Macbeth asks her husband what he was planning he tells her nothing, "Be innocent of knowledge, dearest chuck...

". This from the man who confided everything with his wife in the letter he wrote about the witches, already they have started to drift apart, and Macbeth has only just risen to the throne. Macbeth although outwardly confident that his plan will succeed, appears to be afraid to let his wife know what he is planning, possibly he is afraid of her interfering like she did when they murdered Duncan in his bed. He is also starting to be more assertive towards her, telling her what she is to do and what not to do. ". ... present him eminence, both with eye and tongue: unsafe the while, that we must lave our honours in these flattering streams, and make our faces vizard's to our hearts, disguising what they are " This passage spoken by Macbeth is strikingly similar to one by his wife". ... look the innocent flower but be the serpent under't... ".

Both tell the other to hide their true emotions and feelings under a mask, only now the table have been turned. They now have switched roles, Macbeth now being the dominant, plotting, confident one, and also playing with his spouse as she had done to him before, acting the loving lover. Finally, when Lady Macbeth goes crazy through guilt, her husband although sending for a doctor, and care ing about her welfare, in reality does not care about her at all, one of the best examples of this is when she dies, Macbeth looks at it in such a detached way, as is shown in one of the most famous passages of the play " She should have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle, life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that str us and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more, it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". This is the end of their relationship, and they have, all the way, grown more distant and care less for each other.

The main cause of this was ambition. Ambition caused Lady Macbeth to scorn her husband, in order to get him to become king. Ambition caused Macbeth not to tell his wife about what he was bout to do.