Macbeth Relationships

Macbeth
Analyze how the writer develops a relationship between two or more characters for a particular purpose.

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth the writer develops the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, emphasizing how both these characters can be corrupted and changed by ambition and greed. Soliloquies, dialogue, character actions and symbolism are all used to portray their ambitious traits, which eventually lead them to their destruction.

Macbeth is a strong man, whose fatal flaw is ambition. His wife Lady Macbeth encourages and manipulates him, planting the seed of ambition and deadly greed in his mind. Her influence on Macbeth leads him to developing this dark side of his character. Through Macbeth’s soliloquies and dialogue between Lady Macbeth and himself, we are able to see the ambition growing between them and corrupting them. Macbeth’s soliloquies show us that he has many internal conflicts and he sees himself as King Duncan’s loyal “kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed; then as his host, who should against his murder shut the door, not bear the knife myself.” He is doubtful and knows that killing Duncan is wrong, but his dialogue between Lady Macbeth and himself confirm that Lady Macbeth is the source of Macbeths ambition, pushing him to do the treacherous deeds by insulting calling him a coward and saying he is weak, “was the hope drunk wherenin you dress’d yourself? Hath it slept since, and wakes it now, to look so green and pale at what it did so freely?” but she also gives him courage making him believe he is invincible and cannot fail “screw your courage to the sticking-place and we’ll not fail.” Macbeth loves his wife, and she loves him in return but he is lead astray by her ambition, which ultimately leads to his downfall. Shakespeare shows us how even the people we love sometimes do not act within our best interests even though they believe they are doing the right thing for you.

Lady Macbeth is a hard headed and ambitious woman, which is apparent from the start of the play with her first scene showing her receiving Macbeths letter and her immediately wanting to fulfill the witches prophecies. She is weary of Macbeth’s ambition and her soliloquies show us that she seeks to have the strength and cunningness of a man and looks to the spirits to help her achieve this and rid herself of any womanly traits she may posses “come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direst cruelty.” She becomes a seemingly unemotional woman after this, purely driven by her ambition to promote her husband to the crown. Lady Macbeth knows her husband lacks the amount of ambition as her and so has to take some matters into her own hands. Her actions such as her recovering the daggers off the stricken and shocked Macbeth, show her tough exterior in pressured circumstances unlike Macbeth, who worries and loses focus “give me the daggers, the sleeping, and the dead, are but as pictures; ‘tis the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil.” Lady Macbeth is strong and steady like a rock in the beginning of the play. She must control the situation, as her ambition is stronger that Macbeths, she guides him towards what she believes is the right path for him, and is the strong, determined one between the two, until her emotions catch up with her and drive her to depression. Shakespeare shows us how even after trying to change yourself for someone else, your emotions and values soon catch up with you and cause you to feel great regret even if in the beginning it seemed like the right thing to do.

Over the course of the play, Lady Macbeth’s conscience appears to catch up with her. Her once hard exterior appears to have faded away and she becomes overwhelmed with the amount of damaged they have caused. Lady Macbeth seems to be driven mad by their ambition and it’s consequences. She becomes less talkative and present in the play as her ambition starts to crumble but Macbeths’ grows and becomes stronger, as her ambitious seed within him grows consuming him slowly. It becomes clear that she is breaking down when she starts suffering from insomnia and is walking around the corridors at nighttime talking to her. This strong symbolism shows that her once strong demeanor has now vanished and she is as vulnerable as ever because her ambition as overruled and destroyed her. Dialogue is used to emphasize her depression whilst she is wandering the halls at nighttime in a daze she begins to reflect on past mistakes with a heavy regretting heart “out damned spot! Out, I say.” This short but effective dialogue expresses to us the true way she feels about Duncan’s’ murder. She still feels like blood is on her hands as it was her idea and her former ambition that drove Macbeth and herself to committing such a treasonous act. Lady Macbeth slowly gets driven mad and eventually kills herself due to her grief and regret of their past actions. Macbeth’s ambition however is still growing, inevitably going the same way as his wife. Shakespeare shows us that ambition, when growing too strong can muddle your view of the consequences it may posses. Lady Macbeth never looks at the consequences until it is too late and Macbeth ignored the consequences on Lady Macbeths demand. Shakespeare emphasizes how your loved ones may not always be making the right choices for us.

The relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth slowly grows weaker over the course of the play as Macbeth’s ambition engulfs him. Lady Macbeths’ apparent grief, shown by the insomnia and her dialogue, cause her to finally commit suicide by throwing herself off the castle walls. Macbeth of course, feels remorse for his beloved wife’s’ death but he has changed so much and been corrupted so much that he can’t turn back. Macbeth, after finding out about his wife’s death, releases his grief through the use of soliloquies expressing his sadness “I am in blood stepped in so far that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.” This soliloquy shows us that he feels he has gone to far to turn back now and his ambitions and greed have grown too strong and over come him and his once loyal character. These feelings are suddenly brought to light once his wife has died because she was the nurturer of his ambition. Macbeth of course also feels like he is now at a loss and is wondering what he could have done to change events. He expresses extreme grief through the use of this particular soliloquy “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, 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.” This is a very powerful speech, reflecting on his wife’s death. It shows his remorse, and makes him seem vulnerable and stuck in a very distressing situation. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth had a strong relationship at the beginning of the play but towards the end, as ambition and greed took hold of Macbeth, their relationship shouldered. Shakespeare is showing us that one persons apparent ambition can cause them to neglect their partner and make them self-centered, putting stress on the relationship.

In conclusion, in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth the writer develops the relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, emphasizing how both these characters can be corrupted and changed by ambition and greed. This is shown through soliloquies, dialogue, character actions and symbolism are all used to portray their ambitious traits, which eventually lead them to their destruction.