Macbeth & Lady Macbeth

• Shakespeare presents the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth as something intricate and strong which is destroyed through the events of the play ‘Macbeth’. Early on in the play, they share a connection of ambition and determination, with Lady Macbeth holding a powerful position in the relationship, yet the relationship shifts as the play progresses.
• Lady Macbeth’s dominant role in the relationship diminishes from the beginning of the play to Act 5 Scene 1, to the last time we see her.
• Act 1 Scene 5


  'dearest partner of greatness'
• Act 1 Scene 7


  ‘screw his courage to the sticking place’
• Act 2 Scene 2 (this extract)

  ‘give her the daggers’
• Act 2 Scene 3


  Macbeth admits to murdering the guards out of his ‘fury’
• Act 3 Scene 2


  No longer ‘partners’. He calls her ‘dearest chuck’.
• Shakespeare may have created this shift to suggest that a woman cannot remain dominant in a relationship.
• Appeased the Jacobean audience who shared the same ideology of men and women’s set roles.
• We can also see how Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are close to each other in their relationship.
• Act 1 Scene 5


  Calls spirits to ‘unsex her’
• Act 1 Scene 7


  Only Macbeth's ‘vaulting ambition’ spurs him to kill Duncan
• Duncan describes Macbeth’s affection as ‘sharp as a spur’ and Macbeth calls Lady Macbeth ‘dearest love’.
• Act 3 Scene 4


  She calls him ‘sir’, indicating a loss of emotional bonding and equality
• The Jacobean idea of a husband and wife would mean the husband does the tough, “manly” jobs, such as a carpenter – or even an actor, while the wife should not involve herself in such things, instead opting to be a maid, or perhaps a writer of religious books.
• Shakespeare is suggesting that the role of men and women should be equal in a relationship, and the inequality is what causes the loss of love in a relationship between husband and wife.
• The main religion of the time was Christianity. The Bible includes the message ‘there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus'.