How Does Shakespeare Portray the Relationship Between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
A free grade 9 essay
The question is from November 2021
Shakespeare utilises the relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to represent a patriarchal society where men are encouraged to be violent, whereas women are expected to lurk behind their husbands, only gaining power through the strength of their spouses, demonstrating how women were seen as property of their male societal superiors, with the breaking of this “divine” order by Macbeth and Lady Macbeth resulting in their formerly intimate relationship ending solemnly apart.
Lady Macbeth is first introduced by Shakespeare in Act 1 Scene 5, reading a letter sent after the success of Macbeth on the battlefield – this introduction representing how Lady Macbeth is inherently associated with Macbeth as she was his property according to Jacobean laws. Yet she challenges those traditional gender roles after reading the letter by describing Macbeth as “too full of the milk of human kindness”, despite hearing about her husband’s battlefield success. She immediately suggests murder, and hints to regicide, which would have broken the ‘Great Chain of Being’ which sustained societal roles in British society at the time.
She asks for “spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”, wanting to break those traditional gender roles by going against God, and asking for the power of “spirits” instead. Perhaps Shakespeare is trying to reaffirm the role of the male King James after the death of Queen Elizabeth I, describing women trying to gain power as breaking against the will of God, and here Shakespeare describes powerful men like Duncan, Banquo and Malcolm as righteous, whereas the couple who try to break typical societal gender roles are condemned to death, these being the Macbeths. She asks to “take my milk to gall”, indicating to us that she was formerly pregnant with a child of Macbeth’s who may have died in the womb, signifying weakness in Lady Macbeth and perhaps the idea that was God’s wrath upon the couple, not giving them an heir, due to their destruction of traditional gender roles.
In Act 1 Scene 7, Lady Macbeth attacks Macbeth for not wanting to kill Duncan, attacking his manhood: “when you durst do it, then you were a man”. Perhaps Shakespeare is trying to espouse a more positive form of masculinity, similar to Malcolm’s change from Act 3 Scene 4 to Act 5 Scene 9, where he realises that men have weaknesses too. Alternatively, it could represent how men were expected to be decisive in decision making and Lady Macbeth could be trying to exploit Macbeth’s untraditionally indecisive mind.
Likewise, in the extract, Lady Macbeth once again attacks Macbeth even after he murders Duncan, perhaps indicating to the audience that their relationship is an unhappy one. Macbeth describes his thoughts immediately after he killed Duncan, emphasing that “Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep”, with the anaphora of “sleep” perhaps indicating that he will not be able to spend time with his wife, that being in the bedroom with her. Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth, saying “Who was it, who thus cried?” – trying to align his thoughts in her direction, dismissing the mental troubles that he is having after Duncan’s murder. Lady Macbeth simultaneously tries to gain power through her husband, also praising him as a “noble thane”, with the conjunction of those two words associated with royalty indicating her high respect and standards of him.
However, she attacks his masculinity once more by describing him as “Infirm of purpose!”, with the use of the adjective “infirm” suggesting that he is unable to decide what he is to do next, or it could be interpreted as a euphemism for their more intimate relationship, perhaps criticising him for the death of their child, which would have broken Jacobean expectations of women, who were seen as the only possible cause for a man being unable to have a child, linking to the wider patriarchy that existed at the time. Macbeth is pushed further than his limits by his wife, wanting to “go no more”, the use of the iambic pentameter showing how afraid and fearful he is, once he broke the Great Chain of Being by committing regicide. Lady Macbeth, in contrast, uses trochaic tetrameter when she says “For it must seem their guilt”, with the use of trochaic tetrameter symbolising that she has malicious and evil intentions, perhaps because she is going against what the Jacobeans would have believed was the will of God himself, trying to take on a masculine role while encouraging regicide.
Once Macbeth is king though, she loses her former power and significance, and perhaps we could see this as Macbeth using her like an object to further his “vaulting ambition”, then disposing of her once he gets what he wanted, the kingship. One instance of this deteriorating relationship is in the beginning of Act 3, where Macbeth decides to kill Banquo, and tells Lady Macbeth “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed”. This description of his wife as “dearest chuck” undermines her martial status, with the use of the noun “chuck” almost presenting her as a friend rather than Macbeth’s partner in regicide and in life.
We get to see the final destruction of their relationship in the beginning of Act 5, where Lady Macbeth, while sleepwalking, sees herself in the perspective of her husband, repeating his line in Act 2 Scene 2, where he describes all of “Neptune’s oceans”, being unable to get the water off his hands. Perhaps this sudden change from the emasculating Lady Macbeth from Act 1 to the vulnerable and suicidal one from Act 5 represents Lady Macbeth paying the price for breaking the patriarchy and reverting to a more traditionally feminine state, with the description of the oceans as being “Neptune’s oceans”, perhaps showing her distance from God and Jacobean morality. The irony is that while Macbeth thought he heard “Glamis shall sleep no more”, it was in fact his wife who didn’t manage to get sleep by the end of the play, traumatised by his actions, perhaps showing the Jacobean belief in vulnerable women who relied on their male social superiors.
She finishes her soliloquy by saying “to bed, to bed”, indicating that she is in need of her husband, yet he is nowhere to be found, reinforcing the Jacobean idea that a woman is vulnerable and requires a man to survive. Macbeth’s unscrupulous response to her death, saying “she should have died hereafter”, also indicates his lack of need of a wife, perhaps showing that Shakespeare believed a man didn’t need his wife, shown by his long time away from his wife Anne Hathaway while he was in London making plays, only leaving her his “second-best bed”.
Lady Macbeth dies away from her husband, with the only live indicator of her death being “a cry of women within”, symbolising by the end of the play how the relationship of the Macbeths is destroyed due to both of them trying to reject the traditional morals of a Jacobean society while going against the divine will of God, with the relationship ending solemnly and without any fanfare, with only Macbeth wishing she had died “hereafter”, linking back to the tragedy that is Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’.
My Commentary
If I had to reduce all the marketing criteria for Grade 9 to simple steps, it would be this:
Have at least a 3 part thesis
Include at least 15 quotes
Constantly refer to Shakespeare’s purpose (and include Jacobean society)
Refer to the patriarchal society
Bring in context to prove your point, embedding it like a quote
Work through the play chronologically
Include a quotation in your conclusion
Job done!
(Lady Macbeth, in contrast, uses trochaic tetrameter when she says “For it must seem their guilt”, with the use of trochaic tetrameter symbolising that she has malicious and evil intentions) - you would get away with this I think, but I think it is definitely still iambic pentameter!
Another grade 9 essay on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's relationship?
Sir could you please make more posts qand youtube videos
on London and Storm on the Island