Shakespeare
The Character and Relationship of Macbeth and his Lady
In Act 1, Scene V of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth reads a letter from her husband and then reflects on his character. Use this letter and speech as a focal point for analyzing their relationship. What does the letter tell you about his view of the world? What does her subsequent speech tell you about hers? Stay with these few pages of the text and examine as many of the words and phrases as possible.
It seems from the text that Lady Macbeth loves her husband and wants the best for him, but she also believes that he will not be able to do what is required. The letter introduces her to the message from the weird sisters who, as the reader knows, are witches who are, throughout the tale telling Macbeth of his fate. At the end of the opening letter she is reading he says "my dearest partner of greatness, that thou might'st not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell." He is talking about the fact that he has been anointed by both the king's servants and by the weird sisters, so he believes that it is true. He wants first to communicate this joy with his beloved wife.
Lady Macbeth can easily be seen as scheming when she stops reading the letter and the reader either enters her thoughts or listens to her response. Macbeth has just told her of the promise of his life as a reward for his prowess in battle, and she is worried that he will not be able to get all that he can because he is soft-hearted. It seems like Macbeth...
However, Lady Macbeth has no such compunctions, or character flaws as she apparently sees them. She is interested in making sure that Macbeth gets all that is coming to him by right, meaning the kingdom, and she is going to scheme and plan to help it quickly along. He is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness" so she will "pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round" meaning that she will persuade him to use the nefarious means that she is planning. She is willing to go to any lengths to see that Macbeth receives all that she thinks that he is owed.
After Lady Macbeth reads the letter and talks to the servant, the reader receives another view of her character. In this she seems like a caring person, at least when she hears good news regarding Macbeth. She hears that the servant who brought the news was traveling so fast that he is "almost dead for breath" and Lady Macbeth tells the reporting servant to "Give him tending. He brings great news." She demonstrates the extension of her
love when she requests a kindness for the servant who brought he the great news.
It is interesting to see the transformation she makes that reveals even more of who she is. After the servant leaves, she says "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." Her wish is to become what she believes that Macbeth cannot be. She believes herself to not be a bad person, so she has to pray to the spirits who make people so. Again, she is willing to become something that she believes that she…
