Relationship Between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Essay

Almost every relationship has those critical arguments or confrontations and requires communication as well as collaboration to overcome its challenges. This is the case between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth where two different personalities and characteristics begin to clash against one another and push each other to their limits. As the play progresses, Lady Macbeth’s motives and desires are revealed and as a result, her aspirations get the best of her and starts to influence her husband Macbeth to take the path of potentially being king which ultimately involves elements of death, fraud, and exploitation. Throughout act one of â€Å"Macbeth†, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share a controlling yet cooperative relationship. Lady Macbeth plays a very significant role in influencing Macbeth to choose the path towards higher royalty. Her own ambitions of being queen alongside her husband motivated her to plot a wicked act to overthrow or maybe even kill the king. Lady Macbeth first realizes the possibility of being queen in act 1, scene 5, lines 14-15 in which she states, â€Å" Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promised. When she hears of the news, she immediately begins plotting to gain her husbands desire to be king but while doing so, she questions Macbeth as well as his abilities and personality. Lady Macbeth’s first instinct is to act with cruelty rather than loyalty, revealing her dark nature which go to beyond measures to obtain her desires. Also, starting from line 15 of Act 1, Scene 5, Lady Macbeth states, â€Å"Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way†; in other words, Macbeth is a good-hearted man. She knows her husband too well to believe that he would be willing to do any wicked act such as murder especially against the king. As a result, she resolves to convince her husband to do whatever is required to seize the crown. She also believes that by putting her femininity aside, she can possibly do any of the darkest and most wicked acts to possibly seize the crown. Lady Macbeth plays the dominant character throughout the opening scenes, in which she asserts her ambition for her and her husband to gain hierarchic status. Her best bet is to try to influence Macbeth is by questioning his anhood. Through parts of act 1, scene 7, Macbeth gives her his reasons why he shouldn’t kill the king: karma, being the king’s host, being loyal as his subject, the king being humble leader, and compliments given to him by the king made him look favorable in the eyes of the people. It is fair to say that Macbeth does have ambition, but at this point in the play, his conscience is str onger than ambition giving him less motivation to kill the king. As a result, Lady Macbeth repeatedly questions his manhood in the hope that he will defend himself by carrying out the murders. It seems to me that Macbeth has a mental struggle with his masculinity, because Lady Macbeth deprives him of it when he is at his lowest moments and then try to win him over by giving him compliments and expletive comments for example in act 1, scene 7, lines 49-59 in which Lady Macbeth states, â€Å"When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what your were, you would be so much more the men†¦.. Does unmake you. I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done this. † Basically, she dares him to commit the murder, using words that taunt rather than persuade in which it frightened and shocked Macbeth so much that he, as a result gives in to her orders. At this point we see Lady Macbeth as a persistent and strong women, while we see Macbeth as her indecisive and cowardly husband in which Lady Macbeth’s uses her strong characteristics to undermine Macbeth’s in order for him to cooperate with her ideas. Under her spell, all of Macbeth’s objections seem to evaporate and he is left only with a weak â€Å"If we should fail? † which is in line 58 of act 1, scene 7. Macbeth is not a good man at this point in the play, but he is not yet an evil one; he is tempted, and he tries to resist temptation. Macbeth’s resistance, however, is not effective enough to stand up to his wife’s ability to manipulate him. We finally get a sense that Macbeth is willing to do what his wife asks of him. She acts as a catalyst for Macbeth to commit treason by disregarding his rational, moral arguments and challenging his manhood.. As a result, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth cooperate and plot to get the servants drunk, and during that time Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would kill King Duncan and frame the drunken guards. In line 79-80 of act 1 scene 7, Macbeth states, â€Å"I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. † Since Macbeth succumbs to Lady Macbeth’s wishes, Shakespeare re-confirms just how close the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is and that she has the power and he listens to whatever she has to say whether if it’s for his own good or not. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share a very complex relationship between each other. Lady Macbeth is a complicated woman in the beginning of the play; she was strong and courageous, yet deceitful and problematic. Lady Macbeth endangered Macbeth’s life because had it not been for her influence and motivation, Macbeth would not have been so thirsty for the crown as well the overthrowing of those who currently held it. Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s soulmate as well as other half, and in doing so she controlled him and his brain, convincing him to do the most wicked acts. If it wasn’t for her, who knows what fate would have brought to Macbeth and his legacy.