How does shakespeare present Macbeth and Lady Macbeth\'s marriage? PDF

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great analysis on the marriage of lady macbeth and macbeth worth a grade 8/9 for GCSE english literature AQA...

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How does Shakespeare present Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s marriage? Throughout the play Shakespeare presents the changing relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth which that eventually leads to that marriage downfall. didactically the plate is used to show the Jacobean audience the consequences of disrupting the divine right of kings by usurping the throne Destruction of the things that hold life together relationships Hence why marriage begins to fall apart In this extract is the point in the play where their relationship begins to change its begins with Macbeth clear and firm on his decision we shall proceed no further in this business in the statement Macbeth feels that his bird is the end of matter and Lady Macbeth would’ve will be to it just like any other Jacobean woman would’ve done However Lady Macbeth emotionally manipulate him into changing his decision by humiliating him. She says “like the poor cat in the Adage” this idiom means the cat likes to fish but does not want to wet its paws Lady Macbeth is saying that Macbeth wants to be king but doesn’t want to commit the acts in order for him to become king From the beginning of the play when Lady Macbeth receives the letter from Macbeth she expresses her desire of stealing the throne by regicide and pressurised into doing this by emotional manipulation and the emasculating him ultimate form of humiliation Jacobean especially coming from his own wife. She says, “when you durst do it then you were a man”. Here lady Macbeth has the nerve to directly emasculate she is telling Macbeth that he is no longer a man now he’s decided to back out of the plan. Lady Macbeth also emotionally manipulate Macbeth by bringing up the topic supposedly dead baby which we can infer has only died recently since lady Macbeth still has milk. “Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dash it’s brains out” this suggests that if it were for Macbeth she would have killed her child. The violent verb “dash” is a very cruel disturbing image that Shakespeare creates in the audience mind. It suggests that the outcome of the action is bloody and grotesque. This is ironic as this action is completely immoral. Any other mother in the world would never think of murdering their child in such a gruesome way. Lady Macbeth intentionally exclaims this as she wants Macbeth to feel guilty and sorry for her. Alternatively lady Macbeth may’ve wanted to rid of her maternal instinct and all feminine qualities so she could become masculine enough to do the moral sin. Macbeth may have began to distance himself from lady Macbeth for this very reason. In the Jacobean Society it was often looked down upon when the woman would argue back or become independent from their husband, the superior gender. Hence Macbeth may have disliked the idea of lady Macbeth being more powerful than himself. However, as the play goes on Macbeth begins to hide things from lady Macbeth As can be seen in the following, “The thane of fife had a wife where is she now?”. We can infer from this that Macbeth hadn’t informed Lady Macbeth of his plan to murder Macduff‘s family. This is ironic because in the beginning of the play Macbeth informed Lady Macbeth of his plans but now we can see the relationship has changed. In the beginning Macbeth refers to Lady Macbeth as his “dear partner in greatness” which suggests he feels him and lady Macbeth are equals which was very rare to see in the Jacobean era, a time where women were inferior to men. So things have drastically changed in their relationship from the beginning of the play to the point. He doesn’t even tell her of his plans.

Macbeth’s tyranny is also a reason why they both become more distant. We can see this in his command to slaughter Macduff's family, “give to his sword his wife his babes and all unfortunate souls”. Macbeth has the knowledge that they are all innocent but he still decides to slaughter them to give ease to his worries about anyone stealing the throne from him. The noun “babes” suggest they are very young and are full of innocence. It also gives connations of purity which can suggest it is almost like macbeth has killed angels. Which macbeth is just dragging himself deeper into a spiral of chaos. Murder is a mortal sin which can never be forgiven. The Jacobean society were extremely religious hence they would’ve wanted Macbeth to suffer the gravest of punishments. In christianity family is considered a blessing from god. This support the reason why lady Macbeth and Macbeth marriage has fell apart....