Macbeth

The marriage relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth is ironically close, given their overwhelming personal ambitions. Throughout the play, the couple bonds over murder, guilt, and a hunger for the throne. Driven by their individual desires to attain and maintain a position of power in Scotland, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth feed off of each other. However, their relationship disintegrates not because they lack love or respect for one another, but because they succumbed to guilt and other personal psychological demons by the end of the play.

In Acts I and II, Lady Macbeth is by far the dominant partner in the relationship. She feels her husband is too weak, "too full o' the milk of human kindness," to do whatever it takes to secure the throne (I, v. 15). She wants to wear the pants in the family, to be "unsexed," so that she may perform acts of "direst...
[ View Full Essay]