Lady Macbeth

Rhiannon Major
May 23, 2013

The Fall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s Marriage

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the lead roles Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth’s marriage drastically changes throughout the play as a result of violence and cruelty. Throughout the play we see the couples relationship plummet, drawing the end of their marriage. The murder of King Duncan began the tension and mistrust in their marriage. The paranoia created distance between the two after Macbeth began killing innocent people to secure his throne. The marriage ended at the end of the play when Macbeth became the cold-hearted man Lady Macbeth wanted him to be.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are a very strong couple at the beginning of the play. Macbeth is awarded the title of the Thane of Cawdor and Glamis. He and his wife Lady Macbeth share the happiness and victory of his new title and relationship. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth become hungry and ambitious for the title of being King. Lady Macbeth devises a plan to kill the King and frame the servants. Macbeth thinks about the plan but cannot bring himself to commit the crime. Lady Macbeth calls him a coward and questions his masculinity. He gives in to the accusations and decides to kill Duncan to prove he is a man. Lady Macbeth lectures Macbeth “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/And, to be more than what you were, you would,/Be so much more the man.” (Macbeth 1.7.55-62) They kill the King, place the daggers in the drunken servants hands, and go to wash their hands of the blood. When Macduff discovers the king’s body, Malcolm flees to England. This makes him look guilty and puts Macbeth next in line to be heir. Macbeth is crowned King and Lady Macbeth is crowned Queen. Together they feel they are a force of nature, feared to be reckoned with. Their relationship is strong but beginning to decline. The guilt of their sin to killing the king weighs on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s subconscious. Therefore we begin to see their marriage fall apart.
During the middle of the play, we see the relationship begin to fall apart. Macbeth’s paranoia gets the better of him and he begins killing everyone who may threaten him. The witches predicted that Banquo’s bloodline would produce future kings. This will be a threat to Macbeth’s throne as he will still be king when Banquo’s grandchildren are born. This prediction frightens Macbeth enough to arrange for the murder of Banquo. He hires two murderers to kill Banquo, and a third to ensure the assassination is followed through. This shows Macbeth’s blossoming paranoia. Lady Macbeth however is not aware of the hired murderers. She learns of Banquo’s murder as Macbeth goes mad during a dinner party. She tells Macbeth “This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said/Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,/Imposters to true fear, would well become/A women’s story at a winter’s fire,/Authorized by her grandam.” (Macbeth 4.3.76-79) Macbeth strikes again when he kills the Macduff family after the witches told Macbeth to beware of the Thane of Fife. He fears Macduff is going to be a threat to him so he kills the Macduff family in hopes that Macduff’s grief will prevent him from acting on Macbeth’s throne. Suddenly all of the guilt catches up with Lady Macbeth. She begins to go insane and continually tries to wash the “blood” off of her hands. Macbeth watches his wife mentally deteriorate and does nothing but hire a doctor. Macbeth’s reasoning is to make sure Lady Macbeth gets better before she tells the couples sins. The act of hiring the doctor shows us how much their relationship has changed. If Lady Macbeth went insane before Macbeth began losing control of his ambition, he would’ve hired the doctor out of fear of losing his beloved wife. However he hired the doctor out of fear and paranoia of losing his throne. Therefore, their relationship has changed for the worse.
At the end of the play, their marriage has failed. The couple do not love each other and do not have any patience for one another. Lady Macbeth’s health has taken a turn for the worse. The guilt is too much for her to handle. She commits suicide by jumping off the castle balcony off stage. The guards and servants find her body outside of the castle. They rush to find Macbeth who is prepping for the battle he is about to face. When he learns of his wife’s death he says “She should have died hereafter;/There would have been a time for such a word.” (Macbeth 5.5.20-21) This demonstrates to the audience that he does not care about his wife’s death. As he says in scene 5, her death is an inconvenience; she should have chosen a better time to die. The two lead roles have an obvious wall between them created from paranoia, fear, and guilt from their sins. Later in the play, Macduff kills Macbeth and his head is put on a stake. This represents the tragedy of a corrupted warrior who had a lot of respect from the kingdom. He and Lady Macbeth go from the respected Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, and his wife. If their relationship would have maintained until the end of the play, the audience could have seen a different ending that resulted in less murder and fear. Therefore, their marriage has ended.
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the lead roles Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth’s marriage drastically changes throughout the play as a result of violence and cruelty. From the beginning of the play to the end, Shakespeare portrays the downfall in the couple’s marriage. They began as a strong loving couple, then end as two cold-hearted individuals who are so ridden with fear and guilt they cannot stand the other. This is the result from the murders of the King, Banquo, and the Macduffs. If Macbeth had not of acted on his ambition and greed, their relationship may have lasted until their demise. In fact, there may never have been a demise of the characters if their marriage remained strong. Therefore, their marriage began to fall apart as a result of violence and cruelty.