Toxic Relationship Between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Analysis Essay

Shakespeare presents Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's relationship as a toxic one, with a power difference between the dominant Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, who holds less power.

By questioning Macbeth in the quote "Art thou afraid to be the same in thine own act and valour", lady Macbeth contrasts her bold and risk-taking demeanour to Macbeth's coward-like one. This insulting gesture emasculates him, and strips from his power over her, making her more controlling in their relationship. The imbalance in the relationship hints that it's unhealthy and may be toxic. Additionally, using language such as "durst" in the quote "when you first do it then you were a man" further supports the fact that Macbeth is not in a position of power compared to Lady Macbeth and what she believes. This foreshadows conflict between the two figures, as Lady Macbeth might use Macbeth's weakness to her advantage. To a Jacobean audience, this concept would be very obscure and intimidating, as the expectations of that society was that men were in positions of control over the women. As a result, the audience may feel hostile towards Lady Macbeth, because of her unnatural behaviour.

Additional evidence of Macbeth's incapability were shown in his question "If we should fail?" , which implied hesitancy and uncertainty. By suggesting that he is not trusting to his competence, Macbeth indirectly admits that he hold elements of instability, which puts him at a lower portion than Lady Macbeth. This would result in disappointment from a Jacobean audience , or even redicule, who would expect a man to be confident and have high self-esteem, as well as not consider the possibility of failure. However, a modern audience may empathise with Macbeth's moment of unclarity, as they would be more accepting towards men who show signs of weakness. By displaying Macbeth as a character with with elements of fear and doubt, Shakespeare would've wanted to show that a character who later commits blasphemous acts such as treason, was not worthy of respect. By developing an early bias against him, he ensured that the audience would mostly agree with this concept. In addition to that, by associating Lady Macbeth and Macbeth's relationship with negativity and toxicity, he would've wanted to imply that a relationship where one encourages the others to perform sacrilegious acts would end in the downfall of both.