"Macbeth" by William Shakespeare. This essay shows how the relationships between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in the book change thoughout the play.

Essay by mulletmon August 2005

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The play Macbeth like most of Shakespeare's plays are more complex than meets the eye. Characters in his plays change constantly and there are hardly any flat characters in them. In Macbeth, all of the cast in it are constantly changing and with them the relationships change a lot. The most obvious example of this is of course between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Everything about their relationship changes, their honesty with each other, how much they communicate and most importantly the shift in power between the two. And all of this takes place in a mere 108 pages, who would have thought.

The first time contact is made between Macbeth and his wife is through the letter. This letter symbolizes everything their relationship was before the murder. In the beginning Macbeth hid nothing from his wife. For example, "This I have thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness..."

(Act 1, Scene 2, line 8). He told her absolutely everything that had happened and shared it all with her. Yet after the murder and the guilt and pressure have taken their toll on him, he becomes more secretive and even refuses to tell her his plans for Banquo. There is the quote "Be innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck, till thou applaud the deed" (Act 3, Scene 2, Line 95). The change from earlier in the play is extreme; he went from telling her everything and hiding nothing, to keeping important things from her. But other aspects of their relationship also change.

Another aspect of their relationship that changes isn't just what they're communicating but how often they do it. Though it kind of ties in with their honesty with each other (you'll see what I mean later) it deserves it's own category. More towards the...