Oliver Twist

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorHigh School, 12th grade December 2001

download word file, 1 pages 1.0

The Relationship of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Introduction The relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is central to your understanding of the play - how and why the tragedy happens. If you want to write about this for your coursework, this timeline will remind you about the stages of their relationship and show you just how quickly it is destroyed by the events of the play.

The stages are these: Macbeth meets the witches Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are on exactly the same wavelength - so close they can almost read each other's thoughts when they are apart.

Planning the murder Their relationship becomes even more intense - it's a passionate, obsessive, almost sexual excitement.

The morning after the murder Lady Macbeth appears shocked by Macbeth's killing of the guards. Suddenly she feels that the situation is getting out of control and Macbeth is becoming more violent. This is the first time we sense they are growing apart.

After the coronation The time before the banquet is troubled. They are not sleeping. Macbeth begins to plan and think alone and shuts out Lady Macbeth from his thoughts.

The banquet Lady Macbeth can do nothing to help him. At the end of the scene, she and her husband are no longer a partnership. He is determined to go back to the witches; all she can do is try to make him normal again.

After the banquet There follows a long period when all Lady Macbeth can do is watch as Macbeth continues killing.

Lady Macbeth's madness and death: the isolation and the guilt have driven her mad.

Macbeth's death Macbeth realises that his life no longer has any meaning and calmly faces his own death at the hands of Macduff.