Behind every great man is a great woman

´Behind every great man is a great woman´. Discuss this in relation to Macbeth relationship in Act five, six and seven.

Macbeth is thought to be written between 1603-1606. Macbeth is said to be a ´tribute play´ because he wrote it for James 1 (English king) to please him. This is one of Shakespeare´s head tragedies. ´Macbeth’ is a play which includes darkness, secretive, power, greed, ambition, evil, right and wrong themes and even more. Macbeth is one of Shakespeare´s bloodiest tragedies. It is usually referred as the ´Scottish play´ as it is said to be a great deal f superstition surrounding the play because unfortunate and strange accidents have happened during performances of the play.

Act 1 Scene 5

At the beginning of the play, Duncan describes Macbeth as ´noble´ ´valiant´ ´brave´; he is respected y the king. Therefore the audience will be expecting Macbeth to be an important and good character. With his description, Duncan gives the impression of Macbeth as a powerful and brave ´brave´ hero.

Although Macbeth´s letter to Lady Macbeth is an accurate version of events, he hints at Lady Macbeth about what he wants. “My dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee”. He is saying that his wife would do better and he wants her to think of a plan. He trusts his wife and knows she can achieve great things. From reading Macbeth´s letter the audience will learn early on in the play that Macbeth is ambitious because he says that he “burned in desire to question them further” when he tells his wife of the witches’ prophecies. Macbeth calls Lady Macbeth “my dearest partner of greatness” on lines nine and ten.

This shows that Macbeth sees his wife as an equal or even more powerful than himself; he respects Lady Macbeth´s point of view, Macbeth is too soft and weak to become a king and thinks of a plan. An evidence for the above mentioned statement is the expression of Lady Macbeth in line 14-15 “Yet I do fear thy nature, it is too full o´th´milk of human kindness”. Lady Macbeth thinks Macbeth doesn’t have the ability to deal with such a status in the community he is going to be in after the responsibility he takes as a king. In lines 18-20, Lady Macbeth’s worry is that Macbeth wants to do great things but he isn’t confident enough to do anything cruel. Again, we can see this when she says “it is too full o’th’milk of human kindness”

Eventually Lady Macbeth make a plan, this is shown in line 24, “I may pour my spirits in thine ear”. Lady Macbeth says that she will talk to Macbeth so nothing will hold him back from being in the king. There is actually a link here between Lady Macbeth and the witches as she speaks in a spell-like soliloquy which reveals her courage and determination. My opinion here of Lady Macbeth is that she is a dominant and persuasive character. Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy in lines 38-52 is expressing that she wants to change. “Unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty”. She wants to be filled with cruelty. She wants to become more like a man. She wants the night to be really dark. So they can do murder without being seen as she says “Come, thick nigh, and fall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell”.

The effect of Lady Macbeth speaking like this is that she puts Macbeth down and changes his mind. The opinion of the audience and me is that Lady Macbeth is abnormal, careless, unwomanly, cold-hearted and persuasive. Therefore, Lady Macbeth takes charge of the situation in lines 65-66, “You shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch”. She is going to take care of the big plan. Macbeth is going to pretend to be nice and innocent but be nasty underneath. This shows that Lady Macbeth is ambitious, cunning and two faced (when Duncan comes to the castle). It also shows that she is quick thinking, she can make quick and cruel plans. This shows us that in their relationship, Lady Macbeth is the dominant one, she always decides what’s going to happen and what’s going to be done, Macbeth is the weaker one and that listens the plans made by his wife.

Act 1 Scene 6

Act 1 Scene 6 is dramatically ironic because king Duncan thinks are way and the Macbeths think the other way. So King Duncan thinks something where it’s not actually like that. Duncan and Banquo describe the castle as a lovely and safe place as they enter. This is shown in lines 1-3, Duncan: “The air nimbly and sweetly recommends itself into our gentle senses”. Duncan and Banquo think that they are entering a safe place where everything is actually different. You can see this at scene 5, line 37 when Lady Macbeth says, “That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan under my battlements”. She says that Duncan is entering the castle so deadly; he doesn’t know what will happen to him soon. In lines 10-31, Duncan addresses Lady Macbeth as “honoured hostess” and “fair and noble hostess”.

This shows that Duncan respects and admires Lady Macbeth. In these lines we can see that Duncan is courteous. Duncan also talks about Macbeth in these lines and says “His great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him to this to this home before us”. This shows us that Duncan admires Macbeth as well. The readers will know that this couple is loved by these people but they are underneath. So this scene is dramatically ironic and the readers will know that the Macbeth couples are concealing and guilty.

In my opinion, Lady Macbeth is two-faced in this scene. I would describe her as sycophantic, deceitful and insincere in this scene because she is talking politely to Duncan where she is actually making sadistic plans. I think the audience will think the same as me in this scene about Lady Macbeth because they will think that she is back-stabbing, untrustworthy and traitorous. Another theme that is being further explored in this scene is appearance versus reality. So Lady Macbeth is more like a man underneath.

Act 1 scene 7

At the beginning of Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth thinks about the plan and decides not killing Duncan as he thinks Duncan is a good man and he likes him. Macbeth says, “We will proceed no further in this business”. So he doesn’t want to kill Duncan because he has been really good to Macbeth and he has been a good king. In lines 1-2, he refers to the murder as “If it were done quickly ‘tis done, then ‘twere well it were done quickly”. So he is saying that if the murder didn’t have a bad consequence, he would do it quickly and get done with ‘it’. He cannot even say the word murder. The excuses that Macbeth gives for not wanting to kill Duncan was because Macbeth is his relative and host and because Duncan is his king. We can see this in Act 1 scene 7 where he says “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, strong both against the deed, then as his host”. He doesn’t actually have any desire to kill Duncan, he’s just ambitious but it won’t make him do it.

We can see this when Macbeth says “vaulting ambition which o’erlaps itself and falls on the ‘other’ in line 27. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was very strong and decisive, he had trust in himself. However, Lady Macbeth has manipulated him and managed to make him a weak and recessive character. Throughout the play, Macbeth has changed so much and the only reason is his wife and how she has influenced him. My opinion of Macbeth at this point is that he can change quickly, people can influence him easily. The audience would think that Macbeth wasn’t a strong character at the beginning of the play, because if he was, he would not change his own, strong and courageous character and become such dominates him. In line 31, Macbeth finally gives up and decides not to kill Duncan.

We can see this when he says “We will proceed no further in this business”. Lady Macbeth initially reacts to this by questioning him and still forces him, she doesn’t give up. She looks down at him and tries to get him even more confused. She says “To be the same in thine own and valour, as thou in desire?” She tries to persuade Macbeth, by questioning him like this. In lines 54-59, Lady Macbeth uses strong speech/powerful language to explain what she would have done if she was in Macbeth’s situation. She is further ridding herself of femininity and almost inhuman/masculine strength. She almost seems as if she is not even a lady. I would say that she has joined the forces of evil at this point. “I would while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out”.

In line 59, Macbeth’s real concern is if all plans go wrong, they will not succeed. He says “If we should fail”. He is suspicious of what he will do at this point. Lady Macbeth doesn’t give up still, so she reacts the same as before, and tries to persuade him. She replies “But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail”. She has too much faith in herself and thinks that nothing will go wrong if they do the things the way they planned and tells him to trust his self. Lady Macbeth is the dominant one in this relationship as she decides what they will do. This differs to the traditional husband household; the man would be the dominant one, the leader and the one who would make the decisions. In line 72, Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth “Bring forth-men -children only”.

He says that Lady Macbeth should only have son because she’s more masculine, more violent and strong. He tries to signify that Lady Macbeth is so cruel and care-less. In line 79, we know that Lady Macbeth has been successful in her persuasion, when Macbeth says “I am settled and bent up”. Macbeth I now totally convinced to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth has finally determined him with her powerful and forceful character. Macbeth’s last sentence actually links with Act 1 Scene 5, lines 62-63 and Act 1 Scene 7, line 82.

Macbeth says in line 62 “False face must hide what the heart doth know” and Lady Macbeth says in scene 5, line 62 “To beguile the time, look like the time, bear welcome in your eye”. In both of these speeches, they are saying to each other to be secretive. This actually shows that appearance and versus reality theme is being further addressed here. Overall my opinion about Lady Macbeth in these scenes is that she is such a cruel, ruthless and cunning person that she even got her husband in trouble. I think that she is two-faced and secretive. She likes to do things undercover; even though she will she will regret it after she will do it. She is over-ruling and a quick-thinking brain. She is more like a ‘tomboy’ as she does the business the men normally do!

Overall, I agree with the statement “Behind every great man, is a great woman”, but not in this situation. This is because Lady Macbeth is not a great woman so even if Macbeth was a great man, Lady Macbeth wouldn’t be the one behind him. My personal opinion of Lady Macbeth in this play is that she is sly and like to do things undercover. She can influence people with her over-ruling and persuasive character. My opinion of Lady Macbeth doesn’t change at all throughout the play because I think she deserves being haunted by her own guilt. At the end of the play, Lady Macbeth is referred to as a “Fiend-like queen” which I think it is a fair treatment because she is trying to become a queen but she can’t because of her ‘fiend’ character!