Macbeth, written by playwright William Shakespeare is set in

Scotland. It is about the journey of Macbeth a Worthy thane and

his wife to become king and queen of Scotland. Numerous
difficulties are in the way, as murder becomes the tool they use to
resolve them. In the beginning, their relationship is very beautiful
and loving one. However, change takes place in the play turning
their relationship into only a word with no emotions whatsoever. This
can clearly be seen in Act Two scene Two, Act Three scene Four and
Act Five scene Five.
Initially, contrasting views or attitudes towards Duncans blood
between the partners. The blood symbolises their guilt. This is
portrayed through the quotations, Little water clears us of this
deed and Neptunes ocean wash this blood. Clean from my
hand. Lady Macbeth believes the blood is effortlesss to remove.
According to her, the blood is temporary and once removed the guilt
will be finished as well. As for Macbeth, it reminds him of the
regicide of king Duncan. By using hyperbole Shakespeare
emphasises how strong and powerful the blood is. Moreover,
thinking that Neptune, a Roman god who owns all of the oceans in
the world could not clean Macbeths hands is foolish. However, guilt
disables Macbeth from differentiating between the regicide and his
better judgement, it is purely his mind and has no relation with
water. The audience watching Macbeth at the time, would have
disliked to see a woman dominating a man; an audience would
expect to see Lady Macbeth being dominated and, therefore, her
actions would not have seemed legible. Nevertheless, dramatic
change has occurred, as Macbeth has seemed to fall weak due to his
actions whereas Lady Macbeth remains positive in their current
situation and has risen above him to dominate.
Furthermore, Shakespeare is able to show the imbalance in power
between Macbeth throughout Act Three Scene Four. At first, Lady
Macbeth covers up for her husband who is in a state of paranoia.
Her attempts at managing the difficult circumstances is shown
through the following quotations, My worthy lord and has been
thus since childhood, brokenadmired disorder. Act 3 scene 4 is
at a banquet where highly recognised men of the highest power are
present to, celebrating Macbeth becoming king. Since Macbeth is
lost in thoughts, Lady Macbeth takes charge and prevents him from
revealing Duncan and or Banquos true murderers. On the outside,
Lady Macbeth is able to showcase herself as being a confident and
supportive of her king. However, in reality, she is unaware of the
events that unfold around her. By calling her Worthy lord, Lady
Macbeth is trying to free her husband of his guilty unconscious
state. In addition, Lady Macbeth is quite surprised and disappointed
to why Macbeth was unable to keep hold himself. Realistically, Lady
Macbeth only fears of Macbeths loss of power as she believes he
rightfully deserves it.

Finally, Macbeths reaction prior to Lady Macbeths death displays

another significant change in his attitude. This is portrayed through
Macbeths choice of words in the quotation, she died hereafter
time for such a word. Here, Macbeth makes no attempt whatsoever
to decrease the impact of the death but instead, using words such
as died and she, further distancing himself from her.. Although
Macbeth may not directly be frustrated by the death, the events
around him depict it as being so. In terms of writer intentions,
Shakespeare wished to emphasise that as the war nears, Macbeth
does not wish to concentrate on anything other than dying with
dignity. During this, Macbeth is completely opposite to his earlier
self when they were dearest partner of greatness and now; he
does not have enough time to mourn the others death. In addition,
the belief that Lady Macbeths suicides is confirmed, through her
sleepless hallucinations. During them she in an unconscious state
tirelessly washes her hands removing blood once thought of being
insignificant. This is contrasting to Act Two Scene 2 where the very
blood thought to be simple to remove has targeted Lady Macbeth
making her suicide. According to the Jacobean audience Lady
Macbeth deserves to be punished: with death and or other means.
Together, these ideas depict a role-reversal where dominant Lady
Macbeth falls whereas Macbeth rises as the tyrant.
In conclusion, Shakespeare shows change through various language
features such as symbolism and sarcastic language. After the death
of Duncan, Macbeth distances himself from his wife. Their farness
becomes so large that Lady Macbeths death does not concern
Macbeth whatsoever. Quite clearly, Macbeth becomes a very cruel
and evil character and Lady Macbeth slowly loses her mental
stability and then life. Ultimately, their combined greed, selfishness
and thirst for power in the end concludes their relationship.