Explore how Shakespeare portrays Macbeth’s treatment of his wife
Macbeth treats his wife as an equal to him, you see this when he sends her a letter announcing to her that he will become king. In the letter he says ‘my dearest partner of greatness’ which shows that he doesn’t just think of himself becoming king but sees her as becoming queen with him. He also calls her ‘my dearest love’ and ‘dear wife’ which shows that he loves and admires her.
Macbeth admires his wife’s ruthlessness and he compliments her by saying,
‘Bring forth men children only, for the undaunted mettle should compose nothing but male’, (I, vii, 72-74)
This shows that he admires how cruel she is and he likes how she carries through her plans because he is saying that she should only have male babies because men are more cruel and ruthless than we=omen are but by saying she is more ruthless than a woman he is showing her he likes that about her.
When they have the banquet and Banquo’s ghost enters the room, Lady Macbeth covers for Macbeth when he starts talking to the ghost, ‘My lord is often thus and hath been from his youth’ which shows she tries to support him when he needs help in front of their guests. It also shows that they are close to each other because as soon as she sees him acting strangely she tells everyone straight away to ignore him.
When Macbeth is talking to Banquo’s ghost lady Macbeth says incriminating things to him to try to make him stop and realise they have guests. She says ‘your noble friends do lack you’ and ‘are you a man’ which she says to try to shock him out of the state he is in and to make him realise his friends are watching and will say bad things about him after seeing him in the state he is in. This shows support because she doesn’t want their guests to leave and think that he is crazy.
Macbeth also admires Lady Macbeth when he says ‘you can behold such sights, and keep the natural ruby of your cheeks’ because he doesn’t realise she can’t see Banquo’s ghost at the banquet. He admires the way she keeps the colour in her cheeks when there’s a ghost sitting in front of them and he is terrified. It shows he likes the way she is fearless and isn’t affected by it.
He confides in Lady Macbeth a lot like when he says to her ‘we
