How do the roles of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth reverse
Throughout the play of Macbeth it is obvious that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both have evil intentions. At the beginning of the play it is Lady Macbeth who encourages Macbeth to Murder the King but as the play goes on the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth change. At the start of the play, the 3 witches make 3 predictions for Macbeth; “All Hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis” “All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor” All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” The witches words have a powerful effect on Macbeth, as they make him wonder whether what they said was true, especially the prediction that he will become king. Soon after the witches vanished, Ross and Angus arrive with the news that Macbeth has been given the title Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth says that “the greatest is behind”, meaning that all he has to achieve now is to become king. This shows that Macbeth is starting to think in evil ways about killing the king and that the witches predictions have made Macbeth think of what he could achieve and how he could achieve it. At act 1 scene 3, Macbeth speaks his first major soliloquy, in which he asks himself 2 questions. ... It is Macbeth who on this scene connects the idea of kingship and murder, not the witches, so this shows that Macbeth did not need to have the idea of killing the king put into his head and that he thought of it himself which shows he has evil within him. ... This shocked Macbeth as he had only just decided that he would leave it to chance whether or not he would become king or not and this chance has just been taken away from him. This makes Macbeth change his mind to this decision as he now sees Malcolm as an obstacle between himself and the throne. Here Macbeth makes a short speech admitting that he has “black, deep desires” and calls the stars not to shine their light on his thoughts. Here Macbeth speaks in Rhyme, which is a sign of evil. In this scene the King invites himself to Macbeths castle to show his gratitude to Macbeth. This gives Macbeth the perfect opportunity to forfill his ambition to kill the king. At act 1 scene 5 Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth telling her about the meeting with the witches and Ducans visit. ... Lady Macbeth uses the word raven in this soliloquy and a raven if often referred to as evil and a raven also calls where there is a dead body, which once again suggests that she has evil intentions. Like Macbeth she asks the powers of darkness to hide her thoughts so that not even the forces of heaven can see through the “blanket of the dark” When Macbeth arrives in Act 1 scene 5, the two go straight into a conversation about Duncan- the king and start to plot the murder of Duncan. Here it is Lady Macbeth who is plotting the murder and it is obvious that Lady Macbeth is in Control of Macbeth and that he listens and obeys her. Lady Macbeth has told Macbeth that she is not going to kill the king and that he will have to kill him, “To alter favour ever is to fear. ... ” The fact that Lady Macbeth is planning the whole murder makes her stand out to be the evil one, as she is plotting on how to kill the King, but Macbeth also at this point shows some evil too as he is going to actually kill the king.