The Relationship in The Macbeth

To present the selected scene from Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’, the text was transformed into audio from a marriage counselling session. The scene is set prior to the Macbeth’s banquet. The choice of text transformation allowed me to explore the dynamics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship, giving the audience insight into the private thoughts of the murderous couple. The audio is proof of the session and is needed for organizational purposes. The context has impacted the production of my text, it allowed me to explore the gender roles and power struggle between a married couple in a way that is accessible and appealing to a modern-day audience when creating their script.

Through all of Shakespeare’s plays, he explores the dynamics of human relationships. In Macbeth, it is clear that appearances can be deceiving. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are portrayed as a strong and powerful couple in front of the public, but by the end of the play both end up devoured in their own demons. Their quest for power caused their relationship and sanity to deteriorate.

Lady Macbeth receives the letter explaining the prophecies and is quick to doubt her husband’s strengths. The use of open-ended questions allowed for deeper responses. In turn, the counsellor obtained a better understanding of the individual's situation revealing how the actions of Lady Macbeth display the power she holds in the relationship. From the responses, it can be observed that when Macbeth has doubts, Lady Macbeth uses various tactics and imagery targeting his weaknesses to make sure the envisioned deed is completed and both their ambitions are fulfilled. In order to further explore gender roles, I used a quote from the play “too full of human kindness” accusing Macbeth of taking the feminine quality of holding milk and nurturing nature, this cultivated strong imagery with the intention of displaying Macbeth's kind character at this point in the play. While Lady Macbeth asks for the spirits to ‘unsex’ her, taking away the feminine motherly, nurturing nature.

Shakespeare’s presentation of Lady Macbeth for its time was very unconventional. A powerful female figure changed the perception that women are weak and inferior to their male counterpart. Shakespeare did not have much faith in traditional gender roles. The contrast subversion of these roles in the submission of men to be dominant to woman illustrates these feelings and goes against the ‘natural order’ present in that era. Subsequently, the script foreshadows what is set to happen in the following scenes, the death of Banquo and the loss in sanity. How the couple presents themselves to the public doesn’t always show what is behind closed doors, returning to the idea of appearance vs reality.

I wrote my piece using colloquial language to create a conversational tone. The spoken language is casual, humorous and informative tone to reflect the nature of a frank discussion. Additionally, I used adjectives to characterize the emotions felt by each character and to set the overall tone and voice.