This is an interesting scene indeed - we see an almost subverted dynamic between Macbeth and his Lady, as Macbeth begins to hide his dark and murderous intentions from his wife.
We see Lady Macbeth initially taking charge as she reminds her anxious husband that "what's done is done" - but then we see Macbeth taking the main role in this scene as his long-winded and wordy contributions take up stage time and swing control back to him. It could be argued, however, that this shift in dynamic doesn't hand Macbeth control at all, but instead shows that he is edging further into a loss of control as he begins to ramble and dribble (kind of like I am now). You'll notice Lady M's parts are short, sweet and succinct. Is she retaining control here by doing this, or are we seeing her influence over Macbeth being chipped away? It's debatable, that's for sure. What we do know, however, is that by the end of the scene, Lady M relinquishes all the power she has by almost giving control to Macbeth - "what's to be done?" - who then rebuffs her with a patronising "dear chuck" and an order to be ignorant of his future misdeeds. We also see a great shift in Macbeth's own language here - notice how, at the start of the scene and when referring to past events, his chosen pronouns are inclusive, but by the end of the scene and when referring to the future, suddenly it's all "me", "I, and "your" - separating the formerly close couple. I'll let Mr Bruff take it from here:
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In a Nutshell...After returning from war, Macbeth meets three witches who tell him that he is to become King. His wife persuades him to kill the existing King in order to win the throne - but this comes with a whole heap of problems, as Macbeth has to continually kill people - including his best friend - in order to hide the truth. Archives
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