Macbeth's letter

The extract from the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare deals with the letter Macbeth wrote to his wife to tell her about the prophecies he had heard. The passage is very important, because it introduces Lady Macbeth in the play, as well as giving the reader the main traits of the two characters' personalities and making an effective comparison between them.
The extract can be subdivided into two parts: in the first part Lady Macbeth reads her husband's letter, while in the second part she reflects on his behavior.

Through the letter William Shakespeare reveals Macbeth's flaws to the readers. The letter itself shows his submission to his wife: he wrote to her immediately. The letter displays his insecurity, and his need to find somebody who supports him continuously. This emerges also from the expression "my dearest partner of greatness" (l.11), which underlines Lady Macbeth's importance in his life.
Macbeth believes also in supernatural: he defines the witches' prophecies as the "perfectest report, beyond mortal knowledge". His belief is supported by his burning ambition, which is underlined by the expression "rapt in the wonder of it" (l. 5) and later in Lady Macbeth's words (l. 19). Indeed, it is Macbeth's greed of power which gives value to the witches' prophecies and causes all the subsequent events. In addition, Macbeth seems to respect the three witches, despite suspecting they are devilish creatures. He never refers to them with the term "witches", but using the expression "these weird sister" (l.8); he describes their disappearing in detail and defines it "a wonder" (l.6).
Macbeth's ambition and pride are underpinned in the phrases "the day of success" and "all-hailed" (l.1 and l.7): he is already absorbed in his dreams, so much that he considers every greeting and every compliment addressed to him as a celebration of his future glory. This explains for the use of the definite article "the" at l.1. His attitude comes again to surface between lines 12 and 14, where he already imagines his royal condition with his wife.
Besides, Macbeth's joy about the witches' prophecy is conveyed between line 8 and 10 through the quick succession of verbs and commas and the repetition of the personal pronoun "me".

In the second part of the letter Lady Macbeth makes her debut in the play. Right from her first appearance, she is depicted as an evil creature. On the contrary of her husband, she does not become flustered for the prophecy. She wants to transform the prediction into facts by every possible means. She is determined, straightforward and clear-sighted; her qualities emerge immediately in her first words (l.15-16).
She considers Macbeth too kind to become king through "the nearest way", that is to kill the current king, and she does not admit another way to become monarch. She describes her husband through the metaphor "too full of the milk of human kindness", which also likens Macbeth to a baby who needs continuous support. She underlines Macbeth's lack of malevolence and determination, and considers his honesty as a flaw. This concept is also conveyed through the run-on-line between lines 19 and 20, which highlights the words "without" and "illness".
She expresses the difficult coexistence of honesty and ambition in Macbeth between line 20 and 22: "what thou wouldst highly, / that wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, / and yet wouldst wrongly win". Here Macbeth's personality is reinforced by a chiasm and alliteration of the sounds "w" and "h". The sense of the difficult cohabitation between these two opposite attitudes is conveyed through the syntactical level: the succession of lines always divides the sentence about ambition from the one about honesty.
Lady Macbeth proceeds her monologue revealing another flaw of her husband: he is courageous only when there is somebody else who tells him what to do. Otherwise, he is so afraid of doing something, that he prefers not doing it. The idea of lack of independence is conveyed through the anaphor of "that which" (l.25-26). In this context the expression "great Glamis" seems nearly ironical (l.24).
In the last lines Lady Macbeth invites his husband to come home as early as he could, and promises to push him to kill Duncan through her rhetoric arts. This behavior reminds the one of the fairies in the medieval ballads: they induce men to do evil, despite remaining passive in the action. Other references to the Medieval world are "the spirits", which were thought to rule the human body and mind.
Finally Lady Macbeth justifies her evil actions with the pretest that the witches have revealed them what fate and metaphysical aid had decided, that is Macbeth will become king. The run-on-line between lines 35 and 36 (which underlines the words "seem" and "have") reasserts Lady Macbeth's conviction that their actions will be legitimate.

Relevant points

TRADUZIONE 

Atto I, scena V

Inverness. Nel castello di Macbeth

Entra Lady Macbeth leggendo una lettera

LADY MACBETH
"Mi incontrarono nel giorno del successo: e io ho
Appreso dalla relazione più perfetta, che hanno molto
Di più dentro di loro che conoscenza mortale. Quando ardevo nel desiderio
Di interrogarle ulteriormente, si resero aria,
nella quale scomparvero. Mentre stavo assorto
nella meraviglia di ciò, vennero dei messaggeri del re, che mi
salutarono tutti insieme "Thane di Cawdor"; con il quale titolo
prima, queste strane sorelle mi hanno salutato, e mi chiamarono,
alludendo al futuro, con "Salve, re che sarai!". Ho pensato che fosse giusto spedirti
questo a te, mia più cara compagna di grandezza, che tu
non possa perdere i doveri della celebrazione, essendo
ignara di quanta grandezza ti è promessa. Tieni questo
vicino al tuo cuore, e addio."
Sei Glamis, e adeso Cawdor; e sarai
Quello che ti è stato promesso: ma temo la tua natura;
è troppo piena del latte dell'umana gentilezza
per prendere la via più corta; vorresti essere grande:
non sei senza ambizione, ma senza
la malattia che dovrebbe accomagnarla: quello che vorresti intensamente,
lo vorresti santamente; non vorresti giocare falsamente,
ma vorresti vincere ingiustamente: dovresti avere, buon Glamis,
quello che grida "Così devi fare, se hai questo":
e quello che vorresti fosse fatto hai più paura tu stesso di farlo
che desiderio che non debba essere fatto". Vieni velocemente qui,
devo versare i miei spiriti nel tuo orecchio;
e castigare con il valore della mia lingua
tutto quello che ti impedisce dal cerchio dorato,
di cui il fato e l'aiuto metafisico sembrano
volerti incoronato.

Entra un messaggero