For study purpose the text can be divided into two parts: the first one reports the text of Macbeth’s letter; the second one deals with Lady Macbeth’s thoughts about her husband and her reactions to the letter.

The letter is used to report the previous happenings as seen by Macbeth. Many expressions belong to the semantic field of mystery, the supernatural and suspense (“they have more in them than mortal knowledge”, “I burned in desire”, “they made themselves air”, “I stood rapt in the wonder”). All these expressions highlight Macbeth’s attitude of being simply-minded, easy to amaze and to influence. Indeed he immediately believes in the three weird sisters, as the first of their prophecies becomes true. He has no doubt about the positive effect of the event, as can be seen thanks to the repetition of positive terms and concepts through the whole letter (“the day of success”, “perfectest report”, “rejoicing”). Macbeth is a superstitious person. Since the day has started in the best way, he strongly believes that it will also go on that way. On the other hand, in the Middle Ages witches were considered dangerous creatures and channels for evil spirits to reach human beings. But Macbeth is too focused on the promise of greatness to think of them as a danger. The last part of the letter introduces a new character: Macbeth’s wife. He refers to her as his “dearest partner of greatness”. This highlights his strong emotional bond to her, but also the social one. Indeed, if Macbeth becomes King, she will share his same power becoming Queen. Macbeth is aware of this, since Macbeth underlines that the greatness promised him by the witches will also involve her. This is a very important point to consider in order to understand Lady Macbeth’s deep interest and consequent role in the plot.

The second part introduces Lady Macbeth’s character, together with a deeper glimpse in Macbeth’s personality. Indeed Shakespeare relies on Lady Macbeth to develop her husband’s characterization further: she highlights the strong contradictions of his behaviour, in particular his will of becoming greater (ambition), but his lack in greed and strength; his will to behave rightly, but his wish to win wrongly. It is important to notice that the features that are usually considered positive and honourable are seen as dangerous symptoms of weakness by Lady Macbeth. They are only impediments to the way of success. The deep analysis of her husband’s character helps depicting Lady Macbeth as a cold calculating person, aware of his partner’s flaws and with a straight-forward personality. An additional proof of this is given by the content of the coming part of the extract: after having analyzed her husband’s information and the news, she starts making plans about the future. In the last part the reader can find many expressions that underline her strength and decision (chastise, valour, must). In particular she is eager to inflame her husband’s mind with her words: she literally wants to pour her character and her strength in her husband by her words. She knows her tongue is her most powerful weapon: she is a calculating person, who can easily influence people around her, while her husband is an ambitious yet influenceable man. Her confidence is her plan is given by her conviction that her husband is doomed to become king: fate, witchcraft and positive omens seem to agree with her theory, so she sees everyone who tries to stop them as an obstacle to the course of destiny.

The main difference between the two characters is their attitude: while Macbeth simply aims to reach “greatness” (that is a very general concept) and is very insecure about his decisions, Lady Macbeth aims at the “crown” (a material object) acts with decision and self-assurance.