04/10/2012
I COMPITO DI INGLESE

The extract is from "Macbeth", a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is very important because it introduces Lady Macbeth in the play for the first time and the reader immediately understands the influence she has on her husband.
Reading the letter the reader is impressed by the difference in the two characters and, at the same time, by their complicity. On one hand there is Macbeth, a weak man, easy to influence who always needs someone to support him; on the other, the figure of Lady Macbeth is strong-willed and perfectly conscious of her ability in persuading people.
Macbeth however is a very ambitious character but not as strong as his wife, it follows that together they are a perfect pair: together they know hot to get what they want.

For analyses porpouse the letter may be divided into two part: the first one displays Lady Macbeth while she is reading the letter to herself; the second part informs the reader of what she thinks about her husband.
Since the reader already knows what happened to Macbeth, the letter may be considered irrilevant for the development of the story but Macbeth's immediately writing to his lady is the most important action of all the play because it shows the strong influence she has on him and how he respects her opinions.
In the letter the reader also understands how the witches' prophecies have rendered Macbeth bling: the prophecise increased his ambitious and rendered him naive. He had to pay attention to the witches but instead of noticing their evil part he focused on their "perfectest report" and "stood rapt in the wonder" of the "weird sisters" disappearance.
As a result, when Lady Macbeth reads the letter, her firs comments are about Macbeth's nature: he "is too full o' the milk of human kindness". It follows taht she immediately knows her husband is not powerful enough to fulfill what the prophecies have foretold and so she will take action and decide how they have to behave.
At least she uses the words "fate" and "metaphysical" and this shows how much their future may be frail and out of their control. The two words refer to a context above human beings control.