In the opening scenes of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seem to enjoy a close intimacy; they share their deepest thoughts and feelings and have no secrets from one another. However as the plot unfolds Lady Macbeth loses her influence on Macbeth and his `vaulting ambition' overtakes him totally. This essay will focus on the relationship between these two characters, the changes in their relationship and how these changes influence on the outcome of the play.

Before Duncan's death, Lady Macbeths opening soliloquy in Scene V Act I shows how well she knows her husband. But after Duncan's murder they grow progressively further and further apart until towards the very end of the play when the realisation that her husband had become a stranger dawns on her, and ultimately drives her to suicide.

At the beginning of the play, Macbeth...