“To Meet with Macbeth,” given by tutor Louis ... - St. John's College

Macbeth, his immediate desires postponed, tries not to let the Lady have the last word. But she
will end this scene her way:
Macbeth.
We will speak further.
Lady Macbeth.
Only look up clear.
To alter favor ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.
Exit.
(I.v.72-74)
Macbeth alters his expression as he looks down into his desires and sees the mix of fair and foul that
warrants later conversation. Lady Macbeth would not have him exit unclear, with fear to take what he
desires, namely her as his “dearest partner of greatness.” Thus she supplies a final line of promise that
ends on the word “me”—unrhymed, single, for the birth of their self-belonging is to be her labor.
The actual murder of Duncan will be Macbeth’s to perform, but the deeper truth about this
labor is now apparent. By means of his far-seeing, all-hailing letter, Macbeth prepares his Lady with
promises of greatness to prepare herself for the King’s coming by unsexing herself in order to prepare
Macbeth, her homecoming lover, to prepare himself as the serpent in the flower to provide for Duncan
a sunless tomorrow. Only then will he take his desire as the husband of her bed. Who inseminates
whom? Whose labor is this birth of murder? It is impossible to separate the two of them. Their union
could even be mistaken as the Biblical ideal of man and woman becoming one flesh in marriage. How
shocking to our sensibilities to recognize in them our own practiced ways of moving our spouses to
move ourselves to enact our desires. 7
Their mutual motions reach deeper levels in the next meeting.
7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth never engage in mutual blame or recrimination after the deed. It would be pleasing
to say that we are like them in that respect, but blaming someone else is as original and common as sin. This is
what the first man and woman do when God catches them transgressing His one command. Yet this common
human practice is not Macbeth or his Lady’s way of sin.
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