reading a letter
Macbeth’s letter to Lady Macbeth is written completely in prose, being just ordinary speech with no regular pattern or explicit rhythm instead of Shakespeare’s usual iambic pentameter. The only other time in the play when prose is used is during Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene, therefore creating a link between the two different stages in the play and working to emphasize the different mindset Lady Macbeth had prior to the murder of Duncan compared to afterwards. It also emphasizes the strength of the relationship which Macbeth and Lady Macbeth initially shared, with him telling her every detail of what happened in this letter, to Lady Macbeth being entirely alone and driven crazy by guilt in the sleepwalking scene, completely detached from her husband.