In this extract Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth to be more ambitious than Macbeth and he is

displayed as doubtful, which is shown through the use of punctuation. This is seen when Macbeth
says, “If we should fail?”, the use of a question shows that Macbeth doesn’t feel confident about the
plan to murder Duncan. On the other hand Lady Macbeth responds with “We fail?”, the rhetorical
question shows that she is very confident in her plan, and she is almost shocked from Macbeth by
his cowardness. However this is ironic as further in the play the opposite start to happen, where
Macbeth becomes more of the dominant partner, but Lady Macbeth turns unstable and weak. I
believe that the Shakespeare’s intention was to show people how people can change dramatically in
response to their actions. It could have been done to scare people during the Jacobean times that
killing the monarch was a bad idea and that they would also end up like Lady Macbeth.