The struggle for power and control in Shakespear’s Macbeth is evident from the beginning as Macbeth strives to be crowned by chance and Lady Macbeth prefers a slightly quicker more violent approach. Macbeth begins the play with no power but with a small amount of the control, hence Lady Macbeth had the power and most of the control. As they silently battle for control over their household and their future Macbeth kills in order for them to advance in social standing. It was Lady Macbeth’s desire for control over her husband that set him on his course of destruction and murder.
             Shakespeare portrays Lady Macbeth as a ruthless, overpowering woman who dominates her husband and his actions. Lady Macbeth makes Macbeth's do what she determines to be best for him by lowering his self-esteem so that he must do what she requests in order for him to gain his self-respect back. She says such things as, “When you durst do it, then you [will be] a man” (1.7.49). It is Lady Macbeth who comes up with the plan to kill Duncan, because she knows that Macbeth would never commit such an act on his own without her pushing him to because Macbeth’s nature “is too full o’ the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way” (1.5.15,16). She develops the plan and organizes the details while expecting Macbeth to merely follow her orders. This becomes evident when she says to him, "You shall put This night’s great business into my dispatch"(1.5.66,67) and "Leave all the rest to me"(1.5.72). She intends to keep him under her control by making decisions for him and not allowing him to think for himself.
             When Macbeth becomes indecisive about her plan to kill Duncan, she labels him a coward when she says, “Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valour As thou art in desire” (1.7.39,41). Macbeth defends himself by explaining that he is doing all that can be expected of a man and if
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