“…if he had not believed that fear was the wickedest and deadliest of all emotions…” (Spurgeon 156) It can also be said to be present in the absence of love. It is overtly prominent in the play Macbeth. Because of the fear, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's personalities changed. The relationship they shared was destroyed by the fear that consumed them. They once loved and trusted each other, but then they became paranoid and took them in different directions. This behavior ultimately led to their destruction. To understand how their behavior changes, you must first understand their fear. Macbeth, a once kind man, becomes a murderer. Lady Macbeth was confident and now she is going mad. The fear that consumed them was always behind, always lurking. When they killed Duncan they started bringing him out more and more. They thought they had washed their hands, but in reality they simply covered them in blood. Macbeth bore a stolen title; it wasn't good. Lady Macbeth thought she had asked God to help her swallow her feelings, but they remained exactly where they had always been. She wasn't ruthless enough to participate in murder and neither was Macbeth. At the beginning of the play Macbeth writes a letter to Lady Macbeth informing her of the witches' prophecy. She immediately gets the idea that they should kill Duncan. Macbeth is a little more reluctant to do something so terrible. He knew Duncan and respected him. He didn't like the idea of ​​killing him. This is the point in the relationship where Lady Macbeth has the most say in her husband's actions. He decides that he does not want to kill the king, but Lady Macbeth tries to convince him. She tells him he has to. They committed... half-heartedly... to him only to weaken him. Macbeth and his wife begin the play with a strong relationship. They conspire to kill Duncan and suddenly their relationship changes. It is no longer the loving and trusting institution it once was. It becomes nothing. Just two people who took part in a crime. Each of them changes slowly. Lady Macbeth loses her mind and commits suicide. Macbeth is no longer heard and dies because of his total trust in the witches. The fear behind all the changes is what destroys their relationship and ultimately ends them. Works Cited Shakespeare, William, Louis B. Wright, and Virginia A. LaMar. Folger Library General Reader's Shakespeare. New York: Washington Square. Print.Spurgeon, Caroline FE "Evidence in Shakespeare's Thought-Images." Shakespeare's images and what he tells us. New York: Macmillan, 1935. 155-57. Press.