When Fact Meets Fiction: A Re-imagining of Lady Macbeth

In October 2015, I was struggling to write a short fiction piece for a literary contest. I was sitting in my office, listening to the conversation from the office across the hall. It was an English professor and his student discussing Shakespeare’s Macbeth. It’s a play I know well, and to play Lady Macbeth is certainly on my bucket list of roles. Now, I knew that there was a historical Macbeth, but I wondered what we might know of his wife. It was then that my research brain kicked in, so I decided to do some investigation on my own.

The historical Lady Macbeth was a woman named Gruoch inge Boite. She was descended from the line of Malcolm I of Scotland. Outside of Shakespeare’s characterization of her, there is little that we know about her own story. The things that we do know can frame the character of Lady Macbeth in a new and interesting way within the context of Shakespeare’s play. 

Gruoch was a widow with one son, Lulach, when she married Macbeth. As Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have no children in the play, there has been much speculation as to what Lady M means in her speech to Macbeth about killing Duncan: “I have given suck, and know / How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me.” According to the historical record, Gruoch was pregnant with this child when her husband was murdered. Lulach would eventually succeed Macbeth as his heir though his reign would only a few months before his assassination by Malcolm III, son of Duncan I.

As noted, Macbeth was Gruoch’s second husband. Her first husband was Gille Coemgáin of Moray. He died after being burned alive with 50 of his men in his hall. All historical sources do not specifically name the perpetrators although there are two reasonable suspects who may have committed this act: Malcolm II and Macbeth. Each would have had their own reasons for the murder. Malcolm II was the grandfather of Duncan I. There is some speculation that the young Duncan might have been the one to set the fire. Macbeth, on the other hand, would be revenging the murder of his father. Macbeth’s father, Findláech, was murdered by Gille and his brother, Máel Coluim.

After her husband’s death, the pregnant Gruoch fled and sought the protection of Macbeth, which included their marriage. At least this is one possibility if it were Malcolm who killed her husband. However, if Macbeth were the responsible party, the scenario would more likely be that Gruoch married Macbeth as a conquered widow, a war prize of sorts.

How might this change the way in which we view the actions of Lady Macbeth in the play? Some of it would depend how much we can assume she knew about the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death. At the very least, the plot to kill Duncan can be seen as vengeance for her own husband’s death. If Duncan were, in part, responsible, then his death would be the result of this vengeance. If Macbeth were the guilty party, his involvement in the death of the king would bring about his downfall as well. In both instances, Lady Macbeth would be innocent of the act of murder in a direct sense. It also provides some additional context to her actions besides her simply being an ambitious and wicked woman. 

Below is the short fiction that I wrote upon completing my research.

Marital Bliss

Peering down at blood-soaked hands, a sense of relief washes over me. The screams of men and stench of burning flesh are replaced by the sounds of the last breath escaping the lungs, gurgling from the wounds in Duncan’s wrinkled flesh and the sweet perfume of sanguine gloves engulfing my hands. Who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? 

Smearing the crimson flood upon the daggers in my hand, I long to bathe myself in this pool of vengeance, baptism by his blood to forgive my sins. Yet, there’s no time to glory in this justice. 

No one knew who lit the blaze that devoured my first love: the man now at eternal rest or the husband at my side who sent him there.  It didn’t matter.  

Gazing at the man by my side, his eyes betray both his fear and arousal. “Hail to thee, thane of Glamis.” He knows his downfall is imminent, but lust suffocates his reason. “Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor.” This trespass would be remembered, and his assured destruction makes my vengeance complete. “Hail to thee, king hereafter.”  

My soul cries out to the restless spirits of this stony fortress, the ecstatic jubilation only retribution brings. Everything in the house hears me. As my bloodied hand clasps the man’s beside me, I wonder, can he?