Marriage

Bromwich argues that the Macbeth marriage evolves from Lady Macbeth goading him into murder to Macbeth later managing her, which reveals both their compatibility and their shared inability to separate agency from deed.

He argues heterosexual marriage is structurally narrower because loyalty is confined to a pair, whereas male homosexual networks can expand into broader reciprocal group ties.

Jiang says heterosexual marriage is a compact between only two people, so adding more lovers breaks the bond rather than expanding it into a wider faction.

The student explicitly raises the possibility that the friend may try to withdraw once the marriage appears morally contaminated and politically unstable.

Jiang reframes the theological problem through marriage: betrayal matters because a vow creates an intimate union, so the real question is not whether apology is possible but whether broken trust can actually be redeemed.

The student grounds the broken vow specifically in marriage: husband and wife promise before God to remain bound until death.

The exchange reframes cheating as a violation of an explicitly made public vow rather than merely a private failure of feeling.

The marital vow is not only inwardly intended; it is spoken aloud and signed in a ceremony, which is why Jiang treats it as a real bond rather than a private mood.