Lady Macbeth quotes

themes of: power, manipulative, deceitful, connected to supernatural, guilt, weak

unsex (powerful)

unsex me here 1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

• her tone is quite commanding, implying that, unlike Macbeth she isn’t at all afraid of the supernatural

• she’s trying to remove all of her femininity, she views it as a weakness in her way from getting what she desires

• all her feminine qualities of compassion and empathy are ripped away,  making her less relatable to the Jacobean audience and so more terrifying and dangerous

milk → gall (powerful)

take my milk for gall 1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

• this act of swapping her milk into poison helps to express her change from a nurturing woman into this dangerous and monster-like person.

• ‘Milk’ connotes purity and maternity

• ‘gall’ or poison, is going to cause disorder and chaos. She’s changing the natural order of her physical appearance in order to carry out evil

blood (powerful)

make thick my blood 1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

• she’s trying to block out her emotions that prevent her from completing her plan. Which is the opposite of Jacobean stereotypes of women being emotional

• reference to blood helps highlight the extent of how she’s changing herself, inner and outer.

direst cruelty (powerful)

fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty 1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

• Lady Macbeth subverts gender stereotypes of women being full of kindness

spirits (supernatural)

come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts 1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

• early on in the play Lady Macbeth is directly talking to the supernatural world

• ‘tend on mortal thoughts’ implies that Lady Macbeth knows that the supernatural want to exploit humans weaknesses in order to create chaos, like how the witches exploited Macbeth’s ambition

night (supernatural)

come thick night 1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

• this imagery of a blanket concealing the light of God makes Lady Macbeth appear deceptive and connected to the supernatural

smoke (supernatural)

Dunnest Smoke of hell

1.5 Lady Macbeth plots to kill Duncan

drunk (manipulative)

was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself? 1.7 Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth tries to belittle Macbeth’s masculinity to manipulate him, using his need to fulfill his role of a standard strong Jacobean man, he can’t be viewed as weak in front of his wife, who is supposed to be under him

• Lady Macbeth challenges the great chain of being by controlling her husband

a man (manipulative)

then you were a man 1.7 Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth tries to belittle Macbeth’s masculinity to manipulate him, using his need to fulfill his role of a standard strong Jacobean man, he can’t be viewed as weak in front of his wife, who is supposed to be under him

brains (manipulative)

dashed the brains out 1.7 Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth

• violent language in the verb ‘dashed’ presents how non-motherly Lady Macbeth is - making her more unpredictable as a character

• the audience have no idea what she’s capable of without the weights of acting soft and feminine ,she’s going against natural order

• contrast between the violence of her action and the innocence of the baby highlights the evilness of it, Lady Macbeth is fighting for evil

innocent flower (deceitful)

look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it 1.7 Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth

• serpent links to the Garden of Eden - Satan used Eve and her manipulative powers to control Adam into disobeying God. Shakespeare could be pushing all the blame of Macbeth’s crime of regicide onto Lady Macbeth

• Serpents connote deceitfulness

• Image of flower and a snake could reference King James I commemorative medal in honour of the betrayal and deceit from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot

heart (guilt)

I shame to wear a heart so white 2.2 Lady Macbeth and Macbeth meet after the murder

• verb ‘shame’ makes her appear absent of any guilt or fear after the murder,

• she doesn’t feel guilty unlike Macbeth - a brave warrior should be unafraid of any blood. This contrast makes her appear stronger and more in control than Macbeth, her emotions aren’t getting in the way

water (guilt)

a little water clears us of this deed 2.2 Lady Macbeth and Macbeth meet after the murder

• Just after the murder Lady Macbeth feels no guilt at all, she thinks that she can clear her conscience and her soul easily.

• Water is used in Christianity to cleanse people of sin, Lady Macbeth thinks that everything is fine because she can just cleanse herself and then forget about it and relish in her new position of power and glory

spot! (guilt)

Out damned spot! 5.1 Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking

• contradictory to before when she said “a little water clears us” but over time she’s become consumed by this guilt that engulfs her in the day and night, leaving her with this immense mental turmoil that’s slowly driving her to insanity, eventually death.

• Lady Macbeth sleepwalks and washes her hands every night, she’s constantly reliving the night of the murder, unable to escape it

• She’s now consumed by guilt, relentlessly trying to cleanse herself, but it doesn’t work

• Her tone expresses frustration, things are no longer going to her plan

perfume (guilt)

all the perfumes of Arabia won’t sweeten the smell of my little hand 5.1 Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking

• adjective “little” makes her appear weak and fragile. This hugely contrasts with her earlier descriptions that make her seen as big or bigger than her husband

• reference to ‘perfume’ could be her trying to become sweeter, trying to regain her feminine qualities that she got rid of. Perfumes are also used to conceal bad smells, so perhaps Lady Macbeth is trying to hide her evil nature

• similar to Macbeth for when he looks at the blood on his hands as he says, “will all great Neptune’s oceans wash this blood clean from my hand?”

• metaphor shows how Lady Macbeth is full of guilt, she’s realised how she’s permanently tainted by this act of regicide, she can’t go back to before

hell (weak)

hell is murky 5.1 Lady Macbeth is sleepwalking

• Lady Macbeth has acknowledged that she’s been damned to hell after disrupting the Divine right of Kings

• She’s now changed her thoughts on light and dark, now desperately wanting to escape the horrifying dark like a child who’s having nightmares