LADY MACBETH

AMBITION

  • “Yet I do fear thy nature; It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.” Act One S5

  • “Take my milk for gall” Act One S5

LM wants to emasculate Macbeth in order for them to acheive their ambitions. Draws parallels to Macbeth being alike to a baby to emasculate him and his identity as a man, which, in the Jacobean times, is all about being brave and a valiant soldier. Also relates to Gender.

Lady Macbeth is duplicitous because she emasculate Macbeth and makes him commit regicide by using his masculinity against him.

Quotes relate as it shows the difference between hers and Macbeth’s ambition at this point in the play with the symbolism of milk. Whilst Macbeth’s milk is full of kindness, LM’s is full of gall, which is bile and symbolises extreme bitterness and poison. Shows how LM’s ambition is already overleaping. More quotes of her emasculating Macbeth:

  • “Art thou afraid to be the same in thine own act and valour as though art in desire?” Act One S7

  • “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” Act One S7

The repetition of the possessive pronoun “you” is direct and exemplifies LM’s direct, strong and ruthless character, who desires not to let anything, such as her emotions, step in the way of her ambition.

  • “That I may pour my spirits in thine ear.” Act One S5

Underscoring the idea that LM’s ambition is so strong she is willing to go to any extend to manipulate and deceive Macbeth. LM is acting duplicitous, showing the extremities she is willing to go to gain her desire for power.

  • “Nought's had, all's spent, where our desire is got without content." Act Three S2

This aside reveals that despite achieving their ambitions, she is plagued by anxiety and Guilt, and is unsatisfied.

LM’S VULNERABILITY

  • “Hark! Peace, it was the owl that shrieked.” Act Two S2

  • “Had he not ressembled my father as he slept, I had done it.” Act Two S2

LM’s alarm at the owl shrieking portrays a flicker of vulnerability, hinting at the internal conflict and fear that underpins her facade of strength. Despite her barbaric commands and words throughout the play, she never commits any violent acts herself.

  • “Nought’s had, all’s spent, where our desire is got without content.” Act Three S2

LM reflects privately on the futility of their actions, acknowledging that achieving their ambitions has not brought them the satisfaction that they had longed for, hinting at her growing inner turmoil. She continues to maintain a facade of composure in front of Macbeth, yet this suggests she is having conflicted thoughts.

Juxtaposition of “nought” and “all” creates a profound irony. Underscores the ultimate futility of their actions.

Juxtaposition reflects the extreme disparity between their expectations and the reality.

Lexis “spent” denotes exhaustion and completion, indicating they have expended all their physical and moral resources to acheive their ambitions.

Contextual link: Shakespeare’s message to the audience about the consequences of disturbing natural order.

GUILT

  • ‘My hands are of your colour, I shame to wear a heart so white.” Act Two S2

LM is ridiculing Macbeth’s guilt by trivialising it and also patronising and emasculating him. Ironic as she is the one ultimately taken down by her guilt.

  • “A little water clears us of this deed” Act Two S2

  • “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No.” Act Two S2 - Macbeth

  • “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” Act Five S1

The extended symbolism of the blood on their hands portrays the guilt that they feel. Whilst directly after the regicide, Macbeth is greatly tainted by the guilt, LM is stoic to it, claiming the blood will wash away with just a little water. However, later in the play, her hyperbolic statement of the perfumes of Arabia not being able to sweeten her hand parallels Macbeth’s own hyperbolic reference to great Neptune’s oceans, showing the extent of her guilt that has grown over time. She also shows that she is unable to wash away the blood here:

  • “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” Act Five S1

Repetition of “out” emphasizes desperation to regain the control, which she has lost, by ridding herself of her plaguing guilt.

  • “Hell is murky.” Act Five S1

Illustrates the internalisation of her damnation, suggesting a psychological and emotional self-exile to a hellish state of mind. This is her anagnorisis.

Lexis “murky” suggests her clouded judgement and tormented conscience; how she has become a carcass of her former self as a result of her overreaching ambition.

Contextual link: The audience sees the consequences of her disturbance of natural order by commitment of regicide, pushing forward Shakespeare’s intention to warn against such deeds.

APPEARANCE VS REALITY

  • “Look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under ‘t.” Act One S5

The word flower connotes innocence and vulnerability. She is trying to adhere to what a typical female in the Jacobean time is meant to present as, yet she is claiming it is a facade. The word serpent has biblical connotations of hell and temptation, therefore she is stating she will use her feminine and innocent appearance to conceal her malevolent nature. Also relates to Gender.

  • “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, that my keen knife sees not the wound it makes.” Act One S5

Imperative “come, thick night” shows LM’s willingness to align herself with the Supernatural and fiendish forces.

Light and daytime are associated with truth and clarity, whilst “thick night” and darkness have connotations of ambiguity and concealment of truth. To “pall” means to cloak, emphasizing how LM is begging for the thickest “smoke of hell” to cloak and conceal the world so that her crimes will not be revealed, both from those around them and from God himself.

GENDER

  • “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.” Act One S5

LM is asking for her femininity to be removed as she realises it constrains her. As a woman in a patriarchal society, she knows she is seen as inferior and weak, and she wishes to rid herself of this in order to be more masculine and tyrannical so she can kill the King. Also relates to Supernatural.

  • “Dashd the brains out” Act One S7

LM presents herself as an atypical Jacobean woman by un-aligning herself with traditional caring and nurturing values that would be expected in a wife and eventual mother. LM knows that being masculine is synonymous with power, therefore she tries to remove herself from any associations with femininity, shown in this quote. Also relevant to Violence.

  • “Stop up the access and passage to remorse” Act One S5

Understanding that to be a violent tyrant, she has to remove her femininity. LM knows she is more prone to feeling remorse as a woman.

SUPERNATURAL

  • “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts.” Act One S5

LM is actively calling upon the supernatural to take over her. Would be deemed shocking at the time of the play as the supernatural was something that was greatly feared, and be aligning herself with it the audience would interpret it as her going to the devil.