ACT 5: LM quotes and analysis Flashcards
Analyse: “[enters with a taper]”
Lady Macbeth enters with a taper, a taper being a candle. As a [taper] provides light, this is emblematic of how Lady Macbeth is seeking light, hope and solace in her eternal mental darkness. Jesus was seen to be the ‘light’ of the world, providing salvation for mankind, therefore Lady Macbeth’s dependency on the light could illuminate how she is hopeful for salvation and retribution for her sins. She understands that her violations of religion, the divine right of king and the great chain of being, will mean she is eternally punished in hell, hence her clinging to the hope of redemption. Her need for light is the antithesis to her earlier presentation in Act 1 where she calls upon the night and wants darkness: “come thick night”. When performed in the Jacobean era, Lady Macbeth would have typically been played by a young boy as females weren’t allowed on stage. This would have exacerbated her fragile presentation on stage.
Analyse these quotes: “rubs her hands” for “a quarter of an hour”, lamenting “what, will these hands ne’er be clean”
These quotes show Lady Macbeth’s somnambulism. Lady Macbeth has been critically described by D.J. Enright as a sprinter in evil, unlike Macbeth, who is more a long-distance runner. This is apparent through the complete reversal of her character through the play; the drive of evil is transient, and she is rendered a carcass of insanity by Act Five. It is interesting that she is sleepwalking, operating within a liminal realm between waking and sleeping, it conveys she is trapped within her mind and could suggest the blurring of the two facets of her personality.
Analyse this quote? “out, damned spot! Out I say!”
She concedes to a state of hallucinogenic madness that Macbeth displayed when he was poisoned with guilt, attempting to wash imaginary blood clean from her hands which directly juxtaposes her litotes in Act 1 Scene 5, “a little water clears us of this deed”. This “spot” is emblematic of the scar the murder has created on her mind. However, this may be interpreted in another sense by Shakespeare’s contemporaries. Madness was often perceived as a sign of being possessed by demons; it was believed that demons and witches had a “spot” on their bodies which identified them as evil, this is reinforced by “damned” which has connotations of hell.
Lady Macbeth’s change in speech in Act 5
In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth speaks in blank verse (iambic pentameter) which denotes characters of a high status. However, in Act 5 she speaks in disjointed prose. Prose is normally associated with low status, inferior characters. Her regression from blank verse to disjointed prose shows that her guilt has infected and engulfed her mind so consequently, she has lost the status she once had. She is the only Shakespearean character to die speaking in prose which dismisses her as insignificant; although she played an influential role in instigating the murder, she was discarded soon and reaped no reward from it.
