lady macbeth Flashcards
lady macbeth’s characterisation in act 1
‘I fear thy nature; it is too full o’ the milk of human kindness’ [A1S5]
metaphor: ‘milk of human kindness’
↳ white, innocence, goodness, purity
↳ emasculates macbeth by referring to mother’s milk and making him seem feminine & weak, therefore unable to go through with the murder
↳ the fact that macbeth is full of it means there is no room for anything else, this means that he is overwhelmingly kind, but also makes him seem almost childish, as he’s is full of milk, like a newborn
↳ a wife criticising her husband would be shocking for a jacobean audience
‘unsex me here’ [A1S5]
prefix: ‘un’
↳ reversal
‘unsex’
↳ remove any trace of femininity & weakness
↳ due to patriarchal society it’s impossible for lady m to have power through femininity, she needs to reject qualities such as beauty & emotion, could show how lady macbeth is presented as somewhat as a fourth witch, she wants to be similarly sexually ambiguous like the witches who have ‘beards’
↳ shakespeare used the patriarchal belief that women were inferior to let lady m become a dominant character (opposes societal views)
adverb: ‘here’
↳ shows lady macbeth’s urgency & also wicked
↳ she is completely fearless to the supernatural & calls them to her specifically, making her perhaps seem similar to the witches
↳ jacobeans believed that witches were possessed by demons and were associated with the devil, this makes lady m seem supernatural which would disturb jacobean audiences
↳ the fact that lady m’s thoughts immediately jumped to the idea that macbeth must kill duncan to become king shows that she must have been yearning for power since the beginning
‘take my milk for gall’ [A1S5]
imperative: ‘take’
↳ highlights how lady macbeth subverts jacobean stereotypes
juxtaposition: ‘milk’ vs ‘gall’
↳ milk is associated with maternal instincts & purity, life sustaining for a baby
↳ gall refers to bitterness
↳ the juxtaposition between these emphasises how peculiar of a character lady m is and how cruel she truly is, she would like to replace something nurturing & sustaining with something completely evil
‘look like the innocent flower,
but be the serpent under’t.’ [A1S5]
imperative: ‘look’
↳ assertive
↳ a woman instructing her own husband was unheard of
metaphor: ‘like the innocent flower’
↳ symbolises womanliness and therefore meekness & being harmless, however appearing feminine will be difficult for macbeth as that behaviour doesn’t fit a king, foreshadows his demise (shakespeare had to depict this demise as he performed in front of king james & had to emphasise his power)
↳ beautiful and pleasing to all
↳ she uses a simile here as she knows that this is the appearance that macbeth should put on she is careful not to instruct him to be innocent
↳ flowers are already innocent, however the emphasis of innocent before flower stresses how important this appearance is
↳ she uses the adjective innocent to describe to macbeth which part of the noun he should adopt, in this case, the innocence of a flower
↳ the moment that macbeth tried to divert from the patriarchy, he began to fail (patriarchy benifited him)
plosives: ‘but be’
↳ emphasises the importance to macbeth
metaphor: ‘be the serpent under’t
↳ biblical imagery, the serpent tricks eve into original sin, but when adam eats the app he knows what he’s doing
↳ trickery
↳ here lady m emphasises under’t as she has doubts about macbeth’s character, she believes he may return to his former ‘milk’ nature, she uses under’t to emphasise how macbeth must hide like a snake rather than attack like one
↳ snakes are hidden in nature, nature imagery is used
↳ connotates to the deadly sin of envy, macbeth envy’s duncan’s power, lady m envy’s macbeth’s masculinity
semantic field of nature: ‘flower’, ‘serpent’
↳ lady m wants to appear as though she is completely natural
‘I would, while it was smiling in my face, have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums, and dash’d the brains out’ [A1S7]
modal verb: ‘would’
↳ certainty of intent
comma
↳ creates a pause, highlights how the baby is completely innocent as it is smiling
verb: ‘pluck’d’
↳ quick action, without hesitation, emphasises her lack of empathy
↳ remove from a place of growth
↳ hyperbolic statement, yet visceral
adjective: ‘boneless’
↳ emphasises the youth as the baby hasn’t had long enough to mature
(juxtaposition) semantic field of softness: ‘nipple’, ‘gums’, ‘brains’ vs semantic field of violence: ‘pluck’d’, ‘dash’d’
↳ makes the actions seem even more violent and malevolent
↳ lady m is unbelievably cruel and doesn’t even mind thinking about murdering a baby
↳ in jacobean times, having a baby was a gift from God and was also a major duty of a woman, lady m going against this would be disturbing
↳ throughout the play, masculinity relates to violence, so while talking about this act of violence, lady m taunts macbeth & emasculates him
↳ relates to ‘when you first do it, then you were a man’
lady macbeth’s characterisation in act 2
a little water clears us of this deed’ [A2S2]
juxtaposition: ‘little’ vs ‘great’
↳ lady m is devoid of guilt, she has little remorse and believes that it is easy to eradicate her connection to the murder
↳ when compared to how macbeth doesn’t even believe that a great ocean can clear his conscience and guilt, we see how apathetic lady m is, however we can perhaps say that she is a product of her environment, as she knows that this emotionless front is the only way to attain power in jacobean times
juxtaposition: ‘deed’ vs ‘hand’
↳ lady macbeth is so guiltless that she feels as though the small amount of water can unlink her from the murder of duncan entirely, however macbeth only mentions his hand, this shows that he has not even thought far enough to consider the whole murder and only considers a small part of it, he is overwhelmed by guilt
↳ the word deed also trivialises the murder, lady m does not feel the need to refer to the regicide as a murder as she doesn’t see it as a significant event, this is could perhaps how lady m later feels guilt for the murder as she cannot properly describe what she has done which suggests that she understands that she has gone against God
lady macbeth’s characterisation in act 3
lady macbeth’s characterisation in act 5
‘out, damned spot!…hell is murky’ [A5S1]
imperative verb: ‘out’
↳ lady macbeth is tormented by duncan’s death, although she was emotionless earlier, her call to the spirits did not work, sending a message that God’s will was stronger than any supernaturality
↳ macbeth is desperate to let go of her memories
exclamation: ‘out damned spot!’
↳ damned connotates to hell, which is eternal damnation, lady m now fears hell & God’s power
↳ heightens the sense of hysteria
↳ at root, lady macbeth is still a christian and therefore fears God’s wrath, she cannot live with her guilt
↳ she accuses the spot of being damned rather than herself
(the fact that lady macbeth knows what hell is like shows how evil she is)
‘the thane of fife had a wife’ [A5S1]
doggerel rhyme:
↳ used for comedy, shakespeare is using to make lady macbeth appear trivial, ridiculous & paranoid
‘all the perfumes of arabia will not sweeten this little hand’ [A5S1]
hyperbole: ‘all the perfumes of arabia’
↳ lady m is so wicked that even solutions from faraway places can’t clear her of the smell of blood, she is extremely desperate for a solution
↳ evil is described as a disease often in the play, in jacobean times it was thought that disease could spread through the air (miasma), lady macbeth wants to cure her ailment
↳ feminine imagery
modal verb: ‘will not’
↳ lady m recognises that she is unable to be redeemed at this point
‘little’
↳ infantilises & trivialises lady macbeth, reverts her to her stereotypical role of meekness and femininity, asserts the justification of the patriarchy & sends a message of condemnation to those who oppose it
↳ trying to persuade herself that her role in the death was trivial
prose:
↳ highlights her loss of status and power
why does lady macbeth get a soliloquy in A1S5?
-in jacobean times, soliloquy’s were only given to men as it was believed that only men’s opinions were important enough for them to speak for that long, by giving her a soliloquy shakespeare shows her desire to break patriarchal stereotypes and reach the same importance that men can have
