Lady Macbeth Flashcards
How is Lady Macbeth presented at the start of the play?
Dominant
Subversive
Powerful
Manipulative
How does Lady Macbeth change as the play progresses?
Starts to lose her power and influence as Macbeth becomes more paranoid and excludes her
How is Lady Macbeth presented at the end of the play?
Completely overwhelmed by guilt to the point that she commits suicide
“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”
Act 1 Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth (after reading Macbeth’s letter about the prophecies)
Imperatives - commanding the supernatural/engaging with evil
“unsex me here” - wants to be stripped of her feminine qualities
“Come, ___________ / That tend on mortal thoughts, ________ _____ here”
“Come, you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”
“Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall”
Act 1 Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth (after reading Macbeth’s letter about the prophecies)
Wants to swap her “milk” for “gall” (poison) - rejecting a maternal role for power
“Come to _________, / And take my _____ for _____”
“Come to my woman’s breasts, / And take my milk for gall”
“Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell”
Act 1 Scene 5 - Lady Macbeth (after reading Macbeth’s letter about the prophecies)
Imperatives - makes Lady Macbeth seem like a witch/unnatural as she’s summoning hell
“pall thee” (cover thee) - asking the night to hide her evil doings
“Come, ______ _______, / And pall thee in the ______ ______ of _____”
“Come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell”
“When you durst do it, then you were a man”
Act 1 Scene 7 - Lady Macbeth (persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan)
Emasculating Macbeth - cruel, demeaning tone
“When you _____ ___ ___, then you _____ ___ _____”
“When you durst do it, then you were a man”
Lady Macbeth says she would have “dash’d the brains out” of her “smiling” child, if she had promised so to Macbeth
Act 1 Scene 7 - Lady Macbeth (persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan)
Violent verb - shows how ruthless Lady Macbeth is, subverting the nurturing role of a mother
Lady Macbeth says she would have “____________________” of her “______” child, if she had promised so to Macbeth
Lady Macbeth says she would have “dash’d the brains out” of her “smiling” child, if she had promised so to Macbeth
MACBETH: “if we should fail?”
LADY MACBETH: “we’ll not fail”
Act 1 Scene 7 - Lady Macbeth (persuading Macbeth to kill Duncan)
Shows Lady Macbeth’s confidence and dominance in contrast to Macbeth’s doubts (shown through his questions)
MACBETH: “if we ________ ________?”
LADY MACBETH: “we’ll _____ ______”
MACBETH: “if we should fail?”
LADY MACBETH: “we’ll not fail”
“Nought’s had, all’s spent”
Act 3 Scene 2 - Lady Macbeth (discussing their power with Macbeth)
Juxtaposition - shows her regret, all their actions were pointless as their power is not secure
“__________ had, all’s ______”
“Nought’s had, all’s spent”
“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed”
Act 3 Scene 2 - Macbeth (excluding Lady Macbeth from the plot to kill Banquo)
Imperative “be” - now Macbeth is in control
“dearest chuck” - term of endearment, but using it dismissively
Contrast to Act 1 Scene 5 when Macbeth calls her his “dearest partner of greatness”
“Be ________ of the ______________, ______ _______, / Till thou applaud the _______”
“Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed”
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”
Act 5 Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (goes mad out of guilt and fear)
Imperatives and repetition - her desperation and loss of control
“Out, ________ _______! ______, I say!”
“Out, damned spot! out, I say!”
“What, will these hands ne’er
be clean?”
Act 5 Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (goes mad out of guilt and fear)
Motif of cleansing - represents the impossibility of redeeming herself
“What, will these hands _____ ___ _____?”
“What, will these hands ne’er be clean?”
“All the ________ of ________ will not ________ this ______ hand”
“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”
“All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”
Act 5 Scene 1 - Lady Macbeth (goes mad out of guilt and fear)
“All” vs “little” - nothing can cover the stench of the blood on her hands (representing her guilt)
Motif of cleansing - represents the impossibility of redeeming herself
“A little water clears us of this deed”
Act 2 Scene 2 - Lady Macbeth (reacting to killing Duncan)
Motif of cleansing - reveals her arrogance that she will be able to escape guilt at the start
“A _____ water _____ us of this ______”
“A little water clears us of this deed”
“she has light by her continually”
Act 5 Scene 1 - Gentlewoman (Lady Macbeth’s maid, commenting on her going mad)
Motif of light and dark - her desire for light now mirrors her realisation of her wrongs/her fear of punishment
“she has _____ by her _________”
“she has light by her continually”
